Car industry flinches as scrappage scheme ends

The government's scrappage scheme officially comes to an end today after helping to sell at least 330,000 cars since it was introduced last year.

The latest figures suggest that scrappage contributed to around 20 per cent of all new car registrations, and the government believes that as many as 4000 jobs may have been protected by the scheme's success in attracting customers back to the dealerships.

Scrappage offered UK buyers a £2000 discount on a new car if they traded in one over ten years old. It was established to prop up the car industry after sales plummeted at the tail end of 2008, and co-funded by the manufacturers themselves.