Scrappage 

Following on from it’s success in Germany, the Chancellor has introduced a new car scrapping incentive to give the UK’s motor industry the boost it needs. In the scheme, motorists buying new cars will get a £2,000 discount if they trade in for cars over 10 years old to be scrapped.

The government has set aside £300m to pay for the scheme which is half the total contribution, and manufacturers will contribute the rest. They are hoping that over 300,000 will benefit from the incentive.

The scheme will end when the £300m set aside runs out - which is 300,000 vehicles scrapped - or the end of February 2010 depending on whichever happens first.

To benefit from the scheme, a buyer must have been the registered keeper of the car that is due to be scrapped for at least 12 whole calendar months and will have to be the first registered owner of the new purchase. Only cars registered before the 31st July 1999 will qualify for the scheme.

Since the Budget has been released, autotrader.co.uk saw 113% increase in Unique Users to our new cars homepage from the Tuesday to the Thursday reinforcing that when consumers heard they could buy a new car for less, they came to Auto Trader to look for it.  We also saw an increase of 74% in the number of new car searches. However, these users weren’t only browsing, we saw a 128% CTR increase to dealer websites, showing these users really are thinking about buying new cars.

Jason Biffin, E Commerce Director at Auto Trader commented ‘With the similar scheme in Germany having had a staggering effect, driving a 40% monthly rise in car sales, the scrappage incentive has the potential benefit of boosting consumer confidence and delivering significant environmental improvements at the same time. This has been reinforced through autotrader.co.uk’s enlightening activity figures which help to identify the positive effect that this is already having on the UK motorists in such a short period of time’.