We, the undersigned, call upon the government not to implement a ‘scrappage’ scheme as currently being lobbied for by the motor industry and the Retail Motor Industry Federation, for the following reasons:
- A scrappage scheme will lead to the early and unnecessary demise of a large number of historically significant classic cars which are collectable now or likely to become so in future.
- A scrappage scheme will not achieve the claimed environmental benefits as it will encourage wasteful unnecessary scrapping of perfectly viable motor cars, many of which have lower environmental impacts in use than a lot of new cars. Continued use of cars like this that have already been manufactured has a far lower environmental impact than the unnecessary scrapping of such vehicles and their replacement with newly-manufactured ones.
- A scrappage scheme takes no account of the massive environmental impact of manufacture in terms of sourcing and processing raw materials, transportation, assembly and distribution, and the impact of wasteful scrapping.
- Scrappage schemes targets the wrong cars. Only people who can afford to replace their old car with a new or nearly new one can benefit from it. These are also the people who are most likely to maintain an older car properly, and well maintained cars have the lowest environmental impact. Badly maintained cars owned by people who will never buy a new or nearly-new replacement will not be affected.
- The cost of the scheme will be enormous, and the money will not be directed to where it is most needed. While there is undoubtedly a good case for supporting the motor industry, this should be done openly, not in a round-about way that is designed to look like it is environmentally-friendly, but is actually encouraging wasteful built-in obsolescence.
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