TRADE-IN TO FRONT PAGE HOW ONE STANDARD PUT SCRAPPAGE ON THE MAP

This 1959 Standard Ten won its place on our shortlist because it put classic car scrappage on the map this year – but to discover why, you have to go back to November last year, when its plight first made CCW’s front page.

That’s when USJ 919 was traded in at a Caithness-based Ford dealership, Dunnets of Thurso, in exchange for a £7000 discount on a new Transit under a manufacturer-led scrappage scheme. Classic fan, Tom Sayles, contacted CCW and our sister magazine Practical Classics to highlight that the Standard had been consigned into a scrappage scheme – not a repeat of the Government’s nationwide scheme in 2009/10, but one of several being run by manufacturers that didn’t exempt classics from being traded in.

Barely a month later Ford rethought the rules around its scrappage scheme and decided to change them to prevent more classics being traded in. The company’s corporate news and social media manager, Charlotte Ward, said: ‘On reflection, we’ve decided that we should make special arrangements for Historic Vehicles that are handed in as part of our scrappage scheme. The numbers involved are very small, but our dealers now know to flag up a classic.’

The Standard Ten was given a new home at the Dundee Museum of Transport, but this was only the beginning of its story. Britain’s market leader had joined other manufacturers – notably Vauxhall – in voluntarily stopping classics from being traded in during scrappage schemes, but there was nothing to prevent classics at risk from schemes run by other car makers.

Practical Classics editor, Danny Hopkins, launched a CCW- supported national petition at the beginning of the year calling on law-makers at Westminster to make it illegal for tax- exempt classics to be traded in during manufacturer-led scrappage schemes. It picked up more than 4000 signatures within a week and the Ten’s near-miss was cited as an example of what could happen if classics weren’t protected.

By the time Parliament’s six-month window on the petition had drawn to a close, the campaign had picked up thousands more supporters – including Sir Greg Knight MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Historic Vehicle Group, which lobbies on behalf of classic owners at Westminster.

The question had been asked by 14,040 classic fans – enough to get it past the 10,000-threshold needed to make the government respond – but the Department for Transport’s answer wasn’t the one they wanted to hear.

‘ These schemes are entirely voluntary and it is up to car owners to determine whether they wish to hand a particular vehicle in to be scrapped,’ it said in its official response.

‘Where a manufacturer receives a vehicle with historic value they are able to choose to preserve it.’

As Classic Car Weekly’s Christmas special went to press, there was still no change in the law to stop tax-exempt classics from being entered into scrappage schemes – but if it hadn’t been for USJ 919, the risk posed to classics might not have made it into Westminster’s inbox.

This is why it was the runaway frontrunner when we asked you to vote for your favourite from our shortlist – and a thoroughly deserving winner.