Scrappage Update
Tuesday, 5. January 2010
Whilst fleet sales were down last year retail sales were up as a result of the scrappage scheme and dealers that expected to make losses ended up making profits. This was the result of what could only be described as a total con trick. Retail buyers were convinced that giving up their old car to benefit from a £2,000 bonus from the Government and manufacturers was a good idea but stories were exchanged throughout the industry describing manufacturer price rises well in excess of the £1,000 that they were giving off certain cars making the scrappage scheme free to the manufacturers and some people ignoring the scrappage scheme and receiving well over the £2,000 discount off a new car as well as receiving something for their old car in part exchange, making the scrappage scheme look ridiculous. Sadly some excellent cars were scrapped, worth well over £2,000, because salesmen were simply interested in putting people into new cars with no regard as to the true value of the old car and careful owners were under the misunderstanding that all cars over 10 years old must be worth less than £2,000. The net result was total new car sales in 2009 of just under 2 million when some projections at the beginning of the year were as low as 1.6 million. I hope that the pendulum swings back the other way and we start to receive money into new cars for those that lease, provided of course that the lessors find more money to lend. By Graham Hill
