The Car Clinic

Our readers get expert answers.

AS THE FACE of DoneDeal Cars, Paddy Comyn is ‘the’ car guy to everyone in his life and is now widening out that role to you, The Journal readers. 

In this brand-new Car Clinic series, he will answer all your motoring questions and queries. Have one? Send it to with the subject line CAR CLINIC to motoring@thejournal.ie – we will publish all answers on Mondays on The Journal. (Your questions will be anonymised.) Please let Paddy know what your budget is if you’re asking about your next big purchase. 

Here’s this week’s question:

Probably the question you get asked the most – but I am thinking of changing my car. I currently own a 2010 golf with over 230k miles on the clock. It is still running well, but it might be time to change. 

I am a father of three small kids and between work and their activities I am on the road a lot. I am not into flashy cars just looking for a comfortable, low maintenance car to get me from A to B. 

I don’t have a particular brand of car I always go for. I was thinking of something in the line of a Škoda Octavia. My only requirement is I would like an automatic gearbox and diesel (with the mileage I do and motorway driving daily). 

My big concern with coming up the years is the increased technology leading to technical issues (sensors failing, expensive replacement parts, etc). Willing to spend close to €25/30k on the car. 

What is a reliable, low maintenance car with reasonable spare parts costs that would best fit the criteria in your opinion?

It is often difficult to part with a car that is still serving you well and hasn’t really given you any sort of trouble. As cars get into very high miles the repair bills can start to rack up, but with something like a Golf there is no reason why, properly maintained, it couldn’t keep going for a lot longer.

That is the first question to ask yourself. Do you really need to change it?

If it is serving you well, isn’t costing you much of anything to keep on the road and you aren’t overly concerned about car image, then why change? You are into the territory now with mileage that another 100,000km isn’t going to make a huge difference to the value of the car either.  

All that taken into account, here are some good options for your next car, given all that you’ve said.

If you want diesel and auto then the choice of these has dwindled in recent years, so the Octavia you mention is an obvious choice.

I sourced a 2023 on DoneDeal Cars with 43,000km and a DSG gearbox for €29,950 so that gives you a sense of the costs.

That money would only really get you a 2020 or 2021 Volkswagen Passat or a 2018/19 Audi A4.

Another option would be a 2021 Volkswagen T-Roc Diesel Auto. You’d get a nice one of those for around €28,000 and it offers a little more space and comfort than a regular Golf and should have low running costs.

There are about 50 of those on DoneDeal Cars in your price range.

I think choose between the Octavia and T-Roc, but given you can have a nice 2023 Octavia in your price range, I think your instincts were very much correct. 

Paddy Comyn is the head of automotive content and communications with DoneDeal Cars. He has been involved in the Irish motor industry for more than 25 years.

Journal Media Ltd has shareholders in common with DoneDeal Ltd.