Many
diesel drivers were biting their nails in case Chancellor Hammond bit
their air-polluting butts with extra budget dirty-diesel taxes.
They seem to have got away with it...for now. The only tax Hammond conjured up was a tax on new poor-emission diesels - although who trusts these emission figures anymore after VW’s recent scandal.
But the issue won’t go away. In a recent report one of the most polluted areas in the UK when it comes to car emissions is...Basford-Bank/MFI-Roundabout/A500-A53 junction (whatever you want to call it). Apparently, it’s not a place to hang about and breathe at the same time. You might as well be smoking 20 a day.
So, how do you get the new old diesel cars off the road? Presently the likes of Ford & BMW are offering a scrappage deal for those trading in a diesel car for a brand new petrol model (a deal worth from £1000 to £7000!). And the government, who have been dragging their feet on this issue, are said to be introducing a standard government scrappage offer to drivers of anything up to several thousand pounds.
The problem with this offer is that it is so inappropriate for the standard diesel driver. Traditionally they are cautious efficiency-searching souls, not flamboyant new car buyers. They drive their reliable, fuel-efficient noise-boxes with what used to be the safe-knowledge that government experts claimed they were environmentally friendly. Finding that government experts have done a U-turn on them is causing them frustration and heart-break.
The frustration partly comes from the fact that they’re now not sure what to do - sell-up or put-up. They need leading down the garden path to buy something newer and (at least for now) environmentally friendly. But if an expensive scrappage deal isn’t right for them, then what is?
Well, to get them out of their reliable diesels into nearly-new petrol cars, we need to offer them something that is tangible to them. What would be cheap and desirable at the same time?!
The answer is actually quite easy: technical checks, a basic trade-in incentive and guarantees. THESE are the sort of things the average diesel driver is looking for.
If, for example, they were driving around in a diesel with a trade-in value of about £1500, and wanted to replace it with a newer (albeit 2nd-hand) petrol car priced at a local garage/forecourt at £5000, what could tempt them to change?
Well, an extra 25% on the trade-in value of the car (£375, valuing the diesel at £1875), a free full AA-technical check on the new car (£200), and a 12 month guarantee from the garage (£325). Total cost: £900.
Hang on, that’s a lot cheaper than the £1000s that the chancellor or the car-dealers/manufacturers were going to splash on the project. [Of course, the old car would have disposal costs, but they would have these costs anyway.]
So, happy relieved ex-diesel driver in his safe & guaranteed newer car; happy garage-salesman with his extra car sale; happy-manufacturers as car-sales improve overall; and happy chancellor making savings overall. It’s win-win. Even the nearly-new car has a third-party technical check, meaning fewer breakdowns on the road and a car with better emissions as a result of that check, and replacing a dirty diesel.
Look, no plan’s perfect. But - just like with expensive but unwanted Xmas presents - sometimes it does pay to find out what people would really like, rather than foist an expensive round solution into a square hole.
