Yesterday and today the word ‘Scrappage’ has appeared a lot in the press and across twitter. It relates to the car and van scheme where you can trade in a vehicle over 10 years old for a £2k subsidy on a new vehicle. The Government puts up £1k and the automotive industry put up the other £1k. My inner cynic is ignoring the fact that Vauxhall and Fords increased their prices earlier this year, some say in anticipation scrappage.
Already the scheme has been slammed as not being very green or environmentally friendly.
Looking at it from a business point of view, many courier companies lease there vehicles, so they send them back every few years for new vehicles. The leasing company gets a discount for buying in bulk, and usually sells off the ‘older’ fleet at a discount. So Scrappage is not likely to appeal here.
If you had a well maintained vehicle and you wanted to trade it in for a brand new Sprinter price in the region of 22k, would you do it? In this current economic climate? with customers taking longer to pay their bills would you get finance for a new vehicle so you can get 2k off of the price?
What if you had cash? would you part with it for a less than 10% discount knowing a vehicle depreciates 25% it its first year?
I need to look at the scheme in more depth because right now I cannot see any advantage to trading a vehicle in. I reserve the right to change my mind later.
Sarah
PS the small print says you must have had the vehicle 12 months in order to get the discount… so if you were planning to buy a scrap vehicle to trade it for the discount (something which might have actually worked) – then tough, you can’t.
Related articles
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- Car production decline worsens amid crisis
- This scam is nothing but a handout for motor companies, resprayed green
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