Sad reading

[Phil P]

We had a guy who used to call into our unit with cars he had collected under the scrappage scheme from the dealers in the area. There was a mint BMW 325 convertible we saw one day. It was MINT. The underneath looked as though it had never been out in the wet it was so good. He told us that this was typical of the BM's he collects and crushes!

Most dealers gave a grand for the car under the scheme but had stuck £1500 on to start with by offering 'extras' that cost them less than £100.

A barmy scheme. There was a photograph on you tube a few years ago of thousands of cars on a disused airfield that had gone through the 'scrappage scheme'.

[Hancockshire]

I've seen it & I nearly cried at it, people sending serviceable classics to be scrapped for modern cars

[Grumpy Northener]

I fully appreciate that we all have different views / opinions on this subject - some of the magazines have done a little closer analysis on the figures and it transpires that some 1426 classics were scrapped has part of the scheme - I also fully appreciate that a number of the scrapped classics went on to provide spares that retained other classics on the road whilst for other classics under the scheme it was a blessing in disguise that were taken off the road - equally so there were also a good number of classics that were roadworthy / restorable that the owners had fallen out of love with and it was just too much trouble / too tempting to trade the classic in against some imported new tin box on wheels. Point is over the years - how many times have we kicked ourselves over the cars that we passed up when given the chance to buy it / restore it ? In the case of the scrappage scheme their was not even the opportunity to purchase the vehicles, hence many classics went to a early grave - Now tell me that you can stand and witness without protest the scrapyard grab crash into a good salvageable classic car and throw it into the crusher / fragmenter - now imagine standing and witnessing it happening to 250 saveable classics

[mr rusty]

It's simple, basic, economics- supply and demand. Houses are very expensive at the moment because there's not enough to go around. Classic cars on the other hand.....it's a minority interest. The reason you don't see old cars on the road every day is that most people just aren't interested, they don't want one. There are always going to be more old cars than people who want them. That, coupled with the often highly unrealistic amounts of money people seem to think their pile of rusty old bits is worth, is always going to see most old cars off to the scrapper.

THe future supply of old cars is a different matter- given that newish cars are very cheap and very good now, there's little interest in keeping older ones going. I can see a time coming when there are no old cars other than the ones that exist now. The reality is that if I put my Vitesse up for sale, there wouldn't be that many people who want a Vitesse, it's a tiny market. Although we love 'em, the great British motoring population just aren't interested. That's why old cars will always be swept up in these schemes.

[Mitsuru]

Well production lines mass producing cars in far flung countries then shipping them around
the world could also be a thing of the past! Anybody upto 3d printing a whole car

[JPB]

Careful there, Aron, posting pictures of Smarts on here is - in my limited experience of such things - frowned upon. It's frightfully infra-dig, don't you know? Throw another of these common folk on the fire would you, dearest..

[Phil P]

That has to be as aerodynamic as a skip!

Smart cars? Ugh! The price of them is enough to make you smart. If BL had made a like the Smart nobody would have bought it but because that sawn of little runt of a thing is German and ridiculously expensive it is bought by the type of people who spend every Sunday in Ikea and are members of Green Peace! My blood boils when I go to France and see how patriotic they are about owning cars made in France. We thought it was clever to buy foreign cars and not support the British motor industry. Governments turned their backs on the motor industry when it was crying out for investment and loans. Prat's in red braces were busy screwing the country so they could own a Porsche. Wah!

I worked in a factory that in the late 60's and 70's was constantly being extended and new equipment being bought to improve production. It never made a loss. I drove past it yesterday and the only thing left is the fence at the front. The rest is acres of rubble. I sat and looked at the site and wanted to cry. 2000 folks gone. All the equipment? China and Poland! The company was bought by German investors and the production moved.

I think I went off on one then.

[JPB]

Yeah, erm.. They're French. Built in Hambach, aka Smartville, but why let facts get in the way of a good dig eh. Oh, and they're cheap and the 799cc OM660 is possibly one of the best small Diesel engines ever. Especially if fitted into a kitten (where the fuel tank used to be) and where it has 230 fewer Kgs to haul along.
[My Smart] went back after only two years and under 40,000 miles and rather than replace the driver's seat under warranty they "recycled" the poor thing which, with that seat replaced and the suspension bushes and clutch servo swapped under the terms of the relevant soft recall, would still have been with me now, still burning its way through expensive rear tyres at 17k per pair** and still having a larger turning circle than the current Glof, in spite of the Smart only being 8 feet long, some three and a half feet shorter than the actual German car, many manual versions of which are built in Mexico, China and Argentina which is apparently a real country and not just something made up by Jimmy Nail and Madonna "I caught some small boys sniffing my Vela Discolite" Ciccone.

**- These clever French engineers decided that it was a better idea to use rubber from the rear tyre treads to trigger the regen cycle in the DPF, I'd sooner they'd gone with using Diesel like every bugger else does but hey, the smell made the tree huggers choke and that shut them up, so not all bad.

[tractorman]

Sorry, but it really gets my goat when people "cry" for British industry an the decline of British car manufacturing. I suspect that many, like me, got sick of the attitude of certain British manufacturers and the poor quality of some of the British-made cars. I had bought British from 1970 - 1990 (as had most of my family). I think I was the first to buy a non-British car after having problems with a five year old British one (and my late mother's brand new British one). The attitude of the British manufacturer really pi$$ed me off: apparently, a five year old car is OLD and a new one's problems had nothing to do with the manufacturer. The attitude of the main agent was similar - and very patronising (and their service department wasn't exactly great either)

Compare that to the letter I got from VW in 1993/4, which suggested that my then 8/9 year old Golf needed a modification on recall. Not that VW seem to be so customer-oriented these days (which is why I probably won't buy VW again). TBH, I find the local VW agent (and the past ones) are as arrogant as the British cars' main agent - so don't go there and ask an indy VW place to buy bits from there for me if I can't get them elsewhere!

Might I ask where your food comes from? Is it all from the UK? Did you buy a British telly (or other electrical stuff)? Did you buy British saucepans?

Or did you buy the cheaper foreign stuff and then wonder why so many bought foreign cars?

I have a neighbour who is a service manager for a Jaguar agency. His own car is a 2002 Peugeot.

[TerryG]

In the words of Michael Winner "calm down dear".