Car Scrappage Scheme – Darling wastes the chance – Just like that!

Darling wastes an opportunity with a half-hearted car scrappage scheme

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The Car Scrappage Scheme had problems as a concept. But it was a way to help shift more cars (but without a change in underwriting policy it’s debatable how many would sell). And at £2,000 a go it was a reasonable incentive to buy.

But even as originally proposed we had our doubts. Firstly, how many people driving ten year old cars would be in a position to buy a new car, even with a £2,000 incentive? Would those people be able to get finance? Would it apply to all cars? Well, we’ve got our answers, but they are a real let-down.

Not only is the Government offering £1,000 not giving away £2,000, they’re expecting the car makers to chip in the  £1,000 they’re offering by putting up the same. Which makes a nonsense of the scheme. If you can’t already get £1,000 off a new car then you’re doing something seriously wrong. So car makers won’t actually be stumping anything up. In fact, they will probably insist on list price for cars bought under the scrappage schemes, so they’ll probably end up getting more for the car than they would have done without the scheme.

Bit like the VAT fiasco. What use is an extra 2.5% off when retailers were already slashing prices by 20% + to make a sale? All that happens is that we, the taxpayers, throw money down the tube.

Complete waste of time. A bit like the Government. If only they were as good at economics as they are at claiming expenses, we’d all be in clover now.

By Cars UK