Monday 28th September 2009

Scrappage Scheme Extended

Mandelson reveals plans for 100,000 more scrappage cars

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Business Secretary Lord Mandelson has announced an extension to the government's scrappage scheme.

In his speech to the Labour party conference in Brighton today, Mandelson said the scheme will be granted an extension to cover 100,000 more cars and light commercial vehicles.

Mandelson also warned that the support for the still-fragile motor industry was not bottomless, saying "we cannot do everything but that does not mean doing nothing".

He was also cautious about the prospect of a motor industry recovery: "There are encouraging signs that the economy is picking up. But recovery remains fragile and uncertain, especially in manufacturing and one of its cornerstones, the car industry."

Mandelson has been under pressure for some time from the motor industry to extend the popular scheme, which was originally due to run until February next year or until 300,000 cars had been scrapped.

[Targarama]

Also good news for all the local papers - lots more advertising by the competing low end car sales outfits.

[War Pig]

Yay. More classics to the slaughter.

[vauxhallloving]

fking wkers! Yet more good motors that are going to be wasted. GREEN my fking arse! Makes me sick with the waste thats going on! The idiots keep blarting on that they dont want us using our cars, yet complain when we dont buy them! 2p on a litre of fuel to saying its to save the enviroment, yet scrapping cars with as low as 20k on the clock is good? Makes my blood boil! Kick these fking idiots out now!

Edited by vauxhallloving on Monday 28th September 17:16

Edited by vauxhallloving on Monday 28th September 17:16

[rsstman]

dont get me wrong i know this initiative is definately not a green one as how can scrapping perfectly good cars to make new ones be green?

but all the cars i have seen destined for this scheme have really just been rubbish bangers, certainly not the classics people are claiming are getting scrapped.

[JonyPI]

all of the cars we have had have been absoloutely shagged apart from a nice alfa 156 2.5 v6 which i was gutted to see go the rest i think have been dragged out of field or something.

also to so the date of first reg. has also been extended to 29 February 2000.

[GPT]

rsstman said:

dont get me wrong i know this initiative is definately not a green one as how can scrapping perfectly good cars to make new ones be green?

but all the cars i have seen destined for this scheme have really just been rubbish bangers, certainly not the classics people are claiming are getting scrapped.

There are several threads on here detailing multiple examples of decent cars getting scrapped including classics.

[timelord]

Of course the government want to extend the scheme, think of all that lovely VAT they are getting from the sale of more new cars.

[Mr Gear]

rsstman said:

dont get me wrong i know this initiative is definately not a green one as how can scrapping perfectly good cars to make new ones be green?

but all the cars i have seen destined for this scheme have really just been rubbish bangers, certainly not the classics people are claiming are getting scrapped.

There are loads of low-value classics that will hit the heap. What is a Morris Minor worth? £1,000 for an extremely average one. Natural economics would keep this car in use by enthusiasts, but the scrappage scheme means that it becomes scrapable.... when it actually has a value of a grand.

OK, you may not give a crap about Morris Minors. But supposing you were a 17 year old, looking for a first car. You'd be well tempted by that £700 Corsa or Fiesta that the granny over the road is selling.. only 20,000 miles on the clock. Perfect for first-time insurance. Yet these sorts of cars are becoming rare because of the scrappage scheme.

Worst of all, the government is trying to encourage people into exactly the sort of rampant consumerism that got us into this economic slowdown in the first place! It's utter madness! And to hide it all under the veil of being "green" is an insult to environmentalists...

[rsstman]

GPT said:

There are several threads on here detailing multiple examples of decent cars getting scrapped including classics.

any links? i cant find one using the rubbish search engine. personally i wouldnt class a morris minor as a classic or care if a 17 year old wants a knackered old corsa because there are plenty of others to choose from.

[SClarke]

Oh great, more of our tax pounds destined for Korea.

[King Fisher]

I am an environmentalist - my TVR is my one concession but I only do 3000 miles a year in it and everything else in my life is extremely energy efficient.

So it makes me furious to see perfectly good cars scrapped when it costs a fortune in energy to build a new one. I run a 1998 2l Mondeo as my day to day bus - it does c38mpg and has worked trouble free for 130k miles. A new 2l Mondeo does......33mpg. So how does it save CO2 emissions to switch????

Madness!

[jeffw]

How many of the 'new' cars bought under this scheme where manufactured in the UK? Are we just subsidising the French & Korean car companies ???

[JonyPI]

yes there are SOME perfectly good cars that are going through, but not that many when you consider the thousands of crap that is being crushed, the chances of the old granny with the 1.2 corsa with 20k on it wanting to buy or even afford a brand new car are extremely slim!

im not sayin i think its a great scheme, ye sthe govt. get lotsa money from the VAT where as the car companys are the ones who lose out, its not green in any way but it is helping to sell LOTS of cars that wouldnt have been sold which is helping to keep jobs elsewhere, what effect it will have on sales once the scheme finishes though is another matter......

[jazzyjeff]

Mr Gear said:

OK, you may not give a crap about Morris Minors. But supposing you were a 17 year old, looking for a first car.

Why wouldn't a 17 year old consider a Morris inor? Cheap, easy to maintain and with a bit of character to boot. When I was at college, all the cool kids had (original) Minis and Beetles as to buy more modern stuff was to be one of the 'sheep'...

JJ

[rsstman]

jazzyjeff said:

Mr Gear said:

OK, you may not give a crap about Morris Minors. But supposing you were a 17 year old, looking for a first car.

Why wouldn't a 17 year old consider a Morris inor? Cheap, easy to maintain and with a bit of character to boot. When I was at college, all the cool kids had (original) Minis and Beetles as to buy more modern stuff was to be one of the 'sheep'...

JJ

oh how times have changed.

"cool kids" no longer drive minis and beetles let alone morris minors.

[nickfrog]

jeffw said:

How many of the 'new' cars bought under this scheme where manufactured in the UK? Are we just subsidising the French & Korean car companies ???

Not necessarily. A big chunck of the added value of imported cars is UK based (importers' HQ, network of dealers, preparation, logistics, finance, etc etc).

Besides, quite a few car are till made in the UK.

The shocking aspect though is that most scrappage deals (£1,000 tax payer funded) have simply replaced previously available discount and the dealers or manufacturers are simply restoring their margins using public money. As most car buyers are too thick to understand that, they feel they're getting a good deal (which they would more or less have had before, only now they are also parting with their old car and whatever residual value it had). Maybe that will be enough to revive the economy?

[va1o]

I still think the scheme is a complete waste of time, and I am sure when it first started it was promised that it would not be extended once the money had ran out.

[Gompo]

I've always been against the scrappage scheme, as I am a car fan. For the economy, in the short-term, I suppose it is a good thing.

It will be interesting to see how both the new and used car markets are in 6 months time.

[LukeBird]

jazzyjeff said:

Mr Gear said:

OK, you may not give a crap about Morris Minors. But supposing you were a 17 year old, looking for a first car.

Why wouldn't a 17 year old consider a Morris inor? Cheap, easy to maintain and with a bit of character to boot. When I was at college, all the cool kids had (original) Minis and Beetles as to buy more modern stuff was to be one of the 'sheep'...

JJ

Beyond the 'cool' argument.
On Classic Insurance you don't earn any NCD, which as we know is the holy grail when you're a young driver!

[JonyPI]

LukeBird said:

jazzyjeff said:

Mr Gear said:

OK, you may not give a crap about Morris Minors. But supposing you were a 17 year old, looking for a first car.

Why wouldn't a 17 year old consider a Morris inor? Cheap, easy to maintain and with a bit of character to boot. When I was at college, all the cool kids had (original) Minis and Beetles as to buy more modern stuff was to be one of the 'sheep'...

JJ

Beyond the 'cool' argument.
On Classic Insurance you don't earn any NCD, which as we know is the holy grail when you're a young driver!

not really, im 21, have no ncb as i always had classic policys, so far iv not had a car below 2l (mostly straight 6's) never paid more than 700quid for insurance (even at 17!) and despite this can still get insured on a bmw 325 for 700quid FC and a tvr chimaera for 600, so the amount i saved each year more than compensates for the small amount of saving id have now.