Looks like the Government are about to announce the scrappage scheme might be extended:

BBC NEWS | Politics | Scrappage scheme 'to be extended'

It was due to end after the £300M budget was used up (300,000 cars scrapped), which was predicted to end mid October.

Edited 28 September, 200916 yr by Phil_P
typo

Great, even more money for us Taxpayers to find to fund the thing.

All they are doing is deferring the inevitable, in that when the scheme does end the car market will go dead as a door nail because people will be tied to finance deals that mean that cars will need to be kept longer to pay them off.

Good for the secondhand car market in newer cars though, prices have been rising steadily as used car supplies dwindle.

I've been waiting for this announcement. It was always on the cards because the government are actually making a profit from it. When you look at how much vat alone is paid on even the cheapest new cars. 15% of £5k is £750 so they're just about at break even before anything else is even considered.

They've added another £100m to extend it for another 100,000 cars.

ATM they're doing about 12,000 cars/week so that should extend the scheme by about 8 weeks at the current rate of scrappage, or about to the end of the year.

They'll run it into the return to 17.5% VAT

They'll run it into the return to 17.5% VAT

Oddly enough I was just thinking the same as on any car over £6000 makes them a VAT profit when it returns to 17.5%. Now how many qualifying new cars can you find for under £6000, not many I don't think and certainly far fewer than those over it.

What extending the scheme does do however is eat in the VAT take from a sale, but it could be argued that that would be nearer to zero due to few cars being sold without the incentive.

More perfectly decent and fully operational motors being condemned to death then.

I could weep seeing on my working travels around the garages, some of the cars that are being destroyed. :rotz:

I could weep seeing on my working travels around the garages, some of the cars that are being destroyed. :rotz:

...and there again today at Mini, Chester.

Some one had swapped their 1998 Micra 1.3 GX with 40 k, air con, absolutely mint and totally original. Not even a scuff on the original wheel trims or bumpers, and no car park dents. Probably the tidest S reg car I've seen since 1999 tbh. .

They'd even had it valeted shortly before part x'ing it. Nearly new quality tyres and taxed until Feb '10.

It'll be crushed within days.

A fine first car for someone wasted. Complete and utter lunacy.

I did actually rant at the boss about it, and he agreed.

The amount of really nice cars in a scrapyard near me is criminal, all on the scrappage scheme.... mint Audi 80, Golf Mk2, Passat, Alfa 156 and the list goes on. A mate has taken parts from a Mk2 Polo that is in stunning condition to help restore his daughters Polo, its criminal and a waste.

All the crap is still on the roads as the owners cant afford to buy new, and its mainly good cars going. What they should be doing is saving the good ones, and offering a swap with the owner of a crap car for a minimal fee. This gives owners of really poor cars a chance to have something decent, keeps a good stock of quality 2nd hand cars about and rids the roads of all the rubbish. Such an ill thought out sheme:thumbdwn:

Such an ill thought out scheme:thumbdwn:

Absolutely agree.

Furthermore it deprives the used car trade of cheap stock, garages of maintenance work on these cars + mot fees and parts suppliers of a market in spares for these old cars.

All in all, I suspect this is costing the government indirectly a lot of money, irrespective of the vat take on the new cars supplied.

Then there's the environmental impact . . . . . no, no, no, I don't even want to go there :rotz:

but we all know that those nasty cabons out of the exhaust pipe are the only ones that occur during a cars lifetime right?

A nice end to one car on the brink of destruction.

I've just seen a Merc C class that's been rescued from the crusher by a second hand car dealer.

He knew the family of the old geezer (93) that's owned it from new, and heard his neice who he'd given it to was going to accept £2000 scrappage for one of those 'orrid new BMW mini cars.

19k, original tyres, fsh, absolutely mint inside and out apart from a scratch on the front bumper. Unbelievably staggeringly fantastic condition for 'P' reg.

Still has the 'new car ' smell inside even! :eek:

Anyway, it's been rescued from the claws of death , thanks to Mill car sales in Chester!

Think he's putting it up for about 5k! :eek:

Good luck to him. He deserves it for being a mechanical saviour.