Advice for buying brand new car

In my opinion the current Micra is light years behind the current era of super mini's, I'd avoid getting her another. Lots of cars now come with driving aids that will appeal to the elderly, things like parking sensors and reversing cameras. I'd look at the Toyota Yaris, perhaps go for the hybrid model as this will be automatic, making it easier to drive.

How old is her current car? If it has NCT and running it has a value, might be better to trade it in with the current price of used cars if buying new.

You should research first what she wants, go to the websites of the manufacturer and see what each spec level of the car gives, perhaps from the outset look for minimum she will want, perhaps parking sensors, reversing camera, automatic, air conditioning to start with and then reduce the list down to what she would be happy to drive.

She then should visit the main dealers and test drive each car to see what appeals to her, some might be great on paper but terrible to drive. When happy with the car ask the dealer for the price to change, this will be the price to buy the new car including the trade-in discount for her current car. Visit 3 dealers so you can compare pricing.

The new car market is all over the place at the moment, stock shortages, waiting lists etc etc, back in the day if a car was in stock you might be able to haggle as the dealer knew they could have another to replace it on the boat in a few weeks, now it's many months. Some cars may be pre-registered for sale, these will have the dealer as owner 1 and if you bought it you would be owner 2, they will just have delivery mileage on them, these may appeal to you if you are not fussy on colour or if the colour is what you want. For a specific order of a car there may still be unregistered stock within the country, otherwise you will wait for delivery from the manufacturer.

Thought the latest Micra was fairly competitive?

I tried to get my 68 year old mother out of her 07 Micra, myself and my brother were going to buy her a brand new car, superfine whichever one she wanted. No way, she knows where all the buttons are on the current car and no interest in another! Make sure she does want to change in the first place.

My mother has had the micra from new in 07 no interest in changing because of tech. I wish she would the offer is still there for her.

Was a poor model Micra, Nissan decided to go for cheap fit and finish effectively damaging the Micra “brand”. Though there’s still a ready market for them as there’s cheaper than it’s peer cars but definitely not as good.

I’d say something like the new model Hyundai i10 would be worth a look, she may not want a bigger car than she has.

It seems to me this is a car for you and not your mother. Has she asked for a new car? If you are going to spend €30k on her perhaps she has other things she might prefer to spend it on (and I think we might be straying into the PI forum here😉)

You certainly can haggle on a new car. Might not get a huge amount at the moment but you can see the best deal you will get from a number of dealers.

Could be low useage too like doing 3 miles a week, that will kill a battery too.

If the lady is elderly consider an automatic gearbox, granted it takes a while to get used to after years driving a standard but once she gets the hang of it she'll never go back. Test drive the VW Polo and/or Golf also Ford Fiesta and Focus. Also Audi A1 - a sturdy, comfortable car.

Regarding the battery problem with the Micra, did you try replacing the altenator ? It could be faulty. Unless money is no object, spending say up to €500 on tracing & rectifying the electrical issue would make more economic sense than forking out up to €30K on something that my be parked up for long periods. Now that Covid is under control (to a point) there's a big world out there waiting to be explored and enjoyed, that's where I'd 'invest' my money not in a shiny tin box with an engine ! Each to their own of course.

Audi A1 is a lovely little car alright but mind numbingly expensive- my own mother was looking last year and we just went with a new model Fiesta instead which is a great all rounder and not too tinny for a small car.

Great to hear about the touch screen controls that require the driver to take their eyes off the road, with the extra bonus of reading out text messages to add another layer of distraction on top.

Not at all. She is well able to multitask being a Woman and and a very good driver too.

The ironic part is when she was young she said she would never drive a car but she does now and loves it.

That is the great thing do. She does not need to look at the touchscreen. It reads out the message to her and then she sends her message by speaking what she wants to say. Just like talking to a passenger in the car beside you which loads of drivers do every day.

The motoring forum has taken a nose dive lately, it's been infiltrated by the spandex wearing cycling crusaders victor meldrew types

Indeed it has

Wait until you find out that many cyclists actually drive.