James Ruppert
Dirty diesels done dirt cheap
It is easy to find a variety of exciting vehicles for £2k
And so scrappage begins: ditch that dirty old diesel and we will give you some cash so that you can go and buy another one. Well, a less dirty one, anyway. That’s been the Germanic approach so far, as both Mercedes-benz and BMW will reward you for dropping off a belching old C-class or 3 Series.
Slightly under the radar, and with less pretence at it being all environmental about this, Vauxhall has for several months just been offering a plain and simple £2000 scrappage scheme.
Meanwhile Ford is happy to take any petrol or diesel into its car pound. Terms and conditions always apply to these – for instance £2000 paid for a car conforming to Euro 1 to 4 emission rules, providing it is swapped for a Euro 6 Ford – but the basic fact is that manufacturers are throwing £2k around.
Of course, what that means for used car buyers is that we should pay rather less for old diesels. In the short term prices are not going to change noticeably. For me, aside from the fact that these schemes advertise the utter imbecility of trashing functioning vehicles (although some will be resold), it also focuses my mind on what great value £2000 motors are.
The ‘random used car generator’ that is the internet is your friend, so it is easy to find a variety of exciting vehicles for £2k, or a lot less. A 2005 Mercedes A Class is effectively a minivan. The petrol ones are preferable, the mileage should be decently below 100,000 and it should cost about £1500. There’s a great small family car right there.
Indeed, small cars with posh badges abound at this level. A really tidy 2003 BMW 1.8 316ti ES Compact is a much cooler take on the 1 Series. Again, it is £1500 with history.
Normally I wouldn’t have much to do with an old Peugeot, but a 307CC 2.0SE seems like fun. The ad I saw said that the 2006 model has a spanking new clutch. It also has 94k miles and looks lovely in the pics that the dealer took. Yours for £1595.
Probably the most interesting vehicle to be dragged up by this sub£2000 trawl is a VW Golf V5. A 2000reg car with 15 main dealer services, it has only covered 56k miles too. Goodness me, that is tempting.
And, finally, I was charmed to my socks by a 2006 Fiat Panda 1.2 4x4. This has to be all the 4x4 that most of us will ever need. A reasonable mileage too at 84k, all for £1795.
So for the paltry amount a main dealer will give you for something old via a scrappage scheme, you can bag yourself something far more interesting. If you have bought something fascinating instead of part-exing please let me know.