Scrappage – is time running out?

As an exercise in supporting a fragile market, the UK scrappage scheme is proving to be a fascinating exercise.

Customers buying a brand new car can obtain a £2000 allowance for their old car if it is over 10 years old and meets certain conditions. £1000 of this is funded by the government, the remainder by a combination of the manufacturer and dealer. Predictably, customers have been attracted to this in large numbers. Since 18th May, 134,400 new cars have been registered on the scrappage scheme. There will be plenty more orders in the system, waiting for cars to come through and be registered.

The scrappage scheme is capped at 300,000 cars, and it now becoming clear that this limit will be reached long before the planned expiry date of February 2010. Despite calls for the scheme to be extended, the government are insisting that when the 300,000th car is registered, the scheme will shut down.

It is for this reason that any customer considering whether to take advantage of the scrappage scheme needs to come to a decision quite quickly.

As for Poole Audi, we have been pleasantly surprised by the number of orders placed using the scrappage scheme. We have delivered 9 cars so far, and have another 10 on order and likely to be delivered on the new “59” registration plate which kicks in next month.

Predictably, our orders are mostly for the Audi A3 and A3 Sportback models. Bear in mind that you can buy a brand new Audi A3 for £15,265 even without scrappage support. Using the Audi scrappage deal, that same car could be sold for £13,265 – for a brand new Audi! However, the scheme applies across the entire Audi range, and we have sold A3 Cabriolet, A4 Cabriolet and even A5 3.0 TDI quattro models using scrappage support.

Still, this will not last long. Our guess is that our industry is now about two thirds of the way through the allocated support. There is still time to take advantage of this scheme, but do not delay – talk to our sales team now on 01202 775050.