Ask The Guide

I wouldn’t recommend the Cruze, there have been too many problems with them. The Toyota Corolla, Mazda3 and Hyundai Elantra are all good, reliable cars with plenty of performance for the class. Any one of them would be a good choice.

The Kluger would meet your requirements nicely, so too would a diesel Territory. You could also look at a Kia Sorento.

The best thing to do would seem to be to get out of it, either by selling it or trading it in. If you’ve kept a record of the dealer visits and what was done on each occasion you could seek to talk to Jeep about them buying it back, or giving you a good deal on a trade-in on a new model. The problem with that is that you would end up with another Jeep, and the possibility of more trouble.

You’re in a real tangle. I take it that you don’t have any witnesses who could testify to what happened. So, in the circumstances the best thing to do would be to enlist the services of a lawyer to untangle it for you.

That’s a sexist question that I’m not prepared to answer in the form you’ve asked it. The GT tag is thrown around today by marketing wiz kids with no knowledge of its history, the result is that cars get badged with GT stickers that really aren’t true GTs. The Mazda2 GT is a Mazda2 with a few extra goodies, but sadly no extra grunt or suspension tweaks. If you want to look cool it might appeal, but if you want a real performance-oriented small car try the VW Polo GTi or its bigger brother, the Golf GTi.

You’re looking at a relatively new model so the reliability should be fine, and the maintenance costs should be ok if you use a specialist independent mechanic instead of a dealer.

It’s a good idea to occasionally run 95 PULP in a car like the Kizashi, it will clean the fuel system, run better, and get a little better fuel economy.

There’s no difference between the 2015 and 2017 models, the price difference can presumably be attributed to the two years difference in age, and the difference in kilometres done.

It’s not a problem with the battery, and replacing the battery won’t fix it. There’s a leakage somewhere that’s causing the battery to drain. It will be something that’s not turning off when the car is turned off, like a computer, a light, or something that’s staying on all the time when it shouldn’t be. Try an auto electrician.

It won’t be the distributor or the spark plugs. If it happens when you turn the key to the start position to crank the engine it could be the starter solenoid.