The long predicted car scrappage scheme was announced in Mr Darling’s Budget today.
If motorists, including women drivers, are to be encouraged to trade in their 10 year old car for £2k – it’s too early to know all the details yet as they don’t seem to have been announced – surely that’ll mean fewer older cars for the independents to MOT, service and repair?
I suspect that this is how it is because the car manufacturers have a louder voice than the less-well connected independent garage lobby. Who has been lobbying for them during this I wonder?
By exchanging old for new, these new cars are more likely to stay with the franchised dealer for its early servicing work whereas the older cars would have been looked after by the independents. Yet many independent garages are members of the same trade association as the franchised dealers so they might have expected a more balanced scorecard in the media.
Unless of course there is a business opportunity in the wings for the independents out of recycling the old cars? Well someone needs to do it and there will be a lot of money to be earned if it is done properly.
Finally on this subject, I hope that the word scrappage gets buried as soon as possible – it is surely the ugliest word in the British language although at least its meaning is clearer than Block Exemption. Where does this industry find its jargon I wonder!!
To me, scrappage signifies a thing of no value; one that should be thrown away whereas many 10 year old vehicles owned by members of FOXY Lady Drivers Club are cherished family cars.
And whilst I remain unconvinced about the environmental case of all this I desperately want it to succeed for our industry, especially where jobs are in the balance.
So I hope the detail has it all tied up so everyone wins (apart from the taxpayer footing most of the bill that is…)
FOXY Steph
“All generalisations are dangerous, even this one.”
Alexandre Dumas
