Toyota’s Scrappage reassurances

The Japanese firm joins Ford and Vauxhall in pledging to save any historic vehicle or suitable modern

Toyota has extended its scrappage scheme ‘until at least the end of June’, offering up to £4000 trade-in for any pre2009 vehicle, but has promised to inform owners’ clubs in the process – be they for classic Toyotas or other marques.

David Crouch, Toyota GB press officer, said: ‘We have a procedure in place for historic Toyotas; our list has seven or eight models that would be immediately flagged up, including the AE86 Corolla, various Celicas, several Seventies models and early Lexus cars.

‘We have close links with the MR2 Drivers’ Club, the Toyota Enthusiasts’ Club, and other classic Toyota groups. It goes without saying that other marques would also be catered for. If a dealership notified us of a historic vehicle trade-in, we would try and save that car for an owners’ club.’

Toyota uses scrap metal firm, Autogreen, to process scrappage tradeins. Also employed by Vauxhall – the first car maker to recognise the damaging potential of manufacturer-backed scrappage – vulnerable classics are to be flagged by dealerships.

Depending on the model, a Toyota scrappage trade-in could knock as much as £4000 off the cost of a new car – that top amount being reserved for a new Land Cruiser, Toyota’s longest running and most historic name.

The news has been greeted positively by MR2 Drivers’ Club director, Darren Letts. He said: ‘Not many people trade in their old MR2 for a brand-new car, but what can happen is that people will just buy one that’s on its last legs, purely for the purposes of cashing it in. If that’s the case, that car would have been up for sale first anyway – there’s a good chance that someone will have already snapped it up for either restoration, repairs or even just as a donor for an on-going project. The club has a good awareness of such cars.’

Darren admitted that the club wouldn’t be able to match most scrappage offers – but would be able to put a worthy car in front of a large audience of enthusiasts.

He said: ‘If someone was going to trade something in clearly worth more than the [maximum] £4k we could put the word out, help them get it sold for better money and then they go back to Toyota with no trade in and arguably in a better negotiating position.’

Meanwhile, support grows for the historic vehicle petition started by

CCW’s sister magazine, Practical Classics.

Having attracted more than 13,500 signatures, its campaign has another eight days left to run.

Practical Classics’ petition needs your support to reach 100,000 signatures by June 21. It seeks to protect all cars aged 40 years and older from scrappage: petition. parliament.uk/petitions/207027