Government Scrappage scheme, could this effect future historic racing?

[Al Weyman]

And KA you like SD1's can you imagine how many of those are going in the crusher, the sooner this is over the better.

[ChrisA]

Originally Posted by Al Weyman

And KA you like SD1's can you imagine how many of those are going in the crusher, the sooner this is over the better.

Don't worry Al, the government is turning its attention to washing machines and fridges now, so cars may now be safe!!

[Al Weyman]

Oh thats good I need a new washing machine and a tumble drier.

[Al Weyman]

I was on a Camaro forum I go on and saw a link on youtube to some cocks in the states destroying the engine of a beautiful looking Corvette (is this not a classic?) by revving it hard after taking out the fluids, it was chopped in under 'Cash for Clunkers' scheme in the US and the scheme denotes as here no bits can be salvaged. Where is the greeness in all this, it will mean less second hand core engines and boxes to recondition. The world really has gone quite mad and I think these schemes will leave a void in historic motorsport in years to come either by unavailability of cars or decent 2nd hand components.

[Tim the Grey]

Al, I know what you are saying, but then this has always happened. My brother saved a Vauxhall Chevette being sold to the scrapyard by a bloke in his 80s, who didn;t want to drive it any more. He'd owned it from new, and had every MOT and receipt from Day 1. You could eat your dinner of the engine bay, and it had around 30K miles on it, in nearly 20 years.

He got it MOT'd, and sold it to someone who collected the things.

This was ten years back. It's always happened, and I suppose it always will. I remember as a family we had 4 or 5 split screen VW campers. They all ended up in scrapyards. Look at what they'd be worth now! At the time they were cheap family holidays...

[Al Weyman]

I went all over Europe in one in me yof, it was even the small back window model. The joke(sic) about the Corvette is it looked in sound condition and was a fuel injection Targa roof model in black and I know for a fact that would ebay over here as seen for at least £4k and give an enthusiast years of pleasure. Its like my old mum who always used to get upset watching those stupid competitions on TV where they smashed up old pianos, I also find destroying fine old cars offensive. maybe if the yards were allowed to strip them for usable parts it would be more acceptable or if you could chop your vehicle in as a none runner with maybe engine and box removed but oh no the criteria is it has to have an MoT and be drivable, the whole thing both sides of the atlantic is abhorent to a car enthusiasat and even a greenie if they gave it a moments thought about the cost to the environment of replacing that car.

[Al Weyman]

I just found out exactly what they were doing on the Cash for Clunkers YouTube video where they destroyed the Corvette engine. Apparantly and this is amazing, in the US they have to pour this chemical into the engine and run it till it destroys, can you believe this, its just wasteful madness.

Here is the link to the Mechanical equivilant of Saw if you can stomach it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTYL-h5_hb4

[John Turner]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Here's one, that I'm told was traded in against the scrappage scheme. These original E12 M535i's are incredibly rare now. There weren't many of them in the first place and most succumbed to rust. Wonderful cars; I've owned one since 1997. I remember 2 or 3 being run in the BMW Kumho series several years back, so even if you didn't restore it for road use it would be a great car for several histo series. BMW can still supply a lot of the parts for these. It's a great shame.

[Peter Mallett]

Item removed. Presumably because it's illegal to sell it if it was a scrappage vehicle.

[John Turner]

It was there 10 minutes ago; and it was being sold for its parts, not the whole car. A friend of mine had contacted the seller/trader who had said it was traded in against a new car and that he could not sell it whole but it had some excellent parts available including a new interior trim, good engine etc. The bid was the usual thing for beakers; for a wheel nut and you had to contact the seller for the various bits, so it's interesting that it has just been removed.

Edit: In fact I still have the Ebay page up, unrefreshed and it says:-

'BMW M535i about 1982? Lovely engine and dog leg box, straight through pipe and push button start, breaking.

Brown recaro interior in excellent condition.

Car is for breaking only, all parts available.

Some parts can be removed and posted, others will have to be collected.

Buy it now is for a wheel nut

All parts available for breaking.'

[Peter Mallett]

I get:

Originally Posted by Ebay

This listing () has been removed, or this item is not available.
Please check that you've entered the correct item number
Listings that have ended 90 or more days ago will not be available for viewing.

[John Turner]

Yes, I know, so do I, now; I was just saying it WAS there!

The point is that we have lost another genuine classic to this wretched scheme!

Edit; Just checked - I can still get it from my original source! Strange!

[Al Weyman]

No they cannot sell the parts that is also my point as apart from loosing the car you loose the bits as well, the car has to be wantonly crushed I think its another example of this silly governments knee jerk reaction to anything, will someone please tell me where the green bit is in this scheme?

BTW as i also suggested would happen we now have a situation where there are a lot of buyers out there that yes may need a new car as theirs is beyond economical repair and would normally have bought something for up to a grand 10 years old but there ain't many about now is there so they are having to get in hock (not what the government wanted was it?) and by something thats is outside the remit of this crazy scheme. Net result 2nd hand car prices have soared to an all time high, some cars like late model Range Rovers increasing by many thousands of pounds. This is of course an unreal situation that will come crashing down again.

[midgetman]

Well, it will go down in history as the government yet again increasing the gap between the rich and poor. Those of us buying 10 year old cars now subsidise the rich who wouldn't notice £2k off a car. £2k off???? Shoot, my last car didn't cost £2k in the first place :-)

And will it effect future historic racing? Well if current historic people get their way, no, because they wouldn't allow such modern cars to darken their race tracks.

[Al Weyman]

Apart from that I think the £2k discount is a con, exactly a year ago my daughter bought a brand new Mitsubishi CZC folding roof Colt and a fine little car it has been too for the decent price of £10300 on the road as they were discounting them and only commissioned 2000 to keep Pinafarina which they own, busy. Anyhow I took it for its first service last week and a brand new Colt base model not a convertible sports coupe is £11500 so my point is have they hyped up the price to allow for the discount?

[terence]

Why bother buying over here anyway,you could easily double the discount by buying in Europe,OK,so it involves a ferry trip,or two,but for four grand or maybe more,why all the fuss.