Would you scrap your car?

[kalniel]

The beeb reckon the UK will soon introduce a £2000 discount for scrapping 9 year old cars:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7995928.stm

Anyone tempted?

I'm a bit annoyed, because I've got my nice 9 year old Astra which routinely returns over 60MPG, emits barely a wiff of pollution and obviously is hardly using any energy in the manufacture of new parts. But the govt seem to be encouraging me to go and get a new car, which is less efficient but will save me money on RFL tax, and will use more materials in its construction and quite possibly upkeep. And what's more, they want to scrap a perfectly working car in excellent condition! Madness.

edit: details have been released - it's 10 years old, only applies until march next year, you have to have owned the car for 12 months.

[GoNz0]

my 12 year old car is worth more than 2k so they can go screw for now

[joshwa]

So I should buy an old £200 banger now so that I can get £2000 off a new car in couple of months? (just being devils advocate here) Does it need an MOT / TAX?

But it appears that the dire state of the automotive industry has forced its hand.

Car sales fell by almost a third in March this year compared with last year.

Oh boo hoo! Maybe, just maybe, people should stop living outside there means, and maybe stop getting huge loans / debts to buy new cars?

They also, the government argues, help the environment by replacing old, inefficient vehicles with cleaner, more efficient ones.

And when does "political spin" turn into blatant lie? So scrapping a car and producing a brand new one is environmentally friendly is it? wow, must be some kind of new car made out of flowers...

[TickledPink]

You're right. I'm not sure how much thought they've put into this. The new RFL tax bands on new cars were introduced to help persuade people to buy greener cars. Their belief seems to be that older cars are heavier polluters and use up parts more readily than newer models. This isn't necessarily the case.

We were involved in a read ender last June and as the roof had to be cut off, our old Mark I Mondeo had to be scrapped. We were given a nice new Mazda 3 hire car. I didn't really notice that much of a difference in MPG despite the 16 year age gap!! The entire car was obviously based on a Mark I Focus, which wasn't a bad thing.

Anyway, when we finally bought ourselves a replacement car (a '99 Mark I Focus) I noticed straight away that the fuel consumption was WAY better in this old Mark I, 9 year old, Focus than it was on the 6 month old Mazda 3. Yet both (and the Mondeo) have all had 1.6 litre engines.

The Ford Zetec is a humdinger of an engine.

[kalniel]

my 12 year old car is worth more than 2k so they can go screw for now

Heh - I think my astra is at the moment, but not for long out of sheer numbers of similarly conditioned Astras out there (doubt GM will be making the mistake of over-engineering a car again )

[how1]

My father-in-law is hoping to get money for his old car so he can get a new one!

[dave87]

Got 6 years to go first, and I doubt it'll take me that long to get bored

[Howard]

Of course not. My MX5 is 19 years old but it's probably in better condition than most newer abused cars. Same with my 9 year old Accord. The Government can go screw if they think they're going to force me to part with two perfectly good cars because it apparently (no, it really doesn't) saves the environment

[MadduckUK]

no, but the amount of people that WILL scares me a lot. all those perfectly good mx5's and preludes etc getting chopped

[Howard]

all those perfectly good mx5's and preludes etc getting chopped

Something needs to be done. Hexus should perhaps pay for a national TV campaign stating that we'll take any MX5s or decent old cars off the hands of careless owners looking to scrap them?

[dave87]

The problem with that also is what occasional cheap gems would come up, now don't, because the market value for them is now £2000 according to the government.

I haven't had a chance to read about it, but I remember one of the notions was it was only off a new car?

[MadduckUK]

im sure a few nights ago this came up and i was a bit tipsy but no-one seemed to be agreeing with me.

something DOES need to be done Howard or a whole bunch of cars are going to become stupid expensive or extinct

[Howard]

Let's just hope it doesn't happen, eh?

[MadduckUK]

i can deal with the threat of neighbours making dirty bombs, but this does actually worry me - even the 2k off a new car, all of a sudden these cars turn into poker chips or gift vouchers or something

[Howard]

On the upside.. my MX5 won't depreciate

[MadduckUK]

now is not the time to be thinking of that