Car Scrappage Scheme

jellymid

We also went to a couple of dealers last weekend and found their attitude appalling - "The state of the market is so bad that we can't afford to offer any discounts" "The scrappage allowance has to come off the list price" - really?
To be honest, they stood in their swanky suits and flash watches, cufflinks, spoke arrogantly and dismissively. It was is if they thought their boat had come in and they were smugly about to make another killing. We thought that they didn't deserve any help from the government at all, and definitely not any of our hard earned money! We'll carry on with our old banger, which doesn't owe us anything, and keep supporting the guys at the local garage

The scheme was supposed to help the industry, but I don't see that they are doing themselves any favours.

netherwoods

Having recently priced up a new car, I was offered £4000 off the list price without even trying. I was going for a low interest PCP deal as I planned to sell my current car privately and invest the proceeds. So my advice if you have a 10 year old car is see what discount you can get first without trading in anything - don't let the dealer know you have an old car. Walk away saying you need to think about it and then go back later with your old car asking for another £2000 off the deal you discussed earlier. That way you will know whether the additional scrappage discount is genuine.

Lemonade_Pockets

gdcox wrote: »

Lemonade
This VAT thing is worse than a red herring
Economics 101
If the prices of nearly used cars did not reflect the VAT tax paid on new cars pro rata to the used price in the market, there would be more demand for those cars and less supply and their would be bid up until they did .
if VAT on new cars was doubled, do you not think nearly new and older cars would move up in price over a few weeks or months as a result.

Don't dispute that for second i'm only pointing out the rules surrounding Value added Tax. I.e it is a Tax that is only payable on a car once in its lifetime unless it is reclaimed then it remains chargable. The orginal two posts surrounding it where missinformed.

Anyway i'm diverting this off topic.

I would also second the motion for combining the many threads that have cropped up on the scrappage scheme over the last few weeks, as lots of the info is being repeated from as little as a few days ago.

Hintza

DealDrivers wrote: »

Hintza..the electric car scheme does not start until 2011..that was made clear in the budget announcement adn in all the subsequent press reports. Manuf'rs are still developing the cars...thats why none are shown.

So how can you announce a scheme that is not even viable and even if it was it is still a load of tosh as there will be no envirnmental benefits as it the CO2 output will be greater than say a diesel engine with loss of transmission out put from power station to plug.

You also have the fact that we will not even have enough generating capacity to meet todays needs in a few years time unless they approve some more power stations.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/5141208/Gordon-Brown-shows-how-green-he-really-is.html

Hintza

netherwoods wrote: »

Having recently priced up a new car, I was offered £4000 off the list price without even trying. I was going for a low interest PCP deal as I planned to sell my current car privately and invest the proceeds. So my advice if you have a 10 year old car is see what discount you can get first without trading in anything - don't let the dealer know you have an old car. Walk away saying you need to think about it and then go back later with your old car asking for another £2000 off the deal you discussed earlier. That way you will know whether the additional scrappage discount is genuine.

This would be my tactic but nodoubt they will quote you a price with a big caveat of no trade in. But could make it amusing if you want a bit of sport with them.

stubborn_2

I have a 22 year old beamer which I use for summer months. Had it from new & don't want to get rid of it - why should I? Don't see how this plan will make any significant difference to anything. I enjoy my old car, more fun than a modern one & when the time comes I'll buy second hand anyway.

yorksrabbit

The trade, as ever, looks at auction floor prices -- not VAT issues.

The Government, as ever, looks to its own best chances of re-election.

Also as ever though, it's so stunningly inept that it's chucking taxpayers' money not at taxpayers but multi-nationals that are going bust because of their own past venal folly. (See Who Killed The Electric Car? etc etc et al.)

Anyone thinking they'll be getting a great deal by toddling into a glossy plate-glass air-conditioned main dealer showroom that has £000s-a-month overheads for sales staff wages and employer NI contributions, business rates and rent as well as manufacturer stock commitments really is living in cloud-cuckoo land.

Had the Government been serious about this, it would have restricted the scheme to the purchase of new cars only in the lowest CO2 brackets -- seeing as how it was so concerned about CO2 it jacked up Road Tax for all those unfortunate to own a car purchased back in the days before a high CO2 rating became a ZanuLabour hanging offence.

But of course, the Government hasn't made any such restriction because the CO2 issue was merely a fig leaf to cover yet more ways for Broon to screw stealth tax out of the population.

* Yes. The threads should be combined.

etlmdhn

I keep hearing about being in a recession and how hard hit the motor trade is. So why are they putting up their prices. Ford have done this twice already this year. Surely if they can't sell cars then the price should be coming down not up. Ah but there is a scrappage scheme coming along so why not put up prices so we actually make more money off the sad punters out there who would have got a better deal prior to the scheme.
My opinion is this is just another bit of spin to make the government look as if it actualy cares whilst wasting more taxpayers money.

elainhardwick

I just do not agree with this move full stop, when you take into consideration the manufacturing of making new cars, it's not exactly green is it? We should consider the environmental cost of scrapping the cars, which takes electricity etc. A car that stays on the road is in the long run greener as the pollution through manufacture happened such a long time a go.
Also lets consider our heritage in classic cars, by scrapping them means that cars of yesteryear will only be seen in text books.
This is an attempt by an on the way out government to claw back a thread of popularity and in turn get rid of all those cars sitting in lots all over the country due to greedy over manufacture and another European directive which forces our government not to do right by their electives but by those sitting in Brussels with little to do but dream up ever stupid ways to achieve world domination.

Pllleeeaaase lets get out of Europe and start running our country for our country's sake - there is nothing to say that we cannot trade with the rest of the world - we just don't want the stupid rules!!

rinkydinkpanther

I was going to get myself a Fiat 500, so I am a bit concerned that other people seem to have had confirmation that it won't be available. My dealer says he doesn't know and I've just asked Fiat via their website and they've said the only info available at the moment is the scheme on the 1.1 Panda.

Ah well, if I can't get my new 500 (for which discounts have never been available) then my 12 year old Clio will stay on the road a while longer.