RE: Scrappage carnage detailed
Discussion
IanCress said:
People must hve come to the conclusion that the car wasn't worth £2k. Difficult to come to the same conclusion with cars like an M5 on the list. Perhaps sellers were desperate and just need quick cash?
They didn't get any cash, just £2k off a new car.A few Escort and fiesta RS turbos on there.
Madness
I was selling cars during the Scrappage Scheme, and saw more than my fair share of atrocities.
First off, let me point out that not everyone who sells cars has a love for them and understands what could be desirable to some and dire to others.
I'll never forget working at a Ford dealer in my first car sales job, fresh out of college. We took a Mini mayfair in PX against a KA.
When the owner came to collect their new car and drop of the Mini, she unfortunately witnessed her loved little mini being lifted by a truck with a claw onto the flat bed, before having its roof caved in and then driven away.
That's when I realised that some old cars are more than just old cars, and regardless of them being "classics" or pistonhead fodder, they are can still have emotional ties to the owner. That's why i didn't particularly like the scrappage scheme as it meant this sort of thing started happening more frequently. Buyers remorse is bad enough when they have to drive away from their old car, made worse when they know it's going to get crushed.
The worst thing about the scrappage deal was that once it had been sold to a dealership and the papers signed, there was no going back. A trader couldn't buy it, a member of the public couldn't save it as a project.
I talked a couple of people out of part exchanging their cars when i knew they were worth something to someone else.
One particular time came when an elderly chap wanted to PX his MG Maestro. It was mint! I told him that if he gave me 20 minutes i'd have someone come and buy the car from him for at least the same amount as the scrappage scheme would offer, and that way someone else could enjoy the car.
30 minutes later a friend of a friend came screeching onto the forecourt, had a quick look round the car and gave my customer £3k instead of the £2k he thought he'd get.
The result, one very happy customer and one modern classic saved. My boss was less please however and said "we have to do things by the book".
The best scrappage scheme save ever though, was this..
A Landrover dealership, talked a customer out of px'ing their series 1 landie, knowing it'd be crushed.
They chose to genuinely buy the car, not px it.
The series 1 was then used to help train new mechanics and body shop apprentices.
The landie that would have been crushed then became a showroom show-piece and gets taken to events.
I'm not going to get misty eyed about this, although 200+ MR2's does seem suspiciously high and I think those figures aren't accurate.
The reality is a lot of those cars represented time sinks and money pits for their owners. They were headaches and sources of stress.
That cheap econo-box people seem to criticize represented trouble free motoring for their owners. As a lot of the cars were cheap to begin with these people probably wouldn't have been able to get into a reliable new car any other way.
So what value do you put on peace of mind, utter reliability (by comparison) and a long warranty?
Sure, in three years time their little Korean car might not be worth much, but God almighty that's also three years of not having to worry about sourcing ruddy parts, not having to deal with local rip off mechanics, not having to worry every time you turn the key and wondering if the bloody thing would start.
I think if you take off the rose tinted specs, 99% of those cars were probably close to worthless as daily drivers. And we know pretty much nothing of the 1% that, on the face of it, seemed worth keeping. There are far too many variables at play here, from exact details of each car to the situation with the owners themselves.
The reality is a lot of those cars represented time sinks and money pits for their owners. They were headaches and sources of stress.
That cheap econo-box people seem to criticize represented trouble free motoring for their owners. As a lot of the cars were cheap to begin with these people probably wouldn't have been able to get into a reliable new car any other way.
So what value do you put on peace of mind, utter reliability (by comparison) and a long warranty?
Sure, in three years time their little Korean car might not be worth much, but God almighty that's also three years of not having to worry about sourcing ruddy parts, not having to deal with local rip off mechanics, not having to worry every time you turn the key and wondering if the bloody thing would start.
I think if you take off the rose tinted specs, 99% of those cars were probably close to worthless as daily drivers. And we know pretty much nothing of the 1% that, on the face of it, seemed worth keeping. There are far too many variables at play here, from exact details of each car to the situation with the owners themselves.
Absolute result for my wife's '97 Laguna Estate.107k miles (on the original clutch), with a large dent courtesy of a friends neighbour who wasn't looking when reversing out of her drive. Her husband gave us the estimated repair cost so that was £2700 off the Good Woman's dream Fiat 500 from a car worth maybe £400. 4 years later we got what we paid for the Fiat against a new one......
Bring on another scrappage scheme as I've a sad XJ40 to go
Bring on another scrappage scheme as I've a sad XJ40 to go
Pwig said:
Every single car we had on scrappage was a nail. Not a nice example amongst them.
We had a Porsche 924 taken in. Didn't even have any door cards, rust everywhere..
I remember a Punto with no brakes at all, and my mates MR2 which blew it's engine 200 meters from the dealership!
Don't lie. You clearly scrapped loads of valuable, mint condition classics because you hate cars.We had a Porsche 924 taken in. Didn't even have any door cards, rust everywhere..
I remember a Punto with no brakes at all, and my mates MR2 which blew it's engine 200 meters from the dealership!
Or at least that's what you'd think if you believed some of the cobblers being posted in this thread
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