A more sustainable approach to car sales; new and used

recycle

Abolish the year of registration. Stupid bloody thing only served to encourage the new car sales bubble.

All car owners should be given an option to have their cars re-registered – to include the glut of pre owned cars crippling garage owners everywhere.

The revenues earned from VRT and the housing bubbles were never sustainable.

Fey!

Why go to the expense of changing the system because people are too snobish to drive around in a car that doesn't have the latest reg year?

Stephen

It should be like the German system where your plate is always your plate, and you take it with you when you get a new/used car.

mickdw

I would love the idea of having a plate that you just took from car to car with you when you buy a new car. We could also then go for personalised plates.
It would cripple the car industry further though as there are people who buy for the reg.

Fey!

With the German system, if you move from one region to the next your reg changes, but if you change your car and stay in the same region your number stays the same.

E.G. I live in Galway, I dirve a 520 and my number is FEY:G:1975
I buy a 525, and my number is FEY:G:1975
I move to Cork, with my 525, and my number becomes FEY:C:1975 (or whatever's available, but always with the C in the middle).

Also in Germany, each car has a sticker in the window based on emissions, and only cars with certain stickers or better are allowed into some town centres or other places.

But again, why should the state (taxpayer) go to the expense of changing the system to suit the snobs?

Saab Ed

Fey! wrote: »

With the German system, if you move from one region to the next your reg changes, but if you change your car and stay in the same region your number stays the same.

E.G. I live in Galway, I dirve a 520 and my number is FEY:G:1975
I buy a 525, and my number is FEY:G:1975
I move to Cork, with my 525, and my number becomes FEY:C:1975 (or whatever's available, but always with the C in the middle).

Also in Germany, each car has a sticker in the window based on emissions, and only cars with certain stickers or better are allowed into some town centres or other places.

Good God man the donkeys in Revenue struggle with what they've got already. This might mean real work and we know what civil servants think about that

robtri

recycle wrote: »

Abolish the year of registration. Stupid bloody thing only served to encourage the new car sales bubble.

How is that a more sustainable approach???
Dealers and revenue like the snobs who buy because of the reg plate...
keeps both their heads above water....
why would any dealer support this if it going to be a dis-ncentive to buy new cars??? how is that helping the motor trade??

peasant

Just to clarify here ...the German system is cack (and expensive)

You first register a new car in county x and the car gets assigned a random number.

X - AB - 123 (if you want certain letters or numbers you may or may not get them ...at a cost)


Now, if you move to a different county, you have to register the car there, loose your old reg and get assigned a new, random one (for a fee, of course), the reg does not stay with the car! If you move around a lot, the cost adds up.


If you sell the car to someone from within the county, the reg does stay with the car, the buyer still has to re-register it to their name though (for a fee, of course. So there is no way of keeping your old reg either ...unless the old car is scrapped.

If you sell the car to someone from a different county, they get a new, random reg there. Your old reg may become available again to put on your new car (if that isn't registered yet) but that very much depends if the registrar behind the counter is willing to play along or not ...and it comes with a fee.

So ...let's not use the German system, please

recycle

robtri wrote: »

How is that a more sustainable approach???
Dealers and revenue like the snobs who buy because of the reg plate...
keeps both their heads above water....
why would any dealer support this if it going to be a dis-ncentive to buy new cars??? how is that helping the motor trade??

I go along with adage of ‘if it aint broke don’t fix it’.

The car retail business in this country is truly banjaxed.

Leaving aside the issues of restrictions on credit etc, this is my opinion:

Dealers and ultimately Revenue rightly benefited from the snob car purchasing culture (as you put it) of people who bought into the idea of displaying the latest registration plate on their cars. This type of mass conspicuous consumption which occurred across all vehicle categories is disappearing.

What’s the typical life cycle of a modern car including minor facelifts – 6 or so years?

The benefit to me as a more rational consumer than in the past (celtic bubble) is:

1) I spend 40k on a new model VW Golf GTI, straight out of the box, in 2009. In 2015 my well kept car looks like the NEW car sitting in the VW showroom with a price tag of 40k. My car has depreciated at roughly the same rate but psychologically at the time of purchase, and through the lifetime of repayments on the loan, it has a positive impact in my purchasing decisions on a new car. i.e. I will be inclined towards purchasing a new car again. EFFECT: NEW CAR SALE

2) I decide that I would prefer to spend my 40k on a BMW 335i. There is one being retailed in a garage for 40k – but it’s a used car with a 2007 plate. I would like to purchase this car but don’t because I also like the idea of having ‘the latest thing/plate’. I also factor in that when I decide to sell my car in two years time – whilst still being a current manufacture’s car- a prospective buyer will view my car as old and may also be inclined towards a ‘newer plate car’. EFFECT: LOSS OF USED CAR SALE

I see long term benefits to both New and Used car sales.

I think it’s short-sighted and incorrect to say this measure would harm New car sales.

The 'dizzying and bubbly heights' of new car registartions will not return. The system needs lots of changes. This is a practical one.

pburns

I think it's absolutely crazy that there are campaigns urging use to 're-use, recycle' and yet perfectly good cars end up on the scrapheap every year because the reg-plate makes Joe Bloggs look like a poor person. No point castigating ordinary Joe - that's human nature. It's crazy - money is leaving the country, there is a negative environmental impact - all for a lousy bit of revenue from VRT...

We had a crazy situation a while back where the clueless Greens were encouraging the move to lower-emission cars. It is also completely disingenuous (but understandable I suppose) of the SIMI to claim the sale of low CO2 cars is good for the environment.

Most 'sustainable' practice would be having longer life-cycles on the 'national-fleet'. The motor industry has been (and still is) artifically inflated.

I think a system similar to what we had pre-87 would be best. The year was not so immediately obvious (although guessable by those who are clued in).

G Luxel

There is some system like that in Poland. If you buy a 2nd hand car there, you have to re-register it. Even if a polish person living in ireland bought a polish registered car over here, they have to re-register the car, send the old plates back to the polish VRT office, then wait to receive the new plates, because Irish-made plates are deemed illegal on polish vehicles and,even though the car will probably stay in ireland and could be resold, even next week, it has to be re-registered again........:eek:

arent we lucky with our system............:)

galwaytt

G Luxel wrote: »

There is some system like that in Poland. If you buy a 2nd hand car there, you have to re-register it. Even if a polish person living in ireland bought a polish registered car over here, they have to re-register the car, send the old plates back to the polish VRT office, then wait to receive the new plates, because Irish-made plates are deemed illegal on polish vehicles and,even though the car will probably stay in ireland and could be resold, even next week, it has to be re-registered again........:eek:

arent we lucky with our system............:)

...if you think foreign registered cars, being used here, are legally registered in their home country, let alone street legal (e.g type of plate)........then you are sorely misguided..........

I see no plates hopping from one car to the other all the time........

Oh, and is there any way to check if the reg on a particular foreign car is legit ? There's one or two I wouldn't mind checking out........

Finally, is there such a thing as 'private' or 'personal' plates in Poland ? And, can you transfer your reg from one car to the other ?

robtri

recycle wrote: »

1) I spend 40k on a new model VW Golf GTI, straight out of the box, in 2009. In 2015 my well kept car looks like the NEW car sitting in the VW showroom with a price tag of 40k. My car has depreciated at roughly the same rate but psychologically at the time of purchase, and through the lifetime of repayments on the loan, it has a positive impact in my purchasing decisions on a new car. i.e. I will be inclined towards purchasing a new car again. EFFECT: NEW CAR SALE

but if your a snob on the plate sytem, you would have bought 3 NEW CARS in this 6 year period... effect: 3 new car sales....

recycle wrote: »

2) I decide that I would prefer to spend my 40k on a BMW 335i. There is one being retailed in a garage for 40k – but it’s a used car with a 2007 plate. I would like to purchase this car but don’t because I also like the idea of having ‘the latest thing/plate’. I also factor in that when I decide to sell my car in two years time – whilst still being a current manufacture’s car- a prospective buyer will view my car as old and may also be inclined towards a ‘newer plate car’. EFFECT: LOSS OF USED CAR SALE

I just don't get this one at all......

recycle

robtri wrote: »

I just don't get this one at all......

Granted – it’s not written particularly well.

Very simply, it has the potential to stimulate New and Used car sales. It's black and white.

Perhaps its too straight forward a measure to understand for those who somehow cling on to the expectation that new car sales will return to the unsustainable levels of the bubble years.

And it could not be a more simple measure to introduce from any prospective, including administrative.

craichoe

Fey! wrote: »

With the German system, if you move from one region to the next your reg changes, but if you change your car and stay in the same region your number stays the same.

E.G. I live in Galway, I dirve a 520 and my number is FEY:G:1975
I buy a 525, and my number is FEY:G:1975
I move to Cork, with my 525, and my number becomes FEY:C:1975 (or whatever's available, but always with the C in the middle).

Also in Germany, each car has a sticker in the window based on emissions, and only cars with certain stickers or better are allowed into some town centres or other places.

But again, why should the state (taxpayer) go to the expense of changing the system to suit the snobs?

Not in all places, just where the Umweltzone is in effect.

Also, what happens when two people with FEY X 1975 move to cork

Del2005

recycle wrote: »

Abolish the year of registration. Stupid bloody thing only served to encourage the new car sales bubble.

All car owners should be given an option to have their cars re-registered – to include the glut of pre owned cars crippling garage owners everywhere.

The revenues earned from VRT and the housing bubbles were never sustainable.

Why would someone buy a car and not ask how old it is? The new plate snobbery may go away if the reg stays the same, but it will just be replaced with new car snobbery.

If people want to impress their neighbours by having a lastest year registered car in their driveway they aren't going to stop if they have a random reg. The neighbours will still know it's a brand new car...

BTW who is supposed to pay for all this? The country has no money and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay to have my reg changed.