"The solution offered satisfies all our requirements, is Euro 4 compliant and remains well within our budget."
Felix Benito. MD C&D Wines

Government Scrappage Scheme

The government has very generously offered to pay £1,000 to vehicle dealers if they match it with another £1,000. The scheme should be easy enough to manage but as ever the devil is in the detail!

The vat element has been widely reported as an issue which has now been resolved and it’s all systems go!

Cars/vans that are just under 10 years old can still qualify for the subsidies. The rules state that vehicles must have been first registered in Britain on or before August 31, 1999, just under 10 years ago.

If you’d like to know more, here are the facts;

Vehicles to be scrapped need to be “over 10 years old”. The vehicles will not be treated as trade ins because the car/van will be scrapped and not resold.
If you placed an order for a vehicle before the 18th May it will not be eligible under the scheme. Best cancel that order and reorder again if you can.
Apart from being first registered on or before August 31, 1999, in order to qualify for the £2,000 (minimum) scrappage discount, vehicles must;

  • Be a car or van weighing up to 3,500kg,
  • Have current DVLA registration documents in the name of the customer proposing to buy the brand-new vehicle
  • Have been registered to that same customer “continuously” for at least 12 months before the order date of the new vehicle
  • Have a British address on the registration certificate
  • Possess a current MoT certificate before the date of order for the brand-new vehicle (although a 14-day period of grace is negotiable).

The brand new car or van must

  • Weigh under 3,500kg,
  • Have a first-registration date in Britain of May 18, 2009,
  • Be formally declared “new” at first registration in Britain and have no former keepers of any description
  • Be built to British specification only
  • Be “registered to the same registered keeper as the registered keeper of the eligible vehicle to be scrapped”.

There are some £300 million worth of “discounts” and the programme will continue until early next year. March 2010 says the government. Our concern is that is this scheme really takes off the £300 million pounds could go pretty quickly. With 30 million or so drivers in Britain only about 300,000 – or one per cent – of us will ever be able to qualify for the scheme before the Treasury subsidies run out.

Best act quickly! Some of our refrigeration suppliers are talking of increased orders and extended lead times on conversions. With the relationships we have with our suppliers we can, sometimes, pull a few strings and jump up the waiting list. Vehicle dealers are actually complaining of the increased business! Can’t please everyone I guess.