MSE News: Car scrappage scheme to be extended

Former_MSE_Guy

This is the discussion thread for the following MSE News Story:

"The Government is extending its vehicle scrappage scheme, it was announced this afternoon. Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, speaking at the Labour Party ..."

Read the full story:
Car scrappage scheme to be extended

ecohouse1

I think the scrappage scheme is a real white elephant. Tax payers supporting not just britsh car companies but overseas ones as well!!! There have been some lovely cars with low miles and loads of life still in them going to the crusher including one owner 30k miles Corsa's and Polos, lovely old Moggie Minors and MGs- may of which would have kept going for years. Personally I never pay of £1000 for any car - buy cash and I will usually get 7-8 years out of it. I bought a nice Citroen Xsara in June for £600 with 80k Miles - no rust - needed a service and a good wash and its going like a good un now!! Moder cars have at leasat a 15 yr lifespan and longer if looked after well.

Remember the greenest car you own is the one you have now!!!

Antispam

I agree the money should be put to better use supporting British jobs many of the cars do not support British jobs accept showrooms in UK

Inactive

Antispam wrote: »

I agree the money should be put to better use supporting British jobs many of the cars do not support British jobs accept showrooms in UK

Agreed, many of which have got both greedy and arrogant since the market has been distorted in their favour.

Flat_Eric

I was interested to see this news article today but would point out that to qualify your car must "be registered in the United Kingdom (UK) on or before 31 August 1999" ( from government website) Whether this will change in light of the announcement today, I do not know.

But currently as it stands, it means for people whose cars turned ten years old after 1 September this year then sadly you dont qualify. This in my opinion is misleading by the government. It should be simple. If your car is ten or more years old, scrap it and get £2,000. Not tie it down to specific dates.

emmell

Why don't the government help other retail businesses with a scrappage scheme. Get rid of old sofas, tv's, washers, kitchens, bathrooms, anything that you can trade an old one in for.
Why should all the help go to the motor industry when lot's of businesses are going bust and leaving people on the dole. There must be a lot of smug car salespeople around, especially the one's who work for the Korean car companies.
Rant over.
ML.

amsquared

The government isn't really spending any money - they get most of it back in VAT and this will increase when VAT returns to 17.5% in January 2010

Martinslovechild

Flat_Eric wrote: »

I was interested to see this news article today but would point out that to qualify your car must "be registered in the United Kingdom (UK) on or before 31 August 1999" ( from government website) Whether this will change in light of the announcement today, I do not know.

But currently as it stands, it means for people whose cars turned ten years old after 1 September this year then sadly you dont qualify. This in my opinion is misleading by the government. It should be simple. If your car is ten or more years old, scrap it and get £2,000. Not tie it down to specific dates.

Eric,

This was my understanding too, but it's incorrect.

On the Government's Vehicle Scrappage Website the following update was added today:-


Two changes were announced on 28th September:

• Because of additional funding by the Government and manufacturers, the Scheme will now cover up to 400,000 transactions. It will still come to an end at the end of February 2010 or sooner if the funding runs out.
  
• To ensure all 10 year old cars will qualify for the scheme, the date by which vehicles must have been registered in the UK in order to qualify for the scheme will be changed to 29 February 2000 (V registration) except in the case of vans where the date will be changed to 28 February 2002 up to and including a 51-plate. (In other words, in addition to everything T-plate or earlier, we are now including V, W, X, Y and 51 plate vehicles in the vans not exceeding 3.5 tonnes category.)

In summary, people with V-Reg cars are covered under the scheme.

MarkyMarkD

... whereas previously they were not.

But, like many other people's V reg cars, ours is perfectly OK and has just passed an MOT at a cost of "only" £300. To be honest, it would be shameful to scrap it, even if we did want a brand new car.

The only upside for us, I suppose, is that there will be fewer V reg cars for sale because lots of good ones will get scrapped, so the value of ours might increase a bit.

Martinslovechild

My V-Reg car's slowly falling to bits having done nearly 170,000 miles. Based on mileage alone, it's now worth just £500. I was recently given a quote for various bits of work which need to be done to get it through its MOT and the total is more than £600!!

goldspanners

emmell wrote: »

Why don't the government help other retail businesses with a scrappage scheme. Get rid of old sofas, tv's, washers, kitchens, bathrooms, anything that you can trade an old one in for.
Why should all the help go to the motor industry when lot's of businesses are going bust and leaving people on the dole. There must be a lot of smug car salespeople around, especially the one's who work for the Korean car companies.
Rant over.
ML.

i totally agree here,why not extend it to everything we buy? trade in your old for new with a garaunteed amount off?
ive been speaking t a few folk in the vehicle repair game recently and it is starting to affect them,rather than repair thier car for a few hundred quid they are being fooled by this scheme,so the smug salesman reaches his target,but the tradesman looses his living.