PowerSwitch

Full story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8258643.stm

What are peoples views on this? I personally think it sucks, probably for all the usual reasons people think it sucks.

Last year I sold a really servicable low milage and economic 1998 Citroen to a young lad for £350. Imagine finding out hes just got £2000 for it against a new motor. Nice. Me, bitter and twisted?

Mmmm.

maudibe wrote:What are peoples views on this?

It should be treated with the contempt it deserves.

On a positive note, I was talking to the owner of a tyre depot recently and he asked me, "What do you think is a better idea - keeping cars going as long as possible or scrapping older cars to replace them with modern, more efficient cars?"

I answered that I thought keeping old cars going as long as possible makes far more sense. "I think so too because of the energy required to make a car in the first place outweighs the energy running it."

This from an omnivorous BAU type! Blow me down with a feather.

The scheme has skewed the market. If it becomes permanent it will be a permanent subsidy of £1000 per car to the car manufacturers.

So many cars have been scrapped that second hand car prices have risen by up to 30%.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8251920.stm

However, presumably new cars still attract VAT. That must be at least £1000 for the vast majority of new cars.

If money is to be spent on subsidising manufacturing, then at least it should be on energy saving goods such as insulation, CHP plant, wind turbines, Pv modules and the like.
Improving inland waterways would encourage lower carbon transport, as would subsidies for cycles and for EVs.

The use of public money to encourage the purchase of an energy consuming article like a car seems daft.
Whilst some modern cars are more economical than old ones, some are worse, and some motorists no doubt used the subsidy to purchase a larger/heavier/thirstier model than would have otherwise been the case.

It's just Labour appeasing the Trade Unions by subsidising car manufacturing just as they have subsidised the banks. There are large and powerful unions involved in car manufacturing whereas most Renewable Energy kit is manufactured abroad or by small manufacturers in this country. Not many votes there.

I think it is one of the silliest schemes ever devised.

We happened to have an old car that died the day before the scheme was announced so we made use of it. The gain was, of course, not £2000 but about £1000. Nobody buys a car at the list price! Still, we were effectively given £1000 by the taxpayers of the UK. Thankyou.

One of the silliest schemes ever devised.

Imagine finding out hes just got £2000 for it against a new motor

He only got £2000 against a new motor, he didn't really get £2000 for it...

I rekon you got the best deal.

It's a good way to boost the British car industry that we don't have.

kenneal wrote:It's just Labour appeasing the Trade Unions by subsidising car manufacturing just as they have subsidised the banks. There are large and powerful unions involved in car manufacturing whereas most Renewable Energy kit is manufactured abroad or by small manufacturers in this country. Not many votes there.

Correct me if I'm wrong Ken, but I was given to believe that most of the new cars being purchased in the UK under the scrappage scheme were relatively low-cost cars manufactured in Korea or some such place.

My sister in law has got a shiny new Renault to go to Waitrose in

Yes, some great comments validating my thoughts exactly.

So next question:

I realise we have a lot of part suppliers etc here in the UK - ie: jobs tied up in the allied trades. But as mentioned, most of the cars are of foreign make. So why hasn't the electorate kicked up a fuss / had this pointed out to them? OK OK silly question ... more sillyness... should we really be supporting the importers? No? ... so when when does the penny drop for joe public? Is there no end to this crazyness?

Really not trying to get party politic here - to be honest I think all parties are the same fwiw.

Just asking for your collective grist...

maudibe wrote: ... so when when does the penny drop for joe public? Is there no end to this crazyness?

I think the answer is "never, unless a major crisis hits them personally".

Talking of things crazy, how does any of the maths add up?

Gross income tax receipts = £140.5 billion
Social security benefits (2013/14) = £193.4 billion
Total spending on NHS in England = £107 billion.
Paying interest debts = £63.4 billion
Ministry of Defence = £36.7 billion

Taken from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/fina ... llion.html

Looks a bit like the finances chez Renewable.

Aurora wrote:Correct me if I'm wrong Ken, but I was given to believe that most of the new cars being purchased in the UK under the scrappage scheme were relatively low-cost cars manufactured in Korea or some such place.

Honda has a huge car plant in Swindon; Nissan one in Tyneside; Vauxhall has two plants, Luton and Merseyside; Ford makes cars or bits of cars, in several locations in the UK. The companies might be foreign owned but they provide a huge income to their British workers.

Labour has always liked to be seen to be doing something even when they are not achieving anything. Just look at all their "environmental" schemes: they put in enough money to get a headline but just as the scheme starts to work funding dries up. Look at their "green" airline taxes: they tax just enough to get a significant revenue stream but not enough to harm the revenue stream, which rather defeats the object of a green tax.

Quintus wrote:It's a good way to boost the British car industry that we don't have.

Yes, we got a Citroen C1, because it's the lowest CO2 emmision 'real' car. French design manufactured in Czech Republic.