Have you all signed the 'Scrap The Scrappage' petition?

[The Main]

Guys,

 

You've probably read the papers today - Alistair Darling intends to announce the £2,000 subsidy to scrap a car over 9 years old in the budget on April 22nd.

 

The 'Scrap The Scrappage' petition which Classic Car Weekly are running will be submitted on Tuesday. So only a day left to sign it.

 

Please (if you agree with it, obviously) sign it and get your friends and family to do it as well. It only takes a minute.

 

Just go to www.great-cars.co.uk and then click on the 'scrap the scrappage' logo, before filling in your name, address, postcode and email address.

 

It really is that simple and you never know, if we shout loud enough we might just make the powers that be reconsider this madness.

[trigger]

Done!

[Richard]

Signed it now. It's almost certainly put the kibosh on my veg fuelled drift wagon so I'm pretty pissed off about it.

[Torsten2001]

'course! Government Cnuts!

[The Main]

Marvellous. I just think it's worth a try.If anyone is a member of any other forums/boards then please see if you can get those guys to sign it as well. And all their friends. It really only takes a minute.What a twunt Darling is.

[Josh_Cohen]

The Thing Is What If You Dont have a lot of money if i was going to get 2000 pounds for my 16 Year old zx td then i would want the equal to that how would 2000 pounds buy me a td car under 9 years old its a fucking joke sorry but it really pisses me off anyway i've signed the petition thanks for the heads up

[Minimad5]

Yup Signed

[trigger]

It is a piss take, The country's crippled with debt yet they are trying to brainwash poorer family's to trade in there 12 year old Mondeo's for £2000 so they can take out a loan for £10000 with 30% APR to buy a nearly new car that's will end up bankrupting them and having the bailiffs round to tow the car away and them with nothing.It's a joke.

[RedSparrow]

Done. But I sadly doubt it'll do any good.

[pompei]

When I was waiting to get my hair cut on Thursday, I was reading the Soaraway Sun which is also petitioning the govt to introduce this scheme. I walked down a street near to me this morning, and virtually every car parked up was 9 years or older. Makes yer think ...

[Justin Case]

Every year about 7% of the cars on the road (about 2 million or nearly as many as new cars sold) are scrapped in any case, so the passage of time is bringing about the environmental 'benefits' claimed and any scrappge scheme would only affect this figure by about 10%. This is only a cynical move by foreign car companies who couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery to get us the taxpayers to bail them out. If you are posting on any blogs, forums, etc, please help publicise this fact, as it doesn't seem to have been raised anywhere. Thanks

[Station]

Signed - even though the govt don't consider petitions at all.

[Mr Lobster]

Signed. Really don't think it will make any difference whatsoever though.There was a bod on 5Live this morning saying that even though it looks likely to be introduced, it success will be very limited.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I've signed it! SCRAPPAGE SCHEME = BOLLOX

[bigstraight6]

Signed. Really don't think it will make any difference whatsoever though.There was a bod on 5Live this morning saying that even though it looks likely to be introduced, it success will be very limited.

It won't work, punters who buy new cars tend to do so on a fairly regular basis, because they can't bare the shame of having a vehicle over 5 years old parked on their drive and hence will not own the 'old sheds' that the scheme targets.Somehow I don't think dealers will suddenly be overwelmed with thronging masses driving old nails eager to take out a credit arrangement just to have a brand new vehicle......

[AnthonyG]

What a twunt Darling is.

According to the Saturday's Times he doesn't want it - its Mandy whos pushing, getting leaned on heavily by SMMT etc.

 

The fact that the Govt said it would help the car industry fucking months ago and has done nothing since means the pressure is on the Treasury and they are in the firing line.

 

Everybody is looking at the German experience now - sales up 40% apparently. Bizarrely it has also helped Polish sales, as you don't have to buy the car in Germany to get the subsidy!!!

 

It will definitely happen IMO, the car industry is on its knees, there will be a union sponsored march somewhere soon, probably London, according to the Times.

 

At the end of the day, if my job appeared to depend on it, I wouldn't give a shit about the fate of some old cars TBH .

 

P. S. Japan is offering a scrappage incentive on white goods (kitchen and laundry appliances)!

[Guest]

What frustrates me is that they keep saying "car industry", when what they actually mean is "car manufacturers" and "new car dealers". Other parts of the car industry will lose out - used car dealers, motor factors, breakers yards, independent garages and body shops, but hey sod all them yeah?The car companies should have seen that a recession was coming and reduced their output appropriately, that would have meant job losses but if there's too many cars and too many car companies, what is there to do? The market is satured - what other ailing businesses are we going to prop up? Dance schools? Juice bars? Pet shops? I can just see it now, a pet shop scrappage scheme - trade in your old rabbit and get a tenner off a new one, the other one gets made into dog food and everyone's happy.

[Justin Case]

I can just see it now, a pet shop scrappage scheme - trade in your old rabbit and get a tenner off a new one, the other one gets made into dog food and everyone's happy.

Our dog think that's a brilliant idea............. as long as it is kept to rabbits

[reallyloud]

Not sure what effect leaving my details on the website will have, but I have done it. As a footnote to the scrappage scheme, I'm beginning to see 'L' reg cavaliers being dumped on the side of the A303 and A34 again at long last. Things are finally getting back to normal.

[Mash]

I can just see it now, a pet shop scrappage scheme - trade in your old rabbit and get a tenner off a new one, the other one gets made into dog food and everyone's happy.

Ah but that would be open to abuse because you could just get one from the nearest field and trade that in as your own. Or would that be classed as a grey import or something and thus not eligible?You'd have to have a clause to say you'd owned and maintained the rabbit for at least a year and it had a valid FOM (Free Of Myxamatosis) certificate.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I was in Germany a few days back, and my mate over there says the scrapyards are brimming. Not so much 'prestige' iron because 2000 m/y BM's, Mercs etc are worth more than 2000 Euros anyway, but a shocking number of 1997/8 Golfs, Passats, French stuff* etc.As he sees it, the problem will be a first time driver trying to buy a cheap Polo/Golf etc because a) there won't be enough of them left to go round and the prices will shoot up. Suddenly, someone with a tidy 1992 Golf isn't going to take 1000 Euros for it.I say bollocks to car makers and their short sighted stupidity. Were they as stupid as the banks and think it was going to last forever? They need to be encouraged to set their manufacturing sights a lot lower and make up some of the lost revenue selling parts at motor factor prices.Funny how Labour allowed Ford to close Dagenham, Rover to go tits up completely and Peugeot to close Ryton, eh? Now that they're all squealing that they can't sell cars in the UK that little rodent Mandelson and the bunch of wankers who are the SMMT are up in arms.*Actually that's no great loss.

[Mr Lobster]

The stuff that will get scrapped is a lot of the more common stuff - Vectras, Astras, Mondeos stuff like that that nobody will really miss. The more prestigious stuff or anything that appeals to enthusiasts will probably survive in reasonable numbers.Even with a £2k scrap allowance, how many people will want to swap an older car for a shiny new one? Not that many I'd imagine. What might well happen is those people who buy a new car and then run it for years might end up scrapping it due to a very minor fault as they think either repair the existing car or partex it and get £2k for it.Its pointless, wasteful, encourages people to take on excessive debt and is only happening because the new car retail industry has lent on Mandelson enough who in turn appears to have the ability to force it through government. Wankers the lot of 'em.

[AnthonyG]

Suddenly, someone with a tidy 1992 Golf isn't going to take 1000 Euros for it..

But only if said owner of 1992 Golf is going to buy a new car soon - if he isn't then it's not worth 2000 Euros. All the Ebay 'mouthbreathers' (who coined this word?-it sums up so many pleb wankers!) who have old shitters with the phrase 'will be worth £2k when the scrappage scheme starts' in the ad don't realise that the incentive only works when the person taking advantage has owned the car for a continuous period (IIRC 6 months). People can't just buy something that say, has just come into a scrapyard with no reverse gear for £100, and then trailer/push it in into the dealer a week later for the incentive to be paid.Some minimum £1000 part-ex schemes from used dealers might work like that (because they just add £1000 to the car they sell, they don't care ) but not the scrappage scheme as proposed.

[FredTransit]

The stuff that will get scrapped is a lot of the more common stuff - Vectras, Astras, Mondeos stuff like that that nobody will really miss. The more prestigious stuff or anything that appeals to enthusiasts will probably survive in reasonable numbers.Even with a £2k scrap allowance, how many people will want to swap an older car for a shiny new one? Not that many I'd imagine. What might well happen is those people who buy a new car and then run it for years might end up scrapping it due to a very minor fault as they think either repair the existing car or partex it and get £2k for it.Its pointless, wasteful, encourages people to take on excessive debt and is only happening because the new car retail industry has lent on Mandelson enough who in turn appears to have the ability to force it through government. Wankers the lot of 'em.

Couldn't agree more, on all points. I am imagining the car shows of the next decade. The stir as a 1998 mondeo is driven in. People marvelling at how it escaped the scrappage massacre of end of the first decade of the 2000s.....

[Mr Lobster]

T'other thing with this is, the £2000 the government is dishing out is OUR money that they are handing out to people who one assumes are not exactly skint. So, if they can afford to do that, rather than spend my £2000 on a new car, I'd rather like to move house so if they would like to pay my legal fees that would be just great. And of course it would be helping the housing market and the home moving industry.Hows about it Nu Labia? Shall I wait for your cheque?No, thought not somehow.

[Guest]

Yeah actually, why does there need to be a car scrapped? Why can't the government just give me £2000 and say "sort a car out"?I'd come back with a load of Esperos and Mentors, it'd be ace.

[Milford Cubicle]

I'd like £2k towards recycling my old car and keeping it on the road.Co2 emissions is linked with fuel consumption isn't it? My car manages 50MPG quite easily, and usually running on very little fossil fuel...Get with the money Government! I'm saving the planet.

[FredTransit]

I would cheerfully spend 2 grand on lowering the emissions of my engines, would even go as far as putting microchips in em if it keeps them happy. Alternatively I could spend £50 on some new filters and service bits and have a new paint job on each one.....

[Lankytim]

Why not just knock 2 grand off the price of every new car?Im all for kickstarting the car industry but I cant agree with the huge numbers of servicable cars that will end up being crushed for no reason.

[Milford Cubicle]

On most new cars, aren't you liable to get a hefty discount anyway? Probably more than £2k on some