Been looking at cars and wife has almost decided she wants a Focus. We were looking at nearly new models with < 20k on them. Now Ford have introduced a scrappage scheme which we’d be eligible for which would get us £5k off a new car putting it very close to the 2nd hand car prices. Would you expect this to drive 2nd hand prices down a bit? Basically should we hold fire and wait for a bargain?

It depends.

I imagine the value of older ones could go up, because they’re now worth £5000 to trade in.

On the other hand, the newer second hand cars will (without a price drop) end up costing the same as a brand new one with £5k taken off. So you’d expect them to get cheaper. But not everyone buying will have an old Ford* to trade in.

* I don’t know what the rules are on makes/models/ages.

I cynically suspect the Ford deal will inexplicably disappear or change to preclude certain cars (Ka already doesn’t qualify as apparently they don’t have enough of them).

Mainly as its a remarkable coincidence that the new Fiesta was launched the same day as this announcement.

I’d say it’ll keep s/h car prices firmed up as any banger is now worth a few grand thus anything better has to be worth more than that. Plus all the old cars will go to scrap to possible the classic supply and demand keeping prices perky.

Or give your old car to a friend and walk into a dealer and haggle 5k off the list price just like any sensible person buying a new car should be doing!

As an example I buy vans for our company, list price is £22k, we pay 11.5k.

list price is £22k, we pay 11.5k.

How many vehicles do you buy a year?

Would you expect this to drive 2nd hand prices down a bit? Basically should we hold fire and wait for a bargain?

No.

The current scrappage schemes – manufacturer introduced, not government mandated like last time – operate in the same way that all other “discounts” (e.g. dealer contributions) against the notional sticker price of a new car.

There isn’t going to be a sudden flooding of the market with cheap second hand cars – the manufacturers will continue to control the nearly new pricing as they do now.

I’d do both scrappage and also attempt to drive a deal on a new car in the normal way.

Didn’t you have to have owned the car for a certain time before you traded it in to stop people doing this?

Yeah, never pay anywhere near ticket on a new car. Unless its a hyped up car with a waiting list, in which case its not worth the hype.

Get 5k off anyway and sell your car privately.

If you have the cash to buy without finance, then take the finance incentives too (usually £1k and services) and then pay the finance off the next day, keeping the incentives.

With my cynical hat on, these manufacturer unofficial “scrappage” schemes will just be out of usual discounts. All the mainstream car brands have been offering heavy discounts (usually via finance incentives – “deposit contribution” and the like) for years which has almost nullified the steep rise in list prices.

I used to buy cars at 6-12 months old which would be a good saving on the most heavily discounted new price. These days dealers seem to be sitting on used stock with higher prices than they can do new – presumably they do sell to people either in a hurry, or who still think like I used to.

A quick look on drivethedeal – even the most basic Focus you can get £5200 off list (rising for more expensive ones) and still have 0% PCP or HP finance. And you can get another £1500 “scrappage” too if you have something old to get rid of.

Thanks for the input all. Have to admit that even at 36, i’ve never even set foot in a car dealership and the thought of haggling deals doesn’t fill me with great joy.

Just had a look – I could get 4k for my 57 plate C-Max (I paid 4k for it 2.5 yrs ago) – but 20k starting price for a Focus!

I’m out of touch with new car prices. 😀

Thanks for the input all. Have to admit that even at 36, i’ve never even set foot in a car dealership and the thought of haggling deals doesn’t fill me with great joy.

simon_g speaks complete sense.

You probably don’t have to do the hard yards in the dealership nextwork. Sign up for Drive the Deal or Carwow or Broadspeed and use them to do the initial legwork of getting dealers to bid their best prices.

You can either then go to the dealer and do a deal on that price, or haggle some more.

There’s probably a separate thread on how to get the best deal from buying cars!

Just had a look – I could get 4k for my 57 plate C-Max (I paid 4k for it 2.5 yrs ago) – but 20k starting price for a Focus!

I’m out of touch with new car prices.

As simon_g says:

All the mainstream car brands have been offering heavy discounts (usually via finance incentives – “deposit contribution” and the like) for years which has almost nullified the steep rise in list prices.

All the manufacturers have been at it. It’s mainly driven by how they show growth in their revenue and increasing the (apparent) strength of their balance sheets.