Scrappage Scheme Extended In Daft Move

Sunday, 27. September 2009

Bad news! The dopey Chancellor has listened to all the anecdotal evidence and decided that the scrappage scheme should be extended, which has already helped nearly 300,000 people with old bangers to get into new cars, but done nothing to help ordinary people and small businesses that are struggling to finance their new car as the funders are running out of money. Whilst manufacturers continue to make the £1,000 contribution per car under the scrappage scheme terms there is little money left in the kitty for anything else. I was hoping that the scrappage scheme would come to an end and we would return to business as usual with manufacturers turning their attention to moving lease cars and pushing extra bonuses into cars that we can all benefit from not just those that like to poodle around in old bangers. They would have produced much better results if this government had put cash into the vehicle finance pot as Mandelson had promised to do. Instead we now hear that Lombard, one of the oldest supporters of brokers, and a big supplier of personal leasing to consumers, has pulled out of both markets with some suggesting that the main reason was a shortage of funds to lend. They will now deal with clients directly, mainly those introduced via their banking parent. But everyone knows that you should spread your risk in these troubled times, so if you are an RBS customer you would be daft to take out an agreement with Lombard as when you seek to renew or extend your overdraft, with the bank, they will consider the exposure of the group. Not in my opinion a wise move on the part of RBS but a necessary one if they were declining more broker introduced deals than accepting them because of funding. Fingers crossed that some manufacturers at least come back to the party with some extra bonuses for the last quarter. By Graham Hill