I was astonished to read this article. Millions of brand new cars are sitting in car parks/fields/any spare piece of land, all over the world.
The UK hasn’t escaped either; the image above is Swindon where thousands of cars sit waiting new owners who don’t exist.
Nowadays I don’t know anyone who buys a new car, do you? One acquaintance has a ‘new’ Peugot but it was used as a demonstrator and had 3,000 miles on the clock when she purchased it. She appears to be happy with it although she was slightly disappointed to find the model is older than she was led to believe.
One solution would be a scrappage programme which would include tax rebates for new cars. The last one the Uk government introduced in the 2009 budget offered owners of old cars £2,000 (half from the government and half from the motor industry). However, in 2009 a new car, similar to my own, cost around £12,000 and like many pensioners on a fixed income, I have better things to do with £10,000 than spend it on an item which greatly diminishes in value the minute I leave the shop.
Maybe Alex Salmond could promise every family a brand new car for £5,000 if they vote for independence. Now that would be an incentive!
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