Stop buying new cars says government adviser

People should stop buying new cars and drive their old ones until they’re beyond repair, says a top government adviser.

This news, reported by the Daily Telegraph, comes a day after we reported that new cars sales figures have hit a six-year high.

On Bing: see pictures of scrap cars

Find out how much a car over 10-years-old costs on Auto Trader

Chief scientific adviser to the government’s energy department, David MacKay, said “car manufacturers love us to buy a new car every few years” and that Britain needs to end its throw away culture.

MacKay advised that cars (alongside electronic equipment) should be kept for as long as possible and then disassembled so that components can be recycled.

He wrote in a Department of Energy and Climate Change newsletter:

“The whole system could use significantly less energy if we designed things to last, if we only bought things we need to use, if we used them for their full life, repairing them when necessary, and then disassembled them carefully so that components could be re-used.”

The advice is at odds with the scrappage scheme that was took place between 2009 and 2010, which encouraged the public to scrap old cars and buy brand new ones.

With manufacturers producing cars with greater efficiency, is it false economy to cling on to your old runabout? Or would all the finance deals in the world not tempt you from your trusty old motor?

UK car sales reach six-year high

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On Bing: see pictures of scrap cars

Find out how much a car over 10-years-old costs on Auto Trader

By motoringresearch.com