Ask The Guide

If it were my daughter I would be looking for safety and reliability as top priorities in a first car. With your budget I would be looking at a 2013/14 Mazda2, a 2014/15 Kia Rio, and a 2014 Toyota Yaris.

The CX-5 and Tucson are both highly rated medium SUVs, and I’m sure both would be good choices for your needs. Both are refined and cabin noise doesn’t appear to be a problem with either of them. If I were to choose I would go for the CX-5.

We understand Mazda released a revised engine oil dipstick with a higher full mark. It also released revised software for the dpf operation that changed the way the self-cleaning function took place. If you haven’t got those updates I would be approaching Mazda to get your car updated.

It depends on the condition and kays of the Volvo. I would expect a 2012/2013 XC60 to have done on average 60,000 to 80,000 km. At that mileage it should still have plenty of life left in it, but it is closer to the end of the road than a new Forester would be. If you chose with your heart you’d take the Volvo, but your head would tell you to buy the Subaru.

I would rule out the CX-7 on the basis of poor fuel consumption, the performance of the iX35 petrol version is a little lacking, the Tucson is a better car, but I would suggest the X-Trail is probably your best bet.

The Discovery hasn’t done a lot of kays for its age, presumably those it has done have been tooling around town. If it’s in great shape, has been well maintained and serviced and hasn’t been used off-road I would tend to go for the Land Rover. Against that the Jeep has a good reputation as a towing vehicle, and it’s new, which adds to its appeal.

Obviously they’re both high performance cars that are designed to eat up the open road, but equally they have to be able to handle the pressures of day-to-day motoring. I wouldn’t like to say one is better than the other for daily use, and I wouldn’t be buying one on that basis, so go for the one that most appeals for its performance.

I can only assume your car has the dual-clutch automatic transmission. If so the bearing problem could conceivably be related to the transmission issues.

The claimed average fuel consumption of a 2010 Mazda 2 is 6.8 L/100 km for combined city and country driving. Around town the average is 8.9 L/100 km.

It shouldn’t be doing that. Take it back to your dealer and demonstrate what it’s doing and ask to explain it or fix it.