Scrappage – you still need to hunt down the best deal

Although we have tried to be as balanced as possible with regard to the scrappage scheme and offered the views of many people who have had experience of the process so far. It is, according to many dealers and customers, a worthwhile way of stimulating the market. Dealers, for instance, are telling us that in the main the customers who are buying are happy to accept just the £2,000 incentive from government and manufacturers and therefore the cars they are selling are far more profitable than they wouldusually be, as they don’t have to go through a lengthy haggling process in order to close a sale. On the other hand buyers who are benefitting from this are of the group predicted, i.e. people who have bought cars for members of the family which have a qualifying car and can win by getting a new car and ridding the family of an old banger which may often cost more to run and maintain than it’s worth.

There are still those, however, that say some of the finance deals are not as good as one’s on cars that aren’t on scrappage, which kind of makes sense when you consider that the best rates of interest are often on new cars which manufacturers will subsidise in order to sell more units and not necessarily the already popular models which are selling well anyway. But if they are already giving £1,000 and the government another £1,000 they will probably not want or need to give everything away with regard to scrappage cars.

As we have always said compare each deal on the market which is relevant to your own circumstances because that is the only way you can attempt to get a deal and a car which is right for you. I mean if you have a budget of £200 per month and the interest rate is 5% then it doesn’t really matter to you if a you can get a monthly payment of £300 per month at 3% because you cannot afford more than your budget and nor should you.

Pay what suits and get a deal which you are happy with.