Car scrappage - is it worth it?

Lulu58

Hello all

I have a ten year old car which has been playing up for a few months. It's proving difficult to pin point the problem, and could end up quite costly. I do really low mileage so, arguably, its not really cost effective for me to have a car at all, but what price do you put on convenience re shopping, running errands etc.

I've been thinking of taking advantage of a last minute car scrappage deal, but I'm not sure it's really worth it. The way I read it, many of the car manufacturers/dealers have increased their prices (some several times) since it's introduction so there are no real savings to the motorist.

Any thoughts, comments or advice would be appreciated.

Lulu

david29dpo

It tends to be the cheap cars that make it worth while i.e. £5999. If you walked in with cash you wont get £2000 off. If you are looking at a £15000+ ish for example, anyone could get a lot more than £2000 off for cash anyway.

Lulu58

I'm looking at the Fiat 500 which will probably cost around the £10,000 mark. The dealer will not offer any further discounts.

Based on what david29dpo is saying, I'm wondering if this is borderline.

What do others think?

Inactive

So you are considering buying a car for £10,000 to go to the shops every now and then?

You must have money to burn..

Lulu58

Inactive wrote: »

So you are considering buying a car for £10,000 to go to the shops every now and then?

You must have money to burn..

Who mentioned shopping?! I hate shopping :eek:.

I keep my cars a loooooooong time as I don't do high mileage. I've had this one since it was just over a year old so over 9 years the costs aren't so bad.

[Deleted User]

Lulu58 wrote: »

Who mentioned shopping?! I hate shopping :eek:.

You mentioned shopping!

flea72

scrappage is the the only way to get a decent discount on the Fiat 500

Fiat are offering no incentives to dealers, so its list price or nothing

Best way to consider if you think its worthwhile, is to look at what else you could get for your £8k - in the case of the 500, used stock is limited, so they tend to hold their price. i very much doubt you could get a like for like used 500 for less than £8k

F

mountainofdebt

tbh I think you may have missed out on this as places on the scheme are very limited now. If you are seriously interested then I would phone a dealer to find out what the current situation is asap.

Inactive

Lulu58 wrote: »

Who mentioned shopping?! I hate shopping :eek:.

You did, quote " convenience re shopping, running errands etc. ".



Not that you would get much more than a couple of carrier bags in a Fiat 500.. :rotfl:

Lulu58

I mentioned shopping (oops!) ... a momentary slip in an otherwise faultless posting history :rotfl:

Thanks for the various responses. Flea72 is right, Fiat were bordering on arrogant that they did not need to discount and had no intentions of doing so! I wonder if they will feel the same later in the year when the hike in taxes, interest rates etc start to bite?

Lulu

flea72

Lulu58 wrote: »

I mentioned shopping (oops!) ... a momentary slip in an otherwise faultless posting history :rotfl:

Thanks for the various responses. Flea72 is right, Fiat were bordering on arrogant that they did not need to discount and had no intentions of doing so! I wonder if they will feel the same later in the year when the hike in taxes, interest rates etc start to bite?

Lulu

in relation to the 500, no - this car is selling at the predicted levels, without there being any discount offered, so why would they think to lower prices - even the 'pink' with a price tag of over £11.5k seems to have no trouble selling at nigh on retail prices

if you look around most manufacturers have basically increased the cars dimensions and specs, and upped the price by a couple of £K. dropping prices doesnt seem to be the way most are going. they have taken the route of adding to the cars, so it looks like you get more bang for you buck. Take the fiesta for example, not exactly a small family car anymore, its grown in style and price and now markets along similar lines in the market, to where the Focus sat a few years back. Same with the Fiat Grande Punto, go back 4yrs, and you could buy one new for around the £6k mark, now the cars had a face lift, and the entry level model starts at just under £10k - £10k for a basic family car is madness

If you want a cheap car, then your only option is to look at kia, hyundai, etc. - however, i tend to find the repair/servicing costs for these cars, tends to kill off any saving you make, if you plan to keep the car long term

F