tinyurl.com/ygebd9t
Thought this would have already been picked up today but investigations have shown manufacturers have increased prices dramatically over last year which, in many cases, negates the benefit of the scrappage deals.
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Down to the weak pound, is it not?
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Yes, I'm pretty sure that it is due to the weakness of the pound.
Compared to 3 years ago, the pound is down about 25% against the Euro and the US Dollar, and 40% against the Yen. If prices of cars hadn't gone up sharply, there would be something strange.
If cars had risen in price compared to other countries, we'd be seeing a lot of businesses springing up enabling buyers to import cars from the continent, as was the situation a decade ago.
The fact that the story is attributed to "What Car? investigators" would tend to heighten my scepticism about it.
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Its a bit of both :). I suspect car manufacturers will now slowly reduce the cost of a car by £1000 but the VAT increase dosn't help either. I would expect cars to be about £800 cheaper after March.
The problem is many companies are just reducing production as they don't seem to store stock piles of cars anymore. FIAT certainly seem to only be making to order at the moment.
Last edited by: RattleandSmoke on Tue 2 Mar 10 at 22:56
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When I ordered my car recently the manufacturer only had 23 cars in stock in the colour and spec that I wanted. These were popular coulours and spec cars, I would expect there were a few in the dealers stock as well. Not exactly a disused airfield full.
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An awful lot of 'happy scrappers' would probably have been better off selling their MOTed 'scrapper' privately for, say, £1,000 or so and then negotiating at least £1,000 off the price of their new purchase.
Last edited by: Boxsterboy on Thu 4 Mar 10 at 15:16
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>> An awful lot of 'happy scrappers' would probably have been better off selling their MOTed
>> 'scrapper' privately for say £1 000 or so and then negotiating at least £1 000
>> off the price of their new purchase.
Sorry B - how is that better than just getting an immediate £2000 off, given the extra effort involved?
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It would have left around 300,000 cars in the system for people who either do not have the means or inclination to commit large amounts of cash or credit to a fast depreciating asset.
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>> It would have left around 300 000 cars in the system for people who either
>> do not have the means or inclination to commit large amounts of cash or credit
>> to a fast depreciating asset.
Ah, I'm with you now. Thanks.
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I've been looking at some of the car manufacturers websites and playing with their car configurators. I've been astonished at the prices for cars, if you start adding toys like leather and automatic gearboxes. 24-26k for an Astra or a Focus or a Golf!
I know they are good cars and all that, but soon the private buyer won't have any option but to buy second-hand. (Which was always a smart move anyway, but, you know......)
LDO
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>> Sorry B - how is that better than just getting an immediate £2000 off given
>> the extra effort involved?
>>
My point was they could easily get more than £2,000 selling their car plus discount off the new one. Yes, a bit more hassle.
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biggest losers are people that need a s/h car for wife daughter son, the scrappage means that a car worth £1500 a year ago is now retailing for £2000, unfortunately this is reflected in trade prices so its the cars left in the sub £3000 bracket (sensible ones wanted by the lorry driver and his wife) owned by people that are the only winners
example rattles car bought a year ago he paid £1200 i could easily retail that for £1495 now
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>> My point was they could easily get more than £2 000 selling their car plus
>> discount off the new one. Yes a bit more hassle.
Yes, sorry - I was being a bit dense.
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Some car manufacturers put up prices on two or three occasions during the early stages of the scrappage scheme.
By the way, the government still makes an overall profit on the scheme despite its contribution...:-)
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Car makers - huge price increases due to scrappage - Westpig
