Germany's turn: scrap your used car, get a bonus to buy a new one
Last month China proposed a plan to offer consumers a cash incentive to scrap their cars and buy new ones. Germany is the latest country looking at the same option, with a law that aims to give €2,500 to people getting rid of cars that are at least nine years old and buying new ones.
China may want to watch what happens in Germany: so far, interest in the program looks like it could exceed the available funds. The German government set aside €1.5 billion for reimbursements, which is enough to reward 600,000 people. But in just two days, the office that will look after the program got 420,000 phone calls. One German market research firm put the potential number of takers at 1.2 million.
If the measure passes into law as is, then early birds would get the incentive worm. The €1.5 billion is coming out of a €50 billion German stimulus plan, aimed at reviving the automotive, transport, and education sectors, and it wouldn't seem out of the question for them to double the allotted funds to allow all to participate. Although no one knows how much the program would help German automakers -- people might scrap their cars and buy Fords -- it would put money back into the economy and get cleaner cars on the roads to boot. Hat tip to Gregg!
[Source: Der Spiegel | Photo: Ms. Martin]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
sorrento 6:42PM (1/28/2009)
If you ever have the pleasure of going to Germany you will see they are pretty loyal to their home brands. more so than UK anyway!
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Rob 7:53AM (1/28/2009)
This is NOT a green solution. Driving a car as long as possible minimizes the impact to our environment. Do not believe the suedo-hippies who want new shiny cars every few years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooN9INJxxy4&feature=channel_page
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Michael 8:25AM (1/28/2009)
well, i guess in Germany it's mostly not about being green but rather about giving money to the German car industry.
a) lots of jobs involved (if you include all the suppliers)
b) politically well connected industry
cm 8:00AM (1/28/2009)
Hahaha, even if they buy Fords, it would still be okay, as most are produced in Germany anyway.
Opel and Ford Europe mainly operate from Germany, with a few assembly plants spread around the continent. Ford Europe is almost a complete different company from Ford North America ... They just happen to be part of the same Corporation. But design, manufacturing, and most of the strategic decisions and financing is done independent of the HQ. So, by all practical purpose, Ford Europe is a German car manufacturer, just like VW, and Daimler, and BMW, exact that the ownership of Ford is mostly in American hands, and that of Daimler, in Arabic hands.
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cm 8:01AM (1/28/2009)
*exact* should have read 'except' ... :D
MixiM 8:13AM (1/28/2009)
We had this in Sweden too, If you had a car older than an '88 you got $500 for it. Because of the lack of catalyctic converter.
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Phil L. 8:40AM (1/28/2009)
Cars in Sweden didn't have catalytic converters until *1988*!?!?
I'm not sure when all cars in the US were required to have converters, but I remember my family's first car with a converter: A '75 Ford Torino. Back then, it was still a challenge to find unleaded gas in some areas.
Anyone know why it took so long in Sweden?
MixiM 4:13PM (1/28/2009)
Well the truth is, US emission regulations have always been more strict than the ones in Sweden, or the whole of Europe really. The delay was there because EU didn't and couldn't pressure the manufacturers in the same way and short time as the US government could because we are dealing with 50 countries not states, and most of them not a member of the EU at the time. As a small country Sweden and many other countries didn't want to risk loosing car manufacturers on the market.
Although US emission standards are stricter and a good initiative, US citizens drive and had always driven way more gas-consuming vechicles which the stricter standards do not compensate for.
Mobius_1 9:56AM (1/28/2009)
The Catalytic Converter is a lie!
I hope this measure gets its takers, should work quite well TBH, who doesn't love the smell of a new car?
Swede 11:09AM (1/28/2009)
Phil: Correct, it was not required until 1989. Why? I don't know but I imagine people were reluctant to spend more money for something they didnt see the advantage of since smog have never been an issue.
Oldford4x4 9:05AM (1/28/2009)
Sounds a lot like the US House copied this for their "Cash for Clunkers" program they are trying to sneak into the 850 billion dolar US stimulus package. They try to pass it off as green to get a bunch of support from environmentally focused people when it is actually designed to give a kickback to the unions and corporations.
SEMA's Action Network opposes this legisleation sponsored by Nancy Pelosi as it will have a negative effect on the collector car hobby and aftermarket parts manufacturers as it is trying to drive the older cars off the road on an untrue premise that they are dirty. In reality we could do a lot more my making sure all cars are properly maintained for emmisions rules. The net energy used to fix/maintain an older car cannot be much compared to that of manufacturing a new vehicle. And lest we forget that here in the states we had vehicles in 1990 that had higher gas milage than modern econoboxes (think Geo Metro, Ford Escort 2D).
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VW JUNKY 9:18AM (1/28/2009)
I think 1979 was the first full requirement for cataltic converters on all cars, I think a few had them earlier but in VW land it was 1979.
later
E
Alex 9:25AM (1/28/2009)
So what if i were to go pick up some old piece for 1000 euros and then turn around trade it in for this credit 2500 euro credit? Could you trade in multiple cars? Could you get a 25000 euro car for 10000? sounds like a scam i could get into!
probably not that easy :(
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Christian 9:32AM (1/28/2009)
The car has to be licensed to you for more than one year, so no, you can't just buy some old car and immediately trade it in.
Whether it's allowed to trade in more than one car - well, it's based on you buying a new one and licensing it to yourself, so this might be a theoretical discussion.
Dave 9:35AM (1/28/2009)
More ways to waste money by economically uneducated beurocrats. Its really too bad that the idea of basic economics is no longer taught in any country as a required course. This is wealth redistribution at its finest. You would be better off and it would be more honest to just give people 500 bucks to fix their old cars. Speaking of fixing old cars... What ever happened to that? I remember my grandfather telling me stories of how he used to work with my dad out in the garage on Saturdays changing oil and doing tune ups. Are people so stupid they dont know how to unscrew a plug and filter, reinstall, fill with oil? I know a girl(sorry ladies) who drove 25,000 miles without ever changing her oil, then wondered why her motor crapped out on her. I dont talk to her anymore.
Maybe if car companies didnt make stuff so damn complicated people would still work on their cars. I dont know. I figured out how to work on a B-series Honda motor without too much trouble, including the cpu system.
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brookPT 9:46AM (1/28/2009)
This is OLD. And I mean OLD! Well, sure it's new for germany and autoblog, but other countries have been doing this for YEARS. Oh, and please retrain yourself from saying anything about the environmental impact this measure will bring to Germany, because it changed absolutely nothing in other countries.
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brookPT 9:58AM (1/28/2009)
lol! I meant *refrain, not "retrain" :)
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P.V. 9:59AM (1/28/2009)
Ummm why not just keep the old cars running for as long as possible (and retrofit them with emission-limiting technologies if necessary)? Isn't that more ECONOMICAL?
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madmax 10:38AM (1/28/2009)
European Ford is build in Germany
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Landy 1:22PM (1/28/2009)
Madmax:
European Ford is build in
Germany: Cologne Plant (Fiesta,Fusion), Saarlouis Plant (Focus, C-Max, Kuga)
Belgium: Genk Plant (Mondeo, Galaxy, S-Max)
Spain: Valencia Plant (Focus)
Great Britain: Southampton Plant (Transit)
Turkey: Kocaeli Plant (Transit, Transit Connect)
Romania: Craiova Plant (will build Transit Connect)