Many dealers are calling for the extension of the scrappage scheme, as they fear that sales will fall off when it ends. Managing director Tony Whitehorn of Hyundai UK speaking to Motor Trader said “The money is two-thirds gone and at the current rate it will be gone by the end of October. If it comes to a sudden halt we will see car sales across the industry fall off a cliff. We need the government to start thinking now about what comes next,” said Mr Whitehorn. “The industry needs a soft landing, hopefully that will be through some sort of extension of the current scheme and then a gradual tapering off. The scheme has to end at some point, we all understand that, but it needs to be a gradual landing.”

While Whitehorn admits that his company has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the scheme, with August sales up over 300 per cent, he said it had benefitted the whole of the car retailing sector. “The government has got to come up with some announcement as to what happens beyond October because lots of wheels have to be put in motion. The current scheme has proved that given an incentive people are willing to spend. It would be madness just to stop it.”

Whilst it has been good business for Hyundai and many other low budget foreign based car manufacturers, it is not actually helping the UK economy that much. Most of the sales being racked up are by vehicles manufactured abroad. With UK manufacturers still in real trouble, I do not believe the scrappage scheme should continue.

There are many reasons why the scheme should be stopped, here are my Top 5:

It is taking revenue away from UK businesses that repair and supply parts for older vehicles.

The cost of all used vehicles has risen sharply since the scheme started, because of the decline in availability of lower end stock. This has affected the general public who can in no way benefit from the scheme, as they cannot afford a new car.

It is not a green way of getting lower levels of CO₂, as the carbon footprint produced by recycling a scrapped car and producing a new vehicle would far outweigh any saving in exhaust emission.

If well-maintained, a 10-year old car is generally of a very good standard and is a total waste to scrap it. Vehicle technology is far superior to a bygone age. We have a very strict MOT test which every vehicle has to pass once a year, this ensures heavily polluting or unroadworthy vehicles are not allowed on UK highways.

We are currently in a huge recession, so why are we encouraging people to buy expensive new cars and trade their old model. This will increase demand for finance and further overstretch already weak financial situations.

It seems to me, all we keep hearing is spend, spend, spend your way out of this recession, but the only people that keep telling you this seems to be people who will gain financially from this or the policymakers. I have been in this industry for 14 years and have been involved in all forms of it, take it from me this scheme is not just, fair or doing anything positive for our economy or the environment.