SCRAPPAGE THE LOSERS:There is no chance The Duchess would be abandoned to the jaws of a crusher for any scrappage scheme, but what classic cars are being lost, writes KILIAN DOYLE
‘Here’s an idea,” a grinning friend said to me recently. “Why don’t you scrap your old Beemer? You could get €1,500 off a nice new Kia Picanto.”
I nearly punched him. I’d rather eat my own feet than consign my beloved 1975 BMW 2002 (the Duchess) to the gaping maw of a rapacious crusher in exchange for a measly few quid off a boxy little hatchback. If it weren’t for the fact I knew he was just pushing my buttons, he’d be walking around looking like Mickey Rourke today.
But his swarmy jape did raise an interesting question: how many classic or future classic cars are being scrapped prematurely in Ireland by people tempted by the promise of filthy lucre? Granted, nobody will lose any sleep if a wrecked Honda Civic or battered Ford Fiesta meets its doom in the jaws of steel, but what of all the great cars which are collectable now or likely to become so in the future?
There is plenty of evidence that many such vehicles have fallen foul of the US “Cash for Clunkers” programme, which offers a state-sponsored discount of up to $4,000 on a new car. Browsing the list of machines that have fallen prey would bring a tear to a brass eye. Hundreds of Caddies, Beemers, Mercs and Jags, six Maseratis and a Rolls Royce Continental R have gone to their doom. Most bizarre of all, someone even killed an Aston Martin DB7 Volante. For $4,000. Ouch.
Meanwhile, British dealers have reported receiving Porsches, Triumphs and even a rare 1971 Morris Minor pick-up under their scrappage scheme. Others took in such cracking machines as Mazda MX-5s, MG Midgets, MGB GTs, a Jaguar XJ-S and a Nissan 300ZX.
So ruthless has this cull been that Britain’s Classic Car Weekly launched a petition for the scheme itself to be scrapped. It argues that continuing to use well-maintained older vehicles has a far lower environmental impact than replacing them with newly- manufactured ones. It says the scheme targets the wrong cars, that the people that run the real deathtraps can’t afford to buy new ones, no matter how much of a discount they get.
Equally, those who actually do have the money for a new car, but choose to run older ones instead, can afford to look after them and ensure they are safe. “While there is undoubtedly a good case for supporting the motor industry, this should be done openly, not in a roundabout way that is designed to look like it is environmentally- friendly, but is actually encouraging wasteful built-in obsolescence,” they claim.
Unsurprisingly, there has been a bit of kerfuffle among Irish classic car owners, who worry the wanton destruction will rear its ugly head here. But are their fears founded? Motors did a bit of snooping, and it appears not.
While the promise of a guaranteed €1,500 lump sum off the price of a new car may be tempting to their owners there is no overwhelming evidence as yet that cars that genuinely deserve to be saved are being crushed here.
Motors contacted 10 approved dismantlers across the country - from Dublin to Galway to Cork to Donegal. Not one reported getting in anything remotely exotic. “Nothing but old run-of-the-mill junkers,” was the near-universal response. Indeed, the most unusual car that Alan Elliott from Thornton’s Recycling in Dublin city has received was a rotten 1984 Opel Rekord. While some desirable models do come in, he says, they are invariably in such bad condition that they’re worth far less than it’d cost to put them right.
While one could hardly expect a man in his line of business to say otherwise, he thinks the scrappage scheme has been an unqualified success so far. “The vast majority of cars we’ve had in are ones that deserved to be scrapped for safety or emissions reasons,” he says. “We even had one guy drive his car all the way up the M50 from Enniskerry and through the Red Cow roundabout with his front wheel sticking out at a 45 degree angle. If it’s getting cars like that off the roads, it can’t be anything but a good thing.” It’s worth noting, though, that any car on the road is supposed to have its NCT.
John Dockrell, from IAES in Co Dublin, mostly deals with cars that are beyond saving, but he has had a nice Audi A6, complete with a V6 engine, sent in to be dismantled. It was undoubtedly a great motorway muncher. As was the BMW 735i that he’s heard of being scrapped.
It may seem like a waste, but such cars are an anachronism in this day and age, he argues. They cost so much in tax, fuel and insurance that they are too expensive to run. And you can’t sell them, because nobody else can afford to run them either.
Anyway, my slant on it? If you have a well-preserved, safe classic or rare car and are considering the scrappage route, think about selling it privately first. Not only would it be a crying shame to crush it, but it may be worth far more than you think. But if it’s a complete fume-belching jalopy, throw sentiment out the window and put it out of its – and your – misery. It’ll be better for the environment, better for Ireland’s motor industry and better for your peace of mind.
