Every car I’ve ever owned has lost money - until now.
Thanks to the raft of car scrappage schemes launched recently, my 95,000-mile, Euro 4, 2006-registered Vauxhall Astra 1.6 SXi three-door, owned by me for more than 90 days, has gone from being worth around £500 to as much as £5000 when part-exchanged against a new Hyundai Santa Fe (starting price: £32,545).
As a responsible citizen, I should be tempted. After all, Hyundai and the 22 other car makers that have launched these schemes in the past couple of weeks – Alfa Romeo, Audi, BMW, Citroën, DS, Fiat, Ford, Jeep, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, MG, Mini, Nissan, Peugeot, Renault, Seat, Skoda, Suzuki, Toyota, Vauxhall and Volkswagen – say my Astra is among the most polluting cars on the road.
Scrappage schemes: which brands have one?
So what are these new scrappage schemes, how do they work and are they any good? The first thing to say is that they’re not government-sponsored, so there’s a huge variety of approaches, deals and terms and conditions out there. In fact, a few of them (BMW, Hyundai, Mercedes, Mini and Nissan) aren’t scrappage schemes at all, since some or all of the cars they accept in part-exchange are not scrapped. Instead, their deals are discounts, pure and simple, especially since one or two (for example, Nissan) give a part-exchange allowance in addition.
Join the debate
Shrub
Goes to show
that, whatever these schemes provide, a lot of car sales people still don't know their ar5e from their elbow.
Spanner
Probably
I mean, car companies and dealers are known for their non-commercial give-aways aren't they. Just goes to show the mark up on each car.
Batter them for a discount, and don't get drawn into a terrible discussion about a trade-in / pseudo scrappage, or "I'll have to speak to the manager". It obfuscates how much you are being overcharged, and keeps their margin higher than it should be. Do your research on the internet, and state the deal you will buy at, and if they won't shift, go to another dealer who will probably offer you the deal. About a week later the sales person from the original company will ring back with what you wanted, by which time you would have already bought elsewhere at the price you wanted to pay.
the dance that happens every time I buy a new car.
poon
Spanner.
scotty5
Keep the Astra
That's a very good article, real-world situation alwas beats theoretical. It really needs someone with weight behind them to stop the con that's going on and appeal to the legal authorities because it's simply a downright lie for some manufacturers to claim 'scrappage' or environmental protection when the cars are being sold on - perhaps Greenpeace should be targeting those dealers who incorrectly claim to be removing Euro4 cars off the road rather than brand new clean modern Euro6 diesels?
A couple of points. That 'great' scrappage deal offered by Ford? Well being a government backed scheme wasn't the only lie the salesman was telling you, Ford don't sell a 125bhp ST-line Focus - if they did, he's simply shifting discounted old stock!
The current car is a 1.0 140bhp ST-Line which Ford themselves are discounting at £18855. (packs would be extra). You could of course go to a broker and buy the brand 140 new car, in metallic black with Navigation, Plus your convenience pack Plus a newer Appearance pack 2 for a grand total of wait for it... £17749 from an online broker. And that's without scrappage!
There are so many 'cons' with non-government based scrappage schemes it's untrue but another thing to note is that deal where we could buy a Nissan Leaf. (that might please the tree huggers). Can't remember if it was Autocar or another magazine I was reading the other day but it listed the worst depreciating new cars on sale in the UK. Top of the list was the Renault Zoe, 2nd worst car you can buy is a Nissan Leaf !!! If you want to please your bank manager AND Greenpeace - keep the Astra.
Ski Kid
probably a gimmick
you can often get 10% to 30% discount on new cars on the web anyway so depends on vaLUE OF TRADE IN IT WOULD HAVE TO BE A 20 YR OLD BANGER WORTH £200 OR SO TO POSSIBLY GAIN BUT CHECK BEST DIISCOUNTS AVAILABLE FIRST
typos1
Not a single one of these
Not a single one of these schemes have anything to do with the environment, its all marketing and of course the UK public are so very easily fooled by marketing. The right and proper thing to do is to retro fit emissions equipment to older cars and carry on using them until they reach the end of their life, not crush them, so the schemes that sell them on are the better ones.
XXXX just went POP.
russ13b
sales down, christmas coming
if the factories stop or slow down too much it costs a fortune, how can we keep them busy? has anything been happening that we could play on? is basically my take on it. the manufacturers should sort out the figures for the production of cars; people can't say they're doing something to improve the environment when they don't know the full story
Ienjoysquid
Using carwow I have canvassed
Firstly I get the Carwow price, then I ask about scrappage.
Not one dealer will offer a scrappage deal in addition to their own price. The Hyundai dealers aren't interested at all and one even told me I would be worse off using the scrappage discount, as I wouldn't get Hyundai's deposit contribution.
Sadly, it just appears to be marketing spin, rather than any manufacturer subsidy.
You can get quite good discounts at the moment for sure, but I don't think you need an old banger to trade in.
misterspam
That's strange. I was looking
405line
ICE is nearly over
The UK government has already started the scrappage scheme and it's set to end in 2040. No-one in their right mind should be buying a new car in any case.
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