Today,

I fitted a fresh leather interior into my car...it came from a silver 20v na - T reg with 40,000 miles on the clock, FSH, with a new MOT issued yesterday and in super condition - there was absolutely nothing wrong with the car...

Some of you may have seen it on Rusper Alfa's forecourt where it has sat for the last year - the owner wanted £2400 - I'd offered £2000 cash in December but been declined...in the end I bought my 16v.

Unfortunately the owner has signed a scrappage deal against a new Mazda 3. So that's it - the car is history for absolutely no reason...it's criminal.

I'm just glad I was allowed to pick the interior plus any other bits I wanted to swap with my car..at least it didn't all go to the crusher!

I'm absolutely gutted not to have been able to save this car!

Jon

I thought the scrappage deal was now finished?

Which ever way, a sad ending to a fiat coupe

Sadley they have extended it to the end of the month!

Indeed this is almost criminal. Other good cars have gone this way, their only crime is being old. I've read various slants on the scheme, & although there have been some happy stories, it also has been false economics, what ever the way you want to look at it, this scheme, although a new car is the carrot, well! not the answer in some cases as said...

Certain cars should have been exempt.

I wonder what would happen if you went with a Ferrari 355 looking for a new car.

I'd give them 3k before they scrapped a 355 and take it of their hands

And who has benefitted from this scheme? Korean car manufacturers, that's who.

Brilliant.

Quite a few folks on here have used the scheme to buy ITALIAN cars. We got rid of an old Seat TDi that had done many many miles and was on its last legs, and bought a Grande Punto.

This disgust in seeing the Coupé scrapped under this scheme is all a bit misplaced.

In the UK the Coupe is worth nothing and for quite some time there have been owners who have scrimped on looking after them, this has often led to them reaching an early grave. I suspect that far more Coupés have been broken by members of this very forum, because they were worth more that way, than have been scrapped under the scrapage scheme.

Bob

European car sales in the UK were still down 6% in 2009. I've not personally got a problem with owners of whatever cars taking advantage of this scheme. What I do have a problem with is UK taxpayers' money being used to line overseas manufacturer pockets.

OK it's kept a few dealerships afloat (for now) but I could think of better ways to spend a few hundred million pounds of our money.

I'd agree if there was anything wrong with this particular car...but it was in super condition ...I had the opportunity to look beneath the skin as i removed the parts for my car...there was absolutely no good reason for destroying this car...other than financial inducement from the government

I'd offered the same as the official scrappage scheme for the car...unfortunately many overseas car firms are doubling this discount...which is what I understand happened in this case. I don't blame the owner...but the system should have more controls - i.e. cars that are end of life - no issue....cars that are in excellent condition or speciality/collectable....maybe common sense should prevail.

These schemes were run in most European countires. If the UK had not offered a scheme you can just imagine how many people would have been moaning about that!

The money that left the UK to pay the manufacturer is actually £1000 less than normal, they paid half of the Total £2000 discount.

Each sale still gave the treasury VAT and Car sales tax returns, so in effect much of the money paid out to run the scheme was clawed back through Tax income.

Without the scheme car sales would have been much lower, tax income would have been less, more dealers would have probably had to close, less money would have been flowing through the economy, and there would have been less work for the ports and transporters who ship and move the cars.

Indeed which is why I'd love to see someone walk in with an old supercar and see what would happen.

There was a story that the American scheme had pulled in a couple of late seventies/early eighties Ferraris..a 308 GT4 and an old 400...mind you when I was looking at buying these models, the few I looked at were shocking and were more than ready for scrapping.

It's not the status of the vehicle - Porsche/Ferrari/Fiat/Vauxhall....that doesn't matter - that is also dependent on rarity and collectability, I wouldn't want to see the last of any model destroyed! - and I understand the economics of the scheme.....it's the blatant destruction of perfectly sound vehicles based on age, not condition that is really frustrating.

It's also the precedent being set....Europe are already making noises about a maxium vehicle age...i.e. euthanasia for cars = no more classics! Now that is scary

Spot on!

All this financial tax inducement has done has delayed the inevitable (until after the election). All the people that would have changed their 10+yo cars for new over the next 2 or 3 years have done so already. Car sales will drop again, dealerships will close, and those who will be made redundant in the whole distribution chain will have even less chance of finding another job.

It was an artificial propping up of one of many distressed markets for temporary political gain. A finger in the dyke. Same for the FTB stamp duty holiday that is also now ending.

Like so many things, volume car manufacturing has been living on borrowed time chasing nothing but market share and change needs to happen as the world finally realises that it can't revolve on a 9% credit card.

On the (retail) upside, the used car market will continue to firm as stocks rapidly reduce. Of course, we get very little vat inflow from that.

So the fellow who owned this Coupé should have been forced to keep his car, just because some people consider them collectable?

I agree that it is a shame to see a good car destroyed, especially a Coupe. That said there is currently at least one person selling a car on here, right now, who has said that if he does not get what he wants, then the car will be broken for spares and scrapped. This is not a government initiative that could see this fine car destroyed, it's a Coupe owner! This forum is supposed to be the home of people who LOVE the car, but we regularly see good cars broken by these, so called, enthusiasts!!!

A former colleague of mine participates in banger racing. Over the years he has got his hands on many classic and collectable vehicles. Most of them could have been saved or used as donours. He would get people from owners clubs calling him all sorts of names just because, in their words, he was going to destroy these fantastic classic cars. He would often say to these folks that he had another example back at the yard and if they wanted to save it or buy parts off him they could. In over 20 years not one person ever took him up on his offers.

No not forced to keep the car..but certainly common sense should prevail and a perfectly sound, usable car with many years/miles active service left in it should be exempt from the culling process....

Of course, the owner has the right to sell the car to who he likes...but if the car was excluded from destruction, he would then have to sell it as a working vehicle at market rate..that's how things normally work.

Just seems sensless to destroy something that is perfectly roadworthy and put all that additional energy into producing a brand new vehicle....

Guilty for not reading all the posts,but was not the scheme supposed to be "green".
So how can a newly produced car be greener than producing an older car ,then scraping it?.
(please note drinking may have distorted my view)

Don't know what you're drinking magooagain...looks like truth serum to me

A lot of people with the cash to maintain an older car have also the cash to buy a new one, the effect of the scrapage deal is to remove a lot of roadworthy cars from the streets leaving dregs behind. Its not just coupés that have gone.

I think that the thing here is that most of us are emotional about the coupe, it's not 'just another car' and regardless of the politics (I can't see how it's green to scrap good cars and make loads of pollution building new ones) it's heartbreaking to hear about.
I must say however I would actually enjoy watching something as unimaginative and heartless as a MK1 Mondeo get crushed

This is exactly my point, in my post Mr M, false economics. Lots said about the scheme, OK obviously you cant force anyone to keep an old car, but some really good low mile machines in very good condition have gone for ever. Off topic but its like that bloody wind turbines, false economics again. OK first thing in the morning, rant over.

PS. Personally in my view, seeing cars going to the great scrap heap in the sky, is not a thing I relish, they did a job once & some one liked them, good,bad or ugly, they made a difference to some one.

I say again.

Enthusiasts, on this site, have broken, and scrapped, FAR more perfectly good Coupés than any scrapage scheme has. People need to stop being so sentimental. If it makes economic sense for someone to break a perfectly good car for parts, then it should also be accepted that some people, who get a good deal, will allow a good car to go to the crusher. What is the difference?

And now to counter some of the scrapage scheme myths.

THE GREEN argument.

The car scrapage scheme isn't a total GREEN solution / initiative. That said the cars sold will generally produce less CO2, in use, than the cars they replace. This does not take into account the manufacturing process. However as that is, nowadays, mostly outside the UK it does not really effect, or count towards, the UK CO2 targets.
CO2 is a global problem but individual nations have their own pre-set targets to meet. With the UK getting shot of OLD cars and replacing them with vehicles made outside the UK it does actually have a positive CO2 benefit to the UK!!!

The cost to the UK tax payer.

Our receipt clearly shows that the Government made back well over the £1000 awarded by the scheme in tax and VAT charges. The UK tax payer has actually made money, in tax revenue, on our sale. Without this scheme we would never have bought a NEW car.

So the UK scrap scheme has provided a UK green benefit and has to some extent been near self funding... what a complete farce

Yes, so many Coops have bit the dust, scrappage, broken up or what not, yes I have no sentiment about that . A car is just a car. I've been a petrol head as far back as I can remember, but its the way that the government have tried to sell this scheme to the public yeah, yeah, it's all been said before..

Ach, at the end of day, as usual, we motorists pick up the bill & help to prop up & fund non car schemes & more........ I'm going to stop now, think its time for another coffee.....

So what if was the situation was different? Lets say you had a 1999, low mileage Focus you wanted to get rid of and replace with a new car. There's a scappage scheme available but you can't take advantage of it, somebody has decided beacuse of it's mileage or condition, the focus isn't legible. You've just lost out on several thousand pounds through no fault of your own, who's going to compensate you for that?

No-one, so what happens? Cars will get hit with hammers, keyed, scratched and clocked. Same end result.

Also, where's the line drawn? 10000, 20000, 30000 miles? As for condition and models/types of car not to be scrapped - I'm sure there's enough owners clubs out there to argue that just about every type of car should be excluded and condition is too subjective to place as a limiting factor. Lets face it, out side of this forum, there's not many people who'd honestly give up big sums of money to save a Coupe, even if they are a car fanatic.



Old supercars which would qualify for the scrappage scheme (tax, tested and insured) are most likely worth more than the allowance so it wouldn't happen.

And therein the issue. The car is worth - to the owner - two grand if it's chopped in under the scheme. Sold otherwise, even as a part-exchange, it might go from anywhere between five hundred and three or four grand. If the owner is doesn't think it's likely to beat two grand selling it otherwise, and/or doesn't want the hassle... it's a no brainer. It's only a car. Even if part-exed, it's not going to stay on a forecourt at anywhere other than one of a very few specialists - it's going to be at British Motor Auctions by Wednesday.

The fact that *we* like them is all very well, but I don't see calls - or more to the point, contributions - to a fund to buy up rusty old fiats. And that's what everyone else sees them as.

Much as I don't like to see a car on its way to the scrapper, that's as much simply from engineering efficiency; I don't see the point of throwing anything away if it still does its job and the job required of it hasn't changed. It might be a shame that a car I happen to like has been scrapped, but I have neither deep pockets nor an infinitely long drive.

I think its a sad end to any roadworthy car and there have been some real gems going to the crusher in the sake of boosting the profits of a few finance institutions and overseas car builders whilst disguising it as a green idea. Ford even artificially jacked up the prices of its cars here in the UK prior to the scheme, so it could be seen to be offering a good discount to scrappage customers. Cars have a life cycle, and are quite capable of coming to a natural end either through uneconomic repairs when a major componant fails and costs more than the car is worth, or the vehicle is involved in an accident and written off. Other vehicles are lucky and get preserved by caring owners and live on, helped by parts from the ones that don't make it. That is one of the worst things about Scrappage, few cars that have been scrapped have been used to donate parts to other vehicles - they've simply been ripped apart and chucked in a skip.

I did see a Ford Escort XR3i that had 30k on the clock, the dealer had intervened in the deal and ensured that the Escort was not scrapped.

Yes there are keyboard heroes who believe every car should be kept on the road, but never want to put their money in their pockets to save one. I've raced and also know banger racers who race old cars, but most of them need major restoration to save. The banger boys I've known always break off the decent bits and sell them on, racing the leftover bits before weighing them in. At the same time there are plenty of cases going to the scrapyards because their lives are over and nobody wants them. To me, junking a roadworthy car is as wasteful as cooking a 10 course dinner every night, but never eating it. We are encouraged not to waste food, but we can drive a perfectly roadworthy vehicle into a junk yard and crush it? No matter how horrible a car maybe (the post above quoting a Mk1 Mondeo) it is still transport and should be allowed a natural life cycle which in the case of most Mk1 Mondeos, is ended on a 1/4 mile oval in a banger race when its failed an MOT.

It isn't a green scheme, producing a car from scratch takes a lot of materials and energy, and any fuel effiency in a new car would have to do a lot of miles before it was greener than a car which has been running for years and continues to run fine and be in good condition. This move hasn't got the unsafe illegal cars off our roads either, because the sort of people who run cars without MOT's and insurance are not likely to be signing up to a finance deal!

Dealers already make more profit from charging extremely high service charges for work, and flogging finance to customers to sell cars, rather than on the retail price of the cars. Increasingly small dealers have given up as the big chains like Hartwells etc have snapped up franchises for every possible brand. We've hardly secured the jobs in car plants, as we live under the constant threat of production being moved abroad somewhere. If demand tails off, is it right to artificially stimulate demand and encourage more careless credit borrowing than the nation needs. Our material demand and ability to pay for it is unrealistic without credit, credit has been dolled out too easily and that created the recession.

We would not bail out other industry like this, the answer being tough luck because you didn't adapt to the market conditions.

I agree with a lot of your points Hammy.
If something seems to fail the test of common sense it probably does.
Through giving away tax take on new cars the Govt. will need to recoup it elsewhere i.e. from the taxpayer.
Throwing away perfectly good cars is ludicrous and is denting the collective wealth of the UK no matter what trivial argument anybody cares to throw up.
I'm sure we'll see post-May what the true benefit of scrappage has been.

A Fiat Coupe Scrapped For A MAZDA 3???



It looks like a hippo

That isnt fair on hippos mate