Hundreds Of Amazing Modern Classics Are Waiting To Be Crushed And It’s Illegal To Save Them
BMW E24s/E28s/E30s, classic Minis, Jaguar XJSs, Porsche 924s, 944s and 928s - all can be found in droves sitting on a disused airfield in Bedfordshire. Some probably won’t take much to get back to good working order, all will have valuable parts, and none of them can be touched.
We’re talking about the results of the UK Government’s 2009 scrappage scheme, which enabled people to trade in their old car to be crushed - so long as it had a valid MOT - to get a £2000 discount on a new one. The motivation was to breathe some life into the then-troubled UK car industry, and replace old, polluting vehicles with much cleaner new ones.
The problem? Many of the 392,227 cars scrapped simply did deserve to die. A full list of the cars taken off the road for the scheme was published a year and a half ago, and while that was depressing enough then, seeing images of a lot of the cars in question is pretty hard to take. Thousands of vehicles have not yet been crushed, and an urban explorer recently snuck into a disused airfield in Bedfordshire where many are kept, posting what he saw on Facebook.
While you look through the set - and this additional one here - just remember: by law, these cars, many of which will have been perfectly roadworthy upon arrival, have to go to the crusher. Not a single part can be saved. And all so a bunch of people could get a moderate discount on a boring econobox (apparently Kia did quite well out of the scheme…).
Given the explosion in classic car prices over the last few years, a lot of the vehicles you see here gathering moss and rusting away have become extremely valuable, making it seem like even more of a waste. But there is something we can do. A petition has been launched on Change.org, calling on the government to auction off surviving cars to the public, or at the very least saved for parts. It could end up being futile, but for the sake of a few moments of your time, it’s damn well worth trying…
Source: Pistonheads
Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.
Comments
Common CarThrottle you have so many followers. Get this petition the attention it needs. Make a car meet at the facility or something else. This could be your project to achieve something for the history books of petrol heads. I would come from Germany to support some thing like this.
every CTzen grab your flatheads and a coat hook.
Hold on a second, I have to cry in mynpillow fir 15 days straight now.
Here comes the feel train.
The whole thing about getting rid of pollutive cars is such crap, wasting perfectlt serviceable cars and manufacturing brand new ones surely has quite a negative impact…
Offsetting old car’s emissions by increasing unnecessary manufacturing. Genius. I seriously can’t believe people were willing to scrap their classics for a couple grand. Hopefully many of the cars become priceless icons and the old owners realize the mistake they made
You also need a black guy so we can sacrifice our live for no apparent reason…hahaha…see I would do the job but that’s way to many cool cars to miss out on.
Wow ! Government want ecology … this is ecology !?! Seriously ? They can be used ! Why they did that ?
While this may be a terrible situation, we must remember; We, are the last line of defense for our ride. We must protect what deserves to be protected. Many have been lost, but we must look forward. We cannot dwell on the faliures or tragedies of the past. We must look to our new car, wether it be made in 1973 or 2016, and promise it that it will never suffer, that it will never be alone. To us, cars are more than inanimate objects. They are more than transportation. They are our way of life, and it is our duty to protect them and shield them from the unholy beasts who wish them harm.
Cant we get one of those government petition things going ? With special rules such as allowing us to buy them but there not aloud on the road, they’d raise a decent bit of cash as well I bet !