Vehicle scrappage schemes – latest news from PSA Group, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, Mazda and more
Another day and another new vehicle scrappage scheme. But which one offers the most for your old car?
The latest trend from vehicle manufacturers is the 'scrappage scheme'. Intended as a way to get customers out of older, polluting vehicles (and sell a whole host of new cars in the process) manufacturers are offering substantial discounts off new cars in return for trading in an older vehicle, which will be scrapped or recycled.
Various manufacturers have announced scrappage schemes so far this year, but which one offers the most (or least) for your old car? We round up the important details here...
BMW will hand out a £2000 discount on brand new BMWs and Minis, in exchange for trade-ins of older diesel cars falling under the Euro-4 emissions band or older – Euro 4 cars could no longer be sold as of 2009 when the Euro 5 standard came into play.
The fine print details the nitty-gritty of the BMW initiative – listing what's available to replace your old hat diesel. If you’re hoping to snaffle the keys to a Mini John Cooper Works or BMW M4, think again. To make good on the environmental mandate of the scheme, you’ll leave the dealership behind the wheel of something emitting no more the 130g/km from the tail pipes (if it has any emissions at all).
BMW’s i3 marks the cleanest car you can drive away with, while internal combustion engines firing away under the bonnets of 1, 3, 4, 5 and 7-series are available too, as well as a complement of SUVs (X1 and X5).
There’s little off limits in the Mini range, with eighty per cent of models qualifying. Unsurprisingly, anything garnished with the John Cooper Works treatment breaches the 130g/km barrier, but the Cooper S in three- or five-door body styles, equipped with the automatic transmission creeps under. Even Mini’s four-wheel drive, diesel powered Countryman makes the grade.
The £2000 allowance will supplement the part-exchange value applied to your current car by BMW – which you must have owned for twelve months prior to the trade-in. The scheme will remain in place until 31 December 2017.
Vauxhall’s scheme is less specific, accepting ‘older vehicles’ in exchange for a £2k discount and access to Vauxhall’s finance options on a new car. The scheme has been available annually for a limited period since 2015, sending 20,000 older cars to the crusher according to Motoring Research. Ford’s scheme extends to owners of pre-Euro 5 petrol and diesel cars – any make or model. Ford is offering £2000 off applicable trade-ins, plus an additional customer saving – model dependent – for a discount up to £2950 on its passengers cars. The offer will run until the end of 2017.
Vans aside, Ford has given customers the choice of five cars on the scheme: the B-Max, C-Max, Kuga, Focus and new Fiesta. Unfortunately the latter two in their respective ST guises are not included. An ST-Line specification of the former is as sporty as it gets. Vauxhall's scheme appears less prescriptive, offering bespoke deals on the model that you are after.
Mercedes-Benz's scheme differs in the detail from the others. £2000 is once again the headline figure. Chop in any pre-Euro 5 car and Mercedes will respond in-kind with money off a Euro-6 diesel, plug-in hybrid or Smart electric drive model. This provides access to most of Mercedes range where diesel engines are available.
Toyota will hand out discounts of varying amounts to any motorist trading in a vehicle over seven years old. That pre-2010 car will net you savings of £1000 off the C-HR, £2000 off a Prius or Hilux, and up to £4000 off a Land Cruiser. Most importantly for evo readers, the company will also contribute £2000 towards a new GT86.
The VW Group has a scrappage scheme running across all four of its volume brands – VW, Audi, Skoda and SEAT. Most performance variants appear to be covered – so cars like the Skoda Octavia vRS and SEAT Leon Cupra should both attract a £3500 discount. The Golf GTI will be discounted by £4000. Sadly, Audi RS models are not included in the scrappage scheme, but S models appear to be – as is the TT Roadster, and performance-orientated models like the A7 Sportback. The biggest discount available is £8000 off the price of a Q7 e-tron.
Kia's scheme is the simplest of the lot – a flat £2000 off Picanto and Rio models. Renault and Nissan both offer the same, but uniquely keep existing discounts in place – meaning customers can save more than just the scrappage discount.
FCA’s scrappage scheme covers three brands: Abarth, Alfa Romeo and Fiat. Like all the other schemes, Euro-4 specification vehicles – diesel or petrol – are those targeted to be taken off road. A flat-rate discount as offered on some rival schemes is nowhere to be seen. Instead, specific scrappage bonuses are applied to each model.
Trading in your car will yield a discount anywhere from £1095 on a Abarth 595 to £5300 on a Alfa Romeo Giulietta. evo sympathetic cars are not completely purged from the FCA applicable offerings. The Abarth Spider is discounted £3000 and Alfa Romeo’s Giulia Veloce is £3250 cheaper through the scheme – the Quadrifoglio is not available.
Mitsubishi's scheme encompasses a quartet of models including a supermini and trio of SUVs, the Outlander PHEV offering the biggest saving of £6500 (£4000 scrappage allowance plus £2500 government grant applied to plug-in hybrids). The scheme is live and concludes at the end of 2017 – again Euro-4 cars and earlier are eligible to trade in.
The PSA agenda to rid the roads of older cars in favour of new, Euro-6 grade models is less inclusive. While the sister-pair of the Peugeot 208 and Citroen DS 3 feature, the hotter variants, the GTi and Performance respectively don’t benefit from the allowances attached to the cooking versions. Surprisingly enough, Peugeot’s 308 GTi features with a £2750 discount. Otherwise, the majority models across the group are available through the scheme.
The entirety of Hyundai's lineup can purchased through the scheme, the savings range between £1545 - £5000.
> Click here to read our Suzuki Swift review
For Mazda the biggest savings are had on the Mazda 6, that said the £2500 saving available for their most junior model, the Mazda 2, is a healthy chunk of cash. The scheme’s governed by an emissions cut-off point, 130g/km, so even the smaller 1.5-litre in the Mazda MX-5 (139g/km) misses out. To leverage the scheme you’ll need to trade-in your current vehicle which must have been registered before 2010.
Suzuki too have rolled out a scrappage scheme with savings of £1000 or £2000 (model dependant). The IGNIS and Swift are the sportier (at best) and light-hearted, most evo cars listed, the latter providing a similarly enjoyable driving experience to our class favourite the, Ford Fiesta. Pre-Euro-5 cars are accepted in exchange for the discount on new models.
