30/09/2009
Reactions To Scrappage Extension
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The UK motor industry resounded with comments and opinions when the scrappage scheme was first announced earlier this year, and there has been a similar, if smaller, reaction to the news that the Government has extended its commitment by £100 million Kia, Nissan and Volvo have all issued statements welcoming the extension of the scheme. In each case the reaction can be summed up in the single word "hurrah!", though Nissan has taken the opportunity to remind us that it already has its own extension, whereby it will provide the full £2000 (without Government support) for cars as little as eight years old, as long as they are traded in for a UK-built Nissan, namely the Micra, Note or Qashqai. Paul Harrison, Head of Motor Finance at the Finance & Leasing Association, says that "the extension to the scrappage scheme will be widely welcomed in the motor industry. The Government is also in talks in Brussels on additional support for the motor finance sector. We need Lord Mandelson to get a good result there, so that demand for new cars can continue to be met in the future when the economy recovers." According to Paul Williams, the Chairman of the National Franchised Dealers Association, the extension is "a victory for common sense over dogma", and he adds that "with the scheme now being a revenue source, a great many jobs will now be safeguarded in both the retail and manufacturing sectors". News of the extension has created a difference of opinion among members of the environmental lobby. On one side, the Environmental Transport Association describes the Government's decision as "environmentally short-sighted". "This is little more than a panicked way of propping up the industry as, given time, those cashing in the grants would most likely have bought the new car anyway," says ETA Director Andrew Davis.
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