What Car? reacts first to UK scrappage scheme

Haymarket’s What Car? team has reacted instantly to the UK Chancellor’s budget statement that the Government is introducing a car scrappage scheme.

Even before Alistair Darling announced on April 22 a £2000 incentive to owners of 10-year-old and older cars to swap for new models, whatcar.com’s news team was first to react early in the morning as leaked news of the announcement reached What Car? editor Steve Fowler. Then, a special area of whatcar.com went live the moment the Chancellor’s announcement was made.

Meanwhile, the go button was pressed on a ‘scrappage special’ edition of the What Car? New Car Guide – it will be on newsstands tomorrow, well ahead of the weekly motoring titles.

As the scrappage scheme comes into force on May 18, the June issue of What Car? will go on sale with a free ‘Scrappage Guide’ supplement bagged on.

The UK media has also kept the editorial team busy with requests for interviews and reaction to the news, culminating with a request from BBC One TV’s News at Six to do a joint feature to be aired today.

The Government announcement made £300 million available to buyers of new cars in the form of a £1000 incentive from Government, if matched by £1000 from car makers. It’s expected that an extra 300,000 new cars will be sold in 2009, helping to safeguard more than 800,000 jobs in the UK motor industry.