Cars: The Scrappage Deal

Cars: The Real Purchase Price

The conditions for a successful application suggest that the scrappage of a vehicle is just another name for a trade-in. The vehicle must have both current (renewable) road tax (and NOT SORNed) and an unexpired MOT certificate. These two requirements indicate that the vehicle is classified as roadworthy. It must also have insurance cover (legally delivered by road to the dealer and collection by the dealership is allowed). The dealer organises everything removing any possibility of any scrutiny by the seller afterwards. The seller receives £1000 from the dealership and £1000 from the government against the purchase cost of a new car. It's likely that the dealer then applies to the government to get back the £1000. It doesn't concern the buyer of the new car how the finance is arranged. The only cost to government (taxpayer underwritten) is reduction in taxes raised from the sale of the new vehicle. It's just another cynical method of the taxpayer bailing out the car manufacturer and then buying a vehicle with his own already taxed money.

The 'scrappage' of a vehicle could be interpreted as complete removal from the system and never ending up on the roads again. But this doesn't indicate destruction by crushing. The car almost certainly will end up on a road somewhere: the 'scrapped' = 'traded' car (for £2000) would be sold on into the used vehicle business. This removes the requirement for a private seller of the 'old' vehicle to organise its sale before buying new.

• This is similar in principle to the insurance write-off. From the insurers' point of view the repair cost being more than 50% of the car trade-in value, it doesn't make economical sense to effect repairs. It will not necessarily be destroyed by crushing (that should depend on the extent of the damage), but may be sold onto a business at a price that does make it economical to repair and then resell.

This could, in theory, be revealed during the car checks made on a second-hand vehicle before purchase, but that will depend on whether the 'written-off' status has been declared. Only the legal ownership tracking and any outstanding finance or pending prosecutions would be returned. After all, the 'written-off' status is only a commercial decision to declare the vehicle a 'write-off' and doesn't mean that a vehicle is absolutely unroadworthy or that such a declaration must be made. The full vehicle service history is critical to ascertain reliable tracking from new and any break in the history could be that window through which a technical write-off reappeared on a used-car forecourt. If a vehicle does not have a full history then caution should be exercised.

This is no guarantee of a
vehicle's true history

The absolute continuity of history could never be known for an unknown vehicle. The more cars that appear in the used-car trade, and many are bought at auction, the possibility of buying a suspect vehicle increases.

The potential hazards are extensive especially

when a cheap car is the buyer's target