My P.O.S. Landy is now worth £2000

[Troddenmasses]

Just reading the news, and I see that they have gone and unveiled a £2000 vehicle scrapping incentive.

BBC News

Does this mean that there will no longer be scrappy cars around for sale for less than about £1500? I know that when I come to change my 'proper' car, I will sell it, buy a really cheapo car that is only fit for the scrap man for anything less than £2K, and then sell it to the government for £2K - result. On the down side, I guess that it means there won't be as many cheap 'donor' Landies around.

[Mo Murphy]

Means my £300, a year ago Micra is now worth two grand too

Mo

[Mark]

Surely that depends on if you are planning to go and buy a brand spanky new one?

[disco_al]

Surely that depends on if you are planning to go and buy a brand spanky new one?

exactly - and you must have owned it for longer than 12 months too. otherwise it's still worth the same as it was yesterday.

but, it could still have an impact on 2nd hand prices, as ten year old cars with 12 months test on them could be snapped up by someone wanting to buy a new car next year, run the cheapo into the ground for 12 months - with the money saved splash out on a new G-whizz or something else equally pointless.

[custom-conversions]

exactly - and you must have owned it for longer than 12 months too. otherwise it's still worth the same as it was yesterday.

but, it could still have an impact on 2nd hand prices, as ten year old cars with 12 months test on them could be snapped up by someone wanting to buy a new car next year, run the cheapo into the ground for 12 months - with the money saved splash out on a new G-whizz or something else equally pointless.

It seems a stange idea, the car you trade in for £2000 discount on a new car must have an MOT & then be scrapped!

Surely some cars are going to end up being scrapped when they have several years life still left in them just because the £2000 discount is worth more than the car.

I feel cars should be built to last longer than 10 years, as the recycling process isn't very efficient. So cars shouldn't need to be scraped at 10 years old.

The money could be better spent to help the car industry directly in the UK if they are looking to spend some Tax payers money. Rather than car manufacturers throughout the world.

[Exmoor Beast]

Another cracking example of how the Government spend the money we work hard to earn. I bet this ill thought out nonsense has taken thousands of hours of beaurocrats time so far and will require thousands more to sort out the carp that results from it as people start to use it.

The way I see the vast majority of cars have a ten year lifespan. Manufacturers are producing more efficient cars now so the problem is solved in ten years time. No interference required.

Why doesn't anyone in a suit take a step back at look at the whole picture FFS?

Will

[Retroanaconda]

Cars do last ten years quite easily. My Focus was built in 2000 and is still going strong, it should have many more years left in it.

And we all know how long Land Rovers can last given a good owner.

[Philip Tonkin]

Cars do last ten years quite easily. My Focus was built in 2000 and is still going strong, it should have many more years left in it.

And it isn't covered by the scheme which only covers cars made before 1999. Which means an old banger from 2001 is worth less than a well maintained car from 1998

[Retroanaconda]

I know it's not covered, I was just making the point that cars last a lot longer than a lot of people think. People change their vehicles far too often, something like a Land Rover that lasts 20 years plus has got to be better for the environment than the building, running, and disposal of several more 'clean' vehicles.

[Les Henson]

I know of a few cars that are for sale for around £200. You can have them for £500 and sell them on for a profit

Les.

[disco_al]

And it isn't covered by the scheme which only covers cars made before 1999. Which means an old banger from 2001 is worth less than a well maintained car from 1998

I see an evil plan forming from the Demon Headmaster, get everyone to scrap their old car, buy a new one, then hammer them with the new increased VED bands that are/aren't going ahead.....

[Bowie69]

Of course, not to mention.... that people running 10yr old cars generally can't afford to buy *new* ones, with £2K rebate or not, so the number of people taking up the offer is likely to be infinitesimal, there by costing the government absolutely nothing, but it makes great headlines.

Well done GB/AD...

[Turbocharger]

Bowie's hit the nail on the head. You need a 10yr old car with an MOT that you've owned for a year, and the dosh for 90% of a showroom new model and the financial backing to withstand the depreciation that you didn't have on the old car. Result- very small cost to the state, but headlines to displace this week's expenses outrage / sex scandal /data security issue.

I'm calling it "Rustgate".

[GBMUD]

It struck me that the government might have offered a greater incentive to buy a new car built in the UK. As it is, most of the price of new cars bought under this scheme is leaving the UK rather than supporting British workers and encouraging manufacturers to make cars here.

Chris

[geoffbeaumont]

And it isn't covered by the scheme which only covers cars made before 1999. Which means an old banger from 2001 is worth less than a well maintained car from 1998

Worse than that - a well maintained 2001 car is worth less than an absolute shed from 1998...

[hammoj28]

Its a stupid scheme all together, not everyone wants to buy a new car due to the fact you loose a hell of a lot of money once you drive it out the showroom.

And as above, even with the 2k a lot of people couldn't afford to put the rest of the cash together to buy a new car, therefore they will probably have to borrow the rest..........one of the reasons we are in this mess in the first place....

They also dont understand the fact that a lot of people drive older cars because they like them....Im stuck in the 80's.lol

[freeagent]

I do agree with all those who've said its a stupid scheme, but there might be some situations that it could work to your advantage...

if you had an elderly, and largely worthless old crock like my 1996 Disco, which you were hoping to off-load over the next year, it could make a big dent in the cost of replacing your famlies other car, maybe a 9k Fiat 500 for the wife?

just a thought?

[Les Henson]

My P.O.S. Landy is now worth £2000

Last I heard - your truck was only worth £4.99P

Les

[FridgeFreezer]

I do agree with all those who've said its a stupid scheme, but there might be some situations that it could work to your advantage...

The devil is in the detail - the govt only stump up £1k, the rest comes from the manufacturer, which means it's highly likely the manufacturers will be less inclined to offer the same discounts as they were a week ago when they didn't have to cough up £1k, fill in a load of forms and process your old banger.

Frankly I think it's a bl**dy daft idea, SniffPetrol have it about right:

Whilst the car industry waits for the government to decide on a German-style ‘scrappage scheme’ for cars there was good news for Britain’s beleaguered sapling planting businesses this week as ministers announced a new Sawage Programme for old trees. Under the new initiative, anyone with a tree over nine years old will be able to claim £2000 towards the cost of a new sapling if they cut down their old tree, chop it into little pieces and then burn it.

‘This will be a great boost to the tree growers of Britain,’ said David Short-Termism, the minister responsible for introducing the new scheme. ‘As the current economic crisis worsened, this vital industry reacted as best it could by continuing to plant acres and acres of saplings. Unfortunately, demand for these trees has slowed dramatically and now is the time for the government to use your taxes to offset their ineptitude.’

Mr Short-Termism also believes that encouraging people to destroy older, more interesting trees will have a valuable environmental effect and denies that old oaks, horse chestnuts, elms and so on can actually be better for the environment; ‘Old trees are often very dirty with moss and have squirrels living in them. By chopping down such trees and replacing them with a clean new sapling there will be a marked reduction in such factors as the amount of leaves dropped in Autumn and some other tissue thin reasons I haven’t thought of yet’.

The new scheme has been greeted with delight by major tree growers and by the bodies that represent them including the Society of Tree Growers & Planters. ‘This is exactly the sort of flimsy quick fix our industry needs,’ said STGP spokesman Mhike Dhesperation. ‘A brief period of slightly increased tree buying activity will certainly see us through the recession. Assuming of course that the recession only lasts a couple of months and then everyone who’s already chopped down an old tree and bought a new one decides they want to buy another new one. And that’s exactly what’s going to happen isn’t it? Erm…’

[plasticbadger]

Well found FF, sums it up exactly!

So we're now encouraged to scrap plenty of usable 10 year old cars, and then burn stupid amounts of energy building a slightly more economical new car, great. The environment suffers more, but the government gets all the VAT and higher road tax of the new car, plus the taxes from the company that build the car, their employees and so on. Funny, it only seems Mr Darling is winning.

The new car industry has been over inflated by stupid credit deals for years, it's time for it to shrink. And I know plenty of people who work that industry, but it's a nessary evil if we really want to save the world

[TheRecklessEngineer]

Revolution anyone? I vote Les for PM.

[santalars]

They have a cpmparable scheme running in Germany now.

It cost the govenment alot of money.

It doesen't help the environment.

It helps the automobile economy a lot and many say that therefore it's worth it.

The used car maket is not hugely affected. However as up to max. 1 year old cars could be purchased as well instead of brand new ones only, you will not find any unsold 1 year old car in Germany any more.

[geoffbeaumont]

They have a cpmparable scheme running in Germany now.

The rather significant difference, at least according to the economics pundits on the radio, is that Germans buy mostly German built cars, whereas we buy mostly cars built overseas and export most of the ones we build. So a scheme that subsidises car purchases in this country will mostly help other countries car manufacturers not ours... Genius!