Michael McAleer answers your queries
From Peter Morris:
Regarding your article on the Mazda RX-8, considering the car has a 1.3-litre engine, why does it cost €€42,000 (192 bhp.) compared to £20,300 (€30,450)?
While I accept there is a VAT difference, (21 per cent versus 17.5 per cent) the VRT should be minimal on a 1.3 litre engine, so why the €11,500 difference.
The cost of the (231 bhp) is€€49,000 compared with £22,300 (€33,450) a whopping €15,550 difference (allowing sterling a generous €1.50 to the £1).
Is there a simple explanation for this or are we being ripped off once again in Ireland?
For a start, the prices quoted in the article were provisional, as Mazda's Irish distributor has yet to fix a definitive "price for the car". However, according to David Moran of Mazda, there are three main reasons for the difference in price.
First and foremost is the adjustment made by the revenue commissioners for Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT). While it is a 1.3-litre rotary engine, a formula is used to convert rotary power to the equivalent standard engine and the result comes out at about 1,780 cc. Therefore the RX8 falls into the higher 25 per cent bracket. According to Moran, if you take in the tax differences and exchange rates between Britain and Ireland, this accounts for about 90 per cent of the price differences.
Then there are also the differences in specification levels. David says: "While the British market is due to offer six variants ranging in specification, we are only going to have two - one standard and one high-powered. As a result our entry level is likely to be at a higher specification than the high-powered version will come with leather etc as standard."
Finally there is the issue of volume and dealer discounts in Britain. They are more than likely different in Britain, particularly considering they will be selling about 2,000 units, while Irish sales are expected to be around 150 a year. This all impacts on the mark-up and there is also significant discounting in Britain.
From Jim Corbett:
I noted your advice to a visitor on where to obtain traffic reports while visiting Ireland. Why does the RDS system not work here? I recall it used to work for a time then it seemed to disappear. When driving in Britain, or Europe, RDS is the method of choice.
[RDS is Radio Data System fitted to all car radios which allows important information to override the normal programming, no matter what channel you are tuned to]
RTÉ has the technology to operate an RDS system and did so for some time, using 2fm traffic reports.
According to a spokesperson for the broadcaster, they do use the technology at present to identify stations on car radios and give a digital display of the station name.
However, according to the spokesperson they ended the service "for strategic reasons". The reason cited is that they did not want people retuned to other stations (where the news or traffic information was being broadcast.) However she added that the broadcaster is reconsidering bringing the traffic bulletin service back again.
From Peter Farrell:
Why do you show 0-62 mph speeds in your road tests and not 0-60 mph?
We choose this criteria as it is the imperial equivalent of the European standard 0-100km/h, used by virtually all manufacturers these days. This time, however, is merely a very rough guide to the acceleration of the car in question and only serves as a comparison with similar cars in its class.
In truth a more relevant comparison would be 30-50 mph, for this is where you really need the extra acceleration, during overtaking for example. We are endeavouring to include these figures in the near future.
Send your queries to:Motors Help Desk, The Irish Times, Fleet Street, Dublin 2 - or e-mail them to motorshelp@irish-times.ie