Ask The Guide

It has a chain, so there’s no regular maintenance required. The only reason you might replace the chain is if it were to wear.

The main thing to consider is the recharging. The Kona is said to have a range of almost 450 km, which is good, but you need to consider where you will be able to charge it when you need to. And remember it takes a little longer to recharge the batteries than it does to refuel a petrol car.

You’ve had a pretty good run so far, and 133,000 km is not a lot, so I would stick with it for a while yet. But it’s a fact of motoring life that cars are likely to suffer an increasing number of problems as they get older and the kilometres are racked up. Judging the right time to get out of a car is not easy, it might be a good idea to have a mechanic give it the once over and give you an idea of how it’s going.

How do you know how many litres are in the tank when it’s “running on fumes”? Unless you drain the tank, you don’t.

The reality is that cars wear out, and yours is now a relatively old one. I don’t see that Subaru should replace the convertor free of charge; after all you have had the use of the convertor for eight years. The best course of action I believe would be to approach Subaru with a request of a good will payment to cover at least a part of the cost.

The recommended tyre pressures for your car are shown in the owner’s manual, and on a sticker on the body, either on passenger’s side front door pillar or in the glove box.

You could get a copy of the service schedule from a dealer, but why not just buy another service book. That way you can record future services as they’re done.

It’s possibly worn out and in need of replacing.

The average price of that model is $10,400-$12,700, so the quoted price is a little high. But against the kays are lower than average for that model, and the boxes for condition and service history are ticked. If it appears to have been well looked after by a caring owner, hasn’t obviously been thrashed it would seem to be a good choice.

I presume the seats are leather. Leather needs regular maintenance with cleaner and conditioner to keep it supple and prevent it from drying out and cracking. You can buy leather conditioner at all major auto outlets.