Car scrappage scheme round-up: Audi and Ford scrappage schemes will now run until 2018

We’re used to seeing trade-in offers in the windows of electronics or video game shops, but in 2017 carmakers have started offering good money for your old wheels. In the space of a week or two, pretty much every big car maker – from Ford and VW to Kia and Skoda has begun to offer scrappage schemes on a range of new models.

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They’ve been so successful that Ford claims it has already seen more than 10,500 cars and CVs scrapped under its Ford scrappage scheme, launched in the summer. It is now expanding the scheme until the first quarter of 2018 and will accept the Ford Ranger as well as the all-new Fiesta, Focus and Transit CV models.

Audi, similarly, is extending its own scrappage scheme into 2018. Originally, it was only accepting orders up to and including 31 December, 2017. This will now run up to and including 31 March, 2018. 

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Car scrappage scheme round-up

Ford scrappage scheme

Ford offers a £2,000 reduction on any new car, as long as you’re trading in a pre-Euro 5 car registered before 31 December 2009. Like BMW, the scheme will end at the end of the year, but unlike the German car maker, Ford is promising to crush every car traded in. 

Audi scrappage scheme

Audi’s scrappage scheme is relatively straightforward, and offers anything from £2,000 to £8,000 for your Euro 1-4 car – obviously for a new Audi. How much you’ll get depends on the size of the new Audi you want, so you’ll get £2,000 if you want ani A1, and the maximum offer of £8,000 if you’re buying a Q7.

In fact, the majority of new Audi models can be exchanged on a new-for-old basis, with the exception of Q7 TDI, A8, R8 and RS models. This replaces any part-exchange value for the vehicle being traded in. 

BMW scrappage scheme

BMW’s scrappage scheme only targets diesels, which does keep things more simple. Trading any pre Euro 5 diesel will get you £2,000 off the cost of a new BMW or MINI emitting less than 130g/km of CO2. You can also get money off BMW’s i range – so the i8 and i3 – and significantly, that trade-in offer comes in addition to government grant. The only catch? It’ll be done by the end of the year.

Why is this happening?

Figures recently released by the Society of Motor Manufacturers & Traders (SMMT) showed that total car sales in November were down 11.2% to 163,541 units, compared with this time last year. For the year to date, sales were down 5% compared. 

The reasons for these new scrappage schemes are twofold, but first we’ll start with the morally correct one: carmakers have partly introduced these schemes effort to reduce the amount of older more polluting cars on the road. Designed to meet less stringent emissions standards – such as Euro 4 and below – these cars are simply worse for the environment.

According to Auto Express,

 Ford believes taking the circa 19 million pre-Euro 5 cars from UK roads would reduce CO2 emissions alone up to 15 million tonnes per year – with the added bonus of a huge reduction in NOx and particulate emissions.

The less philanthropic, but equally understandable reason is more obvious. Carmakers are hoping that these scrappage schemes will help them sell more new cars – and they’re probably right. After all, if Ford are offering you money towards a new Fiesta, you’re probably going to give them your old car for it – and pay the difference.

It’s a risky but ultimately blinding move for car makers right now, and with petrol and diesels set to be faced out by 2040 it’s a good way of selling petrol cars in 2017.

However, just like the market for trading in your smartphone or Xbox One, the market for scrappage is particularly confusing, with each manufacturer offering something slightly different. For example, Ford will actually crush every car, while other manufacturers haven’t committed to actually scraping the vehicles they get.

So, to work out what scheme appeals to your financial or moral needs, we’ve put together a list of all the scrappage schemes offered in the UK in 2017. Keep reading to find out the one that suits you. It’s in alphabetical order, too.

We’ll update this article when we get the details of more schemes