Scrappage scheme news - Labour extends scrappage scheme - 2009

Business secretary Peter Mandelson has announced that the UK's scrappage scheme will be extended to cover an extra 100,000 cars.

The initial £300 million government investment earlier this year - expected to last until March 2010 - is set to run out early next month.

As the government pays half of the £2,000 scrappage bonus, with the other half stumped up by the dealers and manufacturers, the £100 million top-up announced by Lord Mandelson this week will extend the scheme to another 100,000 vehicles.

The British car industry has campaigned hard for an extension to the scheme, which has been widely vied as modestly successful in stimulating new car sales. It was feared that next January's rise in VAT would have hit dealers hard, a blow that the scrappage scheme top-up should go some way to offsetting.

In the US, it has been revealed the similar ‘cash for clunkers' has seen Americans scrapping a host of classics, including a Bentley Continental R, Mercedes C43 AMG, Maserati Quattroporte and an Aston DB7 Volante.

If you've heard any similar stories of Brits destroying perfectly fine classics in exchange for, say, Hyundai i10s, let us know using those comment-box-thingies...