Vauxhall moves to make Britain banger-free

It’s an all too common sight on British roads – the so-called banger, emitting choking exhaust fumes into the atmosphere. Everyone would like to get these older, more polluting cars off the streets, but owners of these cars will often tell you they just can’t afford anything better.

Now, as the first part of a new, Europe-wide General Motors environmental initiative called ecoFLEX, Vauxhall is introducing an incentive to help owners scrap their bangers and swap into the most fuel-efficient and lowest-polluting new Vauxhalls.

From now until the end of August, Vauxhall will offer a £1,000 bonus for anyone trading in a car which is then scrapped in exchange for the lowest emission versions of the Corsa, Meriva, Astra and Zafira. Even for drivers who do not want their cars scrapped, dealers will still offer a £250 trade-in bonus to encourage buyers into one of Vauxhall’s cleanest models.

Vauxhall believes this campaign could have a dramatic effect on emissions. According to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) figures, over 15 million cars currently on UK roads are seven years old or more; nearly nine million of these have passed their ninth birthday and over four million cars are more than 12 years old.

Even if these vehicles are well maintained, many will not have the latest emission control equipment and – contrary to expectations – are actually less fuel efficient too. Taking these cars off the road could have a significant effect on emissions of harmful pollutants, including the ‘greenhouse gas’, carbon dioxide.

For example, a 1995 Vauxhall Astra 1.7 D was capable of an average 44.2mpg, whereas the 1.3 CDTi unit in the current Astra returns 58.9mpg. Every litre of petrol spared saves 2.4kg of CO2 and every litre of diesel saves 2.6kg, so a British driver covering 12,000 miles a year in the new Astra would save around £300 in fuel and a huge 800kg of CO2 annually.

And it’s not just CO2 levels which are reduced by driving a new Vauxhall. The latest catalyst technology drastically reduces the most poisonous emissions from a car exhaust. Taking just a thousand petrol vehicles built in the early 1990s off British roads would prevent 11.5 tons of nitrogen oxide ( NOx ) and 41.5 tons of carbon monoxide (CO) being pumped into the atmosphere each year, based on an annual mileage of 12,000.

Vauxhall doesn’t only think it’s the efficiency of cars which is crucial to help the environment, and has worked tirelessly to improve manufacturing processes. As a result the Ellesmere Port plant in Cheshire which builds the latest Astra has halved energy consumption in terms of kWh/vehicle since 2003.

“Modern, low-emission vehicles can only help the environment when they also replace the old cars which still blight Britain’s roads,” says Jonathan Browning, Vauxhall’s Chairman and Vice-President GM Europe. “We know that there are many drivers who would love to see their old car scrapped and replaced by a modern safe, fuel efficient, reliable and ‘greener’ vehicle, but they think they can’t afford it. Vauxhall will now assist them.

“The scrapping incentive is only the first part of our ecoFLEX campaign. We will continue to optimise the internal combustion engine through technologies such as downsizing and turbocharging while perfecting innovations such as the E-Flex hybrid and fuel cells. Ultimately, we aim to remove the car from the environmental equation.”

In addition to the ecoFLEX scrapping incentives, customers can still take their choice of Vauxhall’s existing customer offers, which include zero-percent finance, free insurance and free servicing on certain models. This could mean that a buyer could trade in a ‘banger’ and drive away in a new Corsa for only £6,495 or own Meriva Energy on zero percent finance with monthly payments from just £170.55, for example.

The incentives are available on the most fuel-efficient versions of Vauxhall’s best selling small and family cars: the Corsa 1.0-litre petrol and 1.3 CDTi 75; Meriva 1.4-litre petrol and 1.3CDTi; Astra 1.4-litre petrol and 1.3CDTi and Zafira 1.6-litre petrol and 1.9CDTi 120PS.