Vauxhall Insignia

The ‘Swappage Programme‘ ran by Vauxhall – which includes their most popular models – has had an overhaul to now include three new models, the Insignia, Meriva and Zafira.

Vauxhall’s Swappage offer allows buyers to use any seven-year-old UK-registered car with insurance, road tax and MOT – no matter what its value or condition – as currency to reduce the cost of any of the six models listed by at least £3000.

But in some cases, the deal is almost double that. For example, the Swappage price on a Zafira Life 1.6, which normally retails at £18,670, tumbles to just £12,995, if the buyer has an eligible trade in – that’s a massive saving of £5,675!

‘There’s never been a better time to buy a new Vauxhall’ said Rory Harvey, Vauxhall’s Retail Sales Director. ‘Better still, buyers can take full advantage of the Swappage programme just in time for the new ‘10’ plate on March 1.’

Vauxhall’s Swappage scheme launched on February 5th and applies to new cars ordered or registered before March 31 from participating dealers.

It is amazing how many cars you’ll see out on the road that clearly are breaking the law. By this, I’m referring to their lack of displaying number plates. What is stranger is that these rules are set out by law. It’s probably worth going over the rules here, for new drivers and those seeking to modify their car in any way which may have an impact on their number plate:

A number plate must be displayed at the front and rear of motor vehicles (with some exceptions).
Number plates must be easy to read and meet the British Standard.
Lettering should be black on a white plate at the front and a yellow at the rear.
The background surface should be reflex-reflecting but the characters must not.
There are separate requirements for traditional number plates displayed on vehicles constructed before 1 January 1973.
Lettering and spacing must be of a set size.
Read more about the legal requirements of number plates

Of course, that isn’t to say that you can’t have a personalised plate (that meets British Standards). You can find the DVLA Personalised Registrations page here.

There was a time when buying a car was simple as anything and even easier to tell the year of the year by the letter on the end on the registration number. But it appears despite being out for nearly eight years the new style number plates are confusing the buyers of second hand cars.

The problem lies with the number plates year number, this is fairly clear when the year is stated as 02, 03, 04, 05 etc, but it is the middle of the year registration number that is causing all of the confusion, for example 52, 53, 54, 55, these numbers are actually affecting the value of some second hand cars.

According to certain car valuation guides, when they are pricing a vehicle it would seem that the number first registered in the March to August period that will have a zero for the year are on average worth £300 more than the cars first registered in the later of the same year.

The crazy situation is a clear indication that the car buyers of today cannot get their heads around the new number plate system. But yet it only takes a little bit of education and this would be sorted out once and for all.

Source [Auto Express]