Hyundai I30 Problems

The press preview drive is April 9, so it will be soon after that.

You should not be obsessed by one brand, even though Mazda makes good cars, because companies such as Hyundai are excellent and have better warranty. I'd suggest you get some extra in the kitty and go for a new Hyundai i20 or i30.

The cars are vastly different, yet both get The Tick from me. The advantages of the Hyundai are more boot space, open-road comfort and the five-year warranty and service package. The Mazda is good on quality, but you'll pay a bit for the "fruit". Don't get a diesel, despite the current cheap fuel price, unless you travel at least 30,000km a year, as diesel engines cost more than petrol.

Toyota spokesman Stephen Coughlan says: “There is no plan at the moment (to bring back a Corolla wagon). There is a two-wheel drive RAV4 and Rukus as substitutes.” So that’s a no from Toyota.

Look at a Hyundai i30 wagon, which gets The Tick and is the closest thing now to your Corolla wagon.

The i30 is great value and a very good car. It gets The Tick from me.

How about sticking with the brand and going for a Hyundai i30 SR? It's sporty but not too extreme, and has all the strengths of the car you already have.

With that budget you'll be buying second-hand in that class, and that makes the Hyundai i30 the best choice with plenty of warranty still to run. We do not recommend the Golf after the factory warranty. A turbodiesel gets better economy but you need to drive 30,000 kilometres a year for the total cost to beat a petrol car.

We don't have space for dyno graphs but try to mention the power delivery in stories. The new breed of smaller-capacity turbo engines — among them Hyundai's 1.6-litre turbo-petrol engine — will give you the bottom-end grunt you seek.

People have always bought Alfas with their hearts and they are behind the Japanese on reliability and resale. There is an updated Giulietta coming next year, which I recently drove in Italy and enjoyed. Try it.

It would seem that a part of a spark plug has dropped down into the engine and caused it to be damaged. If that's the case the only way to repair it is to take the head off and check to see what damage has been done. Once that has been established, and a cause worked out, you can then go forward with a plan to repair and negotiate with Hyundai about who pays the bill. I wouldn't recommend running the engine until the head comes off; if there are bits of a plug floating around inside the engine running it could cause more damage.