Interesting editorial in Practical Classics

[Steve]

Just reading the new issue this morning, and I saw a feature on the British "scrappage" scheme, their version of cash for clunkers.

SEMA in the United States comes in for praise because they lobbied the government to exclude cars older than 1984 from the American scheme but apparently the British Federation of Historic Vehicle Clubs was blindsided by the UK Govt's speedy introduction of their plan and consequently classics were eligible in the British scheme.

There are several mentions of such cars elsewhere in the magazine, one a news item about the Riley Club saving a 1954 Riley RME with a long MOT (mandatory annual inspection) just as it was about to be hauled to the scrapper, the other a letter from a reader about a perfectly good Triumph Herald that is now in the scrapyard and will be providing spare parts for his own car.

So, kudos to SEMA for forseeing potential problems and heading it off at the pass.

 

[tony barnhill]

Saw the article about the Riley & wondered how such a thing ever slipped through without the UK clubs jumping on it.

 

[Gliderman8]

I also read the article and had to wonder why anyone would even turn-in a classic car only to be scrapped?

 

[Andrew Mace]

...apparently the British Federation of Historic Vehicle Clubs was blindsided by the UK Govt's speedy introduction of their plan and consequently classics were eligible in the British scheme....a perfectly good Triumph Herald that is now in the scrapyard and will be providing spare parts for his own car.

 

[Stewart]

To some they are just old cars

 

[Steve]

Unfortunately so... If a club member had not spotted the Riley and started making phone calls it would be history by now.

 

[JamesWilson]

To some they are just old cars

And that can get a little perverse...

There was a very, very nice Rochdale Olympic on British e-bay last year with a ridiculously low buy-it-now price.

I phoned and the fellow wanted to sell it off, thinking it wasn't worth much because it was not "that" old, and he wanted the money (a specific amount) to buy some parts for a <span style="text-decoration: underline"><span style="font-style: italic"><span style="font-weight: bold">REAL</span></span></span>, pre-war classic....

I was dumbfounded. What's worse, was that he decided to pull it out of the auction and took a modest sum (around £2500), while if he'd let it run I'm sure he'd have gotten considerably more (40%+). Someone got a nice gift... I hope they appreciate it.

Some people have no idea what these cars are really worth....

 

[William]

If I'm not mistaken, didn't California have a similar scrappage scheme a decade or so ago? I recall reading about it in a couple of enthusiast magazines-a hot rod mag saved a running, restorable '67 Camaro, and one of the Brit mags showed a restorable MG Midget being turned in.

-William

 

[78Z]

I do remember an article in Hot Rod magazine or something similar about the California scrappage - might have been more than ten years ago. Apparently most of the vehicles turned in were old ones that hadn't been licensed in many years.

 

[Stewart]

I used to get scrap your car and we will give you 500 bucks letters from the state of ca all the time for the 75mg