Friday 12th February 2010

The Government’s car scrappage scheme, which was originally meant to have ended at the turn of the year, has been extended again from the end of this month until the end of March. As Peter Mandelson admitted recently, this is because the limit of 400,000 cars that can be scrapped under the scheme still has some way to go (and the £400m poured into the scheme hasn’t been fully used up).

But, you lucky devils, Vauxhall have gone one step further in my view and introduced the Vauxhall Swappage scheme, which can be used to buy the recently launched all-new Astra 5-door, Astra Sport Hatches and most new Corsa models.
Admittedly, Toyota started using this term last month, but as most people are probably aware by now, they’ve run into a few, shall we say, technical, software related and PR ‘issues,’ which has pretty much sidelined their scheme. Vauxhall is offering at least £3,000 for trade-ins on cars aged over seven years from now until the end of March. That’s a decent saving over and above the Government’s scrappage scheme.

As Rory Harvey, Vauxhall’s retail sales director said “We are determined that our customers will continue to enjoy excellent offers” Cars traded in must be UK-registered, taxed and insured and have a current MoT certificate. As Rory goes on to say “Vauxhall swappage not only increases the amount of discount off selected Vauxhalls from £2,000 to at least £3,000, but it also widens the net to cars over seven years old, compared with 10 years plus in the Government-backed scheme”.
So, what is this ‘Noel Edmonds like Swap Shop, love of all things retro’, inspired swappage scheme about then and just how can you take advantage?
Basically, what you should keep front of mind when weighing this offer up, is that there is NO upper age limit! 
So, the basic premise of the package is you can trade in your Golf’s and Focus’ for instance, if it is at least 7 years old, is covered by insurance, road tax and MoT. But, as I keep banging on about, there is no upper age limit on the used car that Vauxhall will accept.
Another major plus is that customers looking to do a swap trade-in need only have owned their car for 90 days. Seriously!!-it’s a minimum 12 months under the Government scrappage scheme. And to add to the pot that Vauxhall have stacked in your favour, the owner’s husband or wife can trade in the car, as long as they live at the same address.

It really does seem like an excellent deal on some pretty tasty models. For the ‘list-price aficionados’ amongst you, you might well have your own views on this and we’d love to see the internet wires humming and various views being expressed.

Otherwise, if you’d like to see if you qualify please check out the official source of information – Click Here

UPDATED.......

You're the first to find out.... Vauxhall have just extended the models involved in the swappage scheme - to also include the Zafira, Meriva and Insignia!!!!!