Save £6k on a new car if you scrap your old banger

CAR giants are rushing to launch scrappage schemes that offer thousands off new cars when an old one is traded in.

Volkswagen customers can save up to £6,000, while Toyota, Kia and Renault-Nissan are also offering major discounts in deals which should help take many of the most polluting vehicles off the road.

These latest offers, which follow similar announcements by Ford, Vauxhall and BMW, take pressure off the Government, which had been urged to launch a taxpayer-funded diesel scrappage scheme as part of its anti-pollution plans.

VW — fined £3.3billion for emissions-test cheating in 2015 — is offering discounts if you trade in a diesel vehicle which does not meet the Euro 5 emissions standards introduced in 2009-10. Drivers can save £4,000 if they choose a new Golf, currently the UK’s third most popular car.

Customers must have owned their old car for at least six months and order a new one by December 31. The old vehicle will be scrapped rather than sold on.

Toyota is offering up to £4,000 off any diesel or petrol trade-in more than seven years old. Kia’s scrappage bonus is £2,000 for cars of the same vintage, but only for customers buying its new, low-emission Picanto or Rio models. Old cars traded in will also be destroyed.

Renault-Nissan is also offering a £2,000 incentive and encouraging customers to consider its all-electric Leaf model. Including the normal trade-in cash, drivers can get up to £5,200 off a new car.

Air pollution causes around 40,000 premature deaths a year in Britain and has been linked to childhood illnesses, heart disease and dementia.