Scrappage has helped boost car sales for the third consecutive month, according to new industry figures.
New car registrations increased 11.4 per cent last month to 367,929 units, said the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.
See the high-res scrappage special picture gallery
The UK’s scrappage incentive scheme was last week extended for a further 100,000 cars, a move the SMMT believes will continue to stimulate sales into next year.
“New car registrations rose for the third month in a row in September. Market conditions remain challenging, with demand being underpinned by the extremely successful scrappage incentive scheme,” said SMMT chief executive Paul Everitt.
“The extension of the scheme will help to sustain demand through the latter part of this year and into 2010. This will allow economic recovery to strengthen and safeguard valuable industrial capability.”
Join the debate
Add your comment
Re: Scrappage boosts car sales
Boring, all of those other arguments have been done a thousand times, the article mentioned scrappage boosting car sales, that is what a few of us have replied to and about.
There is no point bleating and moaning about what should or should not have been done.
Re: Scrappage boosts car sales
Why should we subsidise car dealers when we haven't subsidised Woolworths and all the other High Street names that have recently disappeared. The present system is inefficient, with block exemption and also manufacturers putting artificially high barriers to entry. Let these plate glass palaces go to the wall, and as with the banks hope that a better model may arise from the ashes.
Re: Scrappage boosts car sales
Okay, Britain is a nation of consumers of foreign produced goods and not an exporter of British made goods so why not subsidise the buying of other foreign made goods that have seen demand for them drop sharply? How about furniture? Furniture sales are down at least as badly as sales of cars. Most of the funiture sold in UK is imported. There must be IKEA salesmen who could benefit from a UK taxpayer funded furniture scrappge scheme, say any table or sofa over ten years old, the govt. will give you £100 to have it scrapped towards a new Swedish one. How about the building trade? Its sales are down massively, far more than cars. Most of what goes into new houses and commercial developments is imported, like timber, copper for the wiring etc., so why not have a govt. funded subsidy scheme for the building trade? After all brickies, carpenters, sparks would benefit the whole economy if they were kept in their jobs rather than being on the dole, right? See where this is heading? Next we'll have some bright spark from Whitehall who suggests it would be a good thing for UK plc if we funded the digging of holes - with imported digging implements of course, Chinese shovels - and then have someone else fill them back in, with more imported digging implements. Should work blindingly in the short term - full employment and a booming economy - but I can't help thinking there's a snag somewhere, maybe no real work or wealth is being created, and it's all going to go bang horribly. Bit like that nice Quantitative Easing. After all, 'Weimar Republic' is not exactly a byword these days for financial prudence and sustainable economic success.