Andrew Hamilton, Motoring Editor of The Irish Times, answers your motoring queries
Welcome to our new Help Desk. We don't think we can solve all your motoring problems but we can try. Buying and owning a car is a hugely expensive investment for many of us, those who are unlucky enough not to have a company vehicle.
Roughly speaking, people buying with their own money - or money borrowed from a bank or finance company - represent around half of all motorists. They will, however, be acquiring more modest wheels with smaller engines.
There are a lot of considerations when buying with your own money, much of them to do with lifestyle. We came across a woman the other day who lamented she had bought a 1.6 litre Ford Focus. She loved the car but it was too big for her needs - she commutes three miles to work in south Dublin daily and does little else in the way of driving.
Car buyers often do irrational things. Now our friend is looking forward to a smaller-engined Ford, the new Fiesta supermini which will be on sale here later this year.
Always bear in mind when buying a car that you are likely to be selling it on in two, three or four years' time. The smart words in the trade are residual value. You need to know if the car will hold its value and be an appealing proposition for a dealer to take in.
In this context, we have a distress letter from a woman in Rathmines, Dublin, who doesn't want her name revealed. She has a 1.4 litre Rover 200, bought and registered in 1999 for £13,000. She wanted to change and went to "five or six dealers of different makes of cars." She was shocked to find that the value of her car was only between £6,000 and £6,500.
Our correspondent continues: "I have been lucky that I have had no trouble whatsoever with the car so I was amazed to get so low an estimate. This leaves me to find £9,000 for another 1.4 litre car of any make.
"As you can appreciate, there are many calls on my income so this is a sensitive situation for me. As I thought I was purchasing a prestigious name, it's surprising that they allowed their reputation to be tarnished."
This woman has our sympathy but we don't think it's a matter of MG Rover Ireland, the importers, allowing their name to be tarnished. The value of a particular make or model is dictated by the retail trade: they would say on their experience of a trade-in staying put or moving quickly again off the forecourt.
The Rover marque hasn't been helped by going through a period of uncertainty after BMW decided to end its ownership of the British manufacturer. We have asked MG Rover Ireland for a comment. Small cars with the best residual values include Volkswagen and Honda.
Generally speaking all Japanese cars do well and their custom of offering a three-year warranty is an undoubted help. At the end of the day, depreciation can be one of the most painful and costly aspects of car ownership.
• Readers should send their queries by post to:
Andrew Hamilton, Motoring Editor, The Irish Times, Fleet St, Dublin 2.
Envelopes should be marked "HELPDESK".
Queries may also be sent by e-mail to: ahamilton@irish-times.ie
We regret that it is not possible to deal with queries over the telephone