The Car Hub

Next month, February, the UK government’s scrappage scheme for cars will come to an end, the pot of money to fund this scheme will then be empty.
Japanese car maker Toyota seem to have stolen a march on all their rivals by announcing their own follow-up “swappage” scheme to tempt punters to opt for either their Yaris, Auris or Avensis models.
The big difference between the government and Toyota’s scheme is the qualifying age of the old car. Under Toyota’s scheme your old car will qualify if it’s only 7 years old and not 10 years as per the outgoing scheme, also as the name “swappage” implies it does not mean your trade-in will be scrapped but could be offered for resale.
The basic qualifying rules of the outgoing scheme will apply, e.g. you must be the owner and have owned the vehicle for 12 months, a current MOT is required and the car must be taxed and insured.
A further incentive of £500 is offered by Toyota to anyone buying an Avensis T2 which increases to £750 for the TR or T4 models.
With sales of all cars expected to be poor throughout this year don’t be surprised to see other car makers coming up with similar offers. Nearly all car manufacturers are already heavily discounting some models of their cars by anything up to 45% so there is no need to rush.