Pricewatch »

• Carbon what now?

  August 1, 2008 @ 10:37 am | by Conor Pope

  A motorist from the Middle East, who obviously has a whole lot more money than sense, has reportedly spent the guts of €30,000 shipping his ‘Batman’ Lamborghini (it’s what the caped one drives in the latest film) over 3000 miles by plane from Qatar to London for an oil change. The €250,000 car was transported on a scheduled flight and then flown back to the Middle East. The service at an approved dealer (the least you’d expect after going to such trouble) cost €5000 while another 25 grand was spent on shipping. The owner, who remains a mystery – although I’d say he (and I’d stake your life on him being a he) is a bit of a gobshite – might has well have travelled to the Artic and strangled a few polar bears in person.

• Don’t count your chickens

  July 14, 2008 @ 11:26 am | by Conor Pope

  After returning his car late one evening to a Spanish airport in what he thought was pristine condition, a Pricewatch reader who contacted us recently was surprised when a member of staff took the keys and crawled under the car with a torch. There was a dent under the car, a dent which would cost him serveral hundred euro.

  He was mystified as to how she knew exactly where to check for damage and was deeply suspicious that the damage had been done before he’d taken possession of the car. His insistence that he was not responsible for the dent fell on deaf ears and, because he had already signed a form agreeing to cover any damage, there was very little he could do to stop the money being debited from his credit card account.
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• Oil price hikes bite

  January 4, 2008 @ 10:54 am | by Conor Pope

  Bad news in today’s paper for motorists and for people who like to stay warm:

  Motorists and consumers face further increases in the price of petrol and home heating oil in the next few days as the Republic’s major fuel suppliers move to boost wholesale prices.

  Petrol will increase across the board by about 2.3 cent a litre plus VAT of 21 per cent, bringing the rise to about 2.8 cent and adding €1 to the cost of filling the average car’s fuel tank.

  Home heating oil products are likely to jump by more than one cent a litre, increasing the cost of filling domestic heating fuel tanks by about €100.

  Diesel will go up by anything between 0.6 cent a litre in Maxol forecourts and 1.06 cent a litre in Shell and Statoil service stations.

• Tolled off

  November 16, 2007 @ 4:05 pm | by Conor Pope

  The good people at the National Consumer Agency have objected to plans to charge motorists almost 60 per cent extra to cross the M50 when barrier-free tolling is introduced next August. The NCA has called the charge “excessive” and has accused the NRA (that’s the national roads authority and not the national rifle association for any understandably confused Americans reading this) of imposing hidden toll charges in the form of administration charges, top-up thresholds and minimum top-up amounts.

• Drive an easy bargain

  May 7, 2007 @ 9:23 am | by Conor Pope

  While it might sound unlikely, there is a way to get your hands on a top-of-the-range car for nothing, and it doesn’t involve theft or being appointed to ministerial office. All it takes is a little research, a weekend away and a fairly long road trip home and you can drive for thousands of miles at little or no cost to yourself.

  In fact, if you’re really cute about it, you can actually make your car earn money instead of costing you a packet. At least that is what Donagh Regan from Co Kerry believes, and, listening to him talk, it is easy to be convinced.

  Regan’s strategy for profitable motoring involves a short flight to London each year to visit the Car Giant, one of the largest car showrooms in Europe, where he buys a new motor. It costs him up to €10,000 less than it would at home and, even after he has added 20,000 miles, the cost of a few minor repairs, and crippling Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) he can still sell it after 12 months for almost exactly what he paid for it.
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