Sonic'

Heard this earlier on Radio 1

Should Uninsured cars be crushed, apparently this year 100,000 cars have been seized for the owners driving without insurance, and 45,000 of those cars have been crushed

I sold my Laguna a few weeks ago, and the guy who bought it does work for the company who has crushed quite a few of these cars

He told me that they cannot be stripped of any parts, and are all marked/stamped etc and no matter on the age/quality/type of vehicle they get crushed

His last one was a 6 month old Vauxhaul Vectra fully loaded

So should they all really be crushed, or should they be re-registered and sold at auction

I think that cars under so many years old should be sold on, the reason I say re-registering them is that if kept with the old plates, then the former owner could still come and take the car back as will undoubtedly still have a set of keys/alarm fobs etc for them, and if seen could potentially 'steal' it back

It seems an awful waste of some good cars, I can however undertsand on some of the older beat up wrecks that get driven round un-insured but new cars seems a bit daft

noobyscooby

This is crazy. Here we are trying to be "green" and the government, instead of re-registering - good idea - the cars and auctioning them, crushes the damned things. What a waste of resources!

Shark Man

It's a barmy idea of curing the symptom, not the cause:

The uninsured drivers should be put in the crusher, not the cars.

NotoriousREV

They should be sold at auction and the money given to victims of uninsured drivers.

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Crush em & recycle as much as possible. We (the insured) end up paying for the non insured ******* ... what's fair about that?!

TX.

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

Selling them as salvage would make more sense than just crushing them

Yet another example of how un-green the government is while punishing us for being evil planet killers.

MattW

I thought the owner could reclaim when they produced valid insurance?

Reality

Anyone see the cop show about 4 months ago with the fat munter driving around with her kid in an un insured car - cops seized car and let her go.

Couple hours laters pulled the same fat retard in a different un insured car.



Time's coming for a clear out of pond life !

David Lock

Why not pulp the cars with no excise duty instead? These are likely not to be insured or tested (hence no disc) and are likely to be older cars and possibly dangerous.

But, in reality, I think they should be confiscated, re-plated, and put back into the system probably by way of auction. dl

PeteBrant

State run third party insurance - No more uninsured drivers ever. Job done.

richs2891

I think this idea definately has its advantages !!

Richard

jaytc2003

iTrader: (1)

best idea as mentioned above would be to auction the cars off, and put the money in a fund to help pay for compensation etc for victims (or reduce fuel duty )

or as mentioned above state run 3rd party insurance, petrol could go up slightly to pay for this. Then if petrol is too expensive the numpties wont be on the road anyway

OllyK

No the car shouldn't be crushed, just the owner.

PeteBrant

Well, yeah - Like no problems with uninsiured drivers ever again. If you want fully comp, you can pay for it through an insurance company, but you can drive safely in the knowledge that if you ever get hit by another car it *will* be insured.

The cost is covered by every driver paying, say £150 per year.

You could even stick it on fuel so that the more people drive the more they pay for thier insurance, which seems fairer.

I can't see any argument against it really.

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

Except those of us who pay their way will get screwed over by increased tax rates, while those who sit around on their **** all day get to drive around while having their insurance, along with their kids, beer, Sky TV, car, 5 bedroom house full of illegitimate kids, paid for by me.

No thanks.

Just deal out real punishment to repeat offenders.

PeteBrant

Calm down dear. If you stick it on petrol then every one pays.

Try again

Simon 69

Uninsured drivers are a symptom of a problem. The cure to that problem would be a compulsary state third party insurance scheme. I understand that this would only cost each driver about £35 a year; unfortunately there is little political will nor financial insentive for the f*ckers to do anything about this.....

Prasius

iTrader: (1)

Okay - how do you avoid insurance fraud? People making personal injury claims after having their buddy crash into them etc...

As for sticking it on petrol - you can't convince the Government to stick Road Tax on petrol, which makes a massive amount of sense - so the chances of state-funded insurance....

Simple answer is in my mind, make people take personal responsibility of their actions. If they are uninsured and have an accident, then their house, and anything of value in it, gets reprosessed in order to cover costs and pay the innocent party their dues. If they are caught on several occassions - ban them from driving - for life if need be - having a driving licence isn't a right after all, it is a privilege that you earn when you pass your driving test, and if ultimately required, send them to jail.

PeteBrant

Surely you can see that penalties don't work. There will always be people that will drive regardless. Regardless of bans, regardless of points or fines, even jail.

As for fraudulent claims - it would be no different to what it is now, surely?

End of the day a state run system means that everyone is insured and it ceases to be a problem.

That's the aim isn't it? Get the uninsured off the road? Here is an absolute 100% guaranteed system - No other system can give that.

Wish

iTrader: (2)

Twice Ive been hit by unisured drivers .... Twice.

Low life scum.... Let the crushing begin !

billythekid

My understanding was that anything worth more than 5k was sold on.?

Brendan Hughes

I say crush any car doing more than 20% over the speed limit.

ZIPPY

I saw that epsiode too.

Too true she should have been locked up and sterilised so she cant breed anymore *******.

My brother is in the Met and he says in his area (Bermondsey/Southwark) over 60% of stops have no insuarance and dont give a sh#t either.

I agree though the cars should be sold on or broken for salvage, the asset recovery division of the Police is allowed to sell on what ever it recovers the Mets version is driving an Audi R8 it recovered.

It will be sold within 6 months due to the criminals getting to know the car.

EvilBevel

Whilst still on the move.

Sonic'

I am another in massive favour of putting road tax onto the cost of petrol, it would certainly put an end to untaxed vehicles being driven, and not only that the more you drive the more money goes towards the road tax (added onto petrol costs)

So effectively it is pay as you drive all round

I find it so annoying I have to pay the same tax as someone doing 100k miles a year and I only do about 6k a year, yet I use the road far far less

Yes I know the current road fund license money doesn't go back into roads, but it would still mean the more you use the more you pay, which is a fairer scheme

Back onto the topic of this thread

I agree that money made from the sale of worthy cars instead of being crushed should either go to an uninsured drivers pot to pay out to the victims, or like others have said a state based 3rd party insurance

I would rather pay an extra 35 quid a year to fund this, instead of constantly having to pay 100's extra a year to cover the current cost of uninsured driving by the idiots

Dracoro

Judging by the amount of cars I saw doing 85+ on the motorway there's a LOT of cars to be crushed!! Many not old bangers

Problem if you sell them on, most of the cars under this law are old heaps that would never pass an MOT and need a lot of work (i.e.£££) so they will just end up with someone else who won't maintain it and not have ins etc. anyway.

So yes, scrap them. or dismantle and sell parts, whatever but don't let the heaps back on the road.

ZIPPY

In Liverpool some months ago the Police set up ****** squads at supermarkets and sectioned one area off to impound cars with no MOT, insurance or Tax. They had camera vans either side of the approach to the supermarket so there was no avoiding it even if you tried to drive past (2 Police cars either way waiting)

You should have seen some of the cars they got, i counted 4 new M3's, 7+ 3 series Cabrios and quite a few other high end motors so its not always sh#t boxes that are caught illegally.

They had 3 flatbeds ferrying them to where ever they where to be stored prior to crushing.

Brendan Hughes

Bloody hell, who are these people? What is the profile of the person that can afford a car like that but not the insurance? (Or is it because they spent so much on the car?)

I'd have thought that even the local drug kingpin would have enough left to insure it properly.

Would love to see some police stats on this.

Sonic'

They have for a long time had a Subaru (reddish blue) sat outside on the dock road in Liverpool with massive stickers on it stating no insurance car will be crushed etc

Not sure if it is still there now

An interesting point Zippy, why is it all the uninsured drivers at the supermarket were in BMW's

Sonic'

Some stats from 04 from the RAC

* 35.1 % of male drivers aged 18-20 have driven without insurance or a licence*
* 21.5% of 16-17 yr old males have driven without insurance or licence*
* 9.2% of 16-17 yr old females have committed the same offence*
* 30% of males and 12% of females aged 21 to 25 have also offended*
* The Motor Insurance Bureau paid out £500 million to the victims of uninsured motorists last year. This is paid out of the premiums of honest motorists.
* There were 266,750 convictions for driving without insurance in 2001
* Approximately 16% of uninsured drivers get convicted each year
* One in ten drivers have been involved in an accident with an uninsured driver
* Uninsured drivers are up to nine times more likely to be involved in an accident
* Uninsured drivers are more likely to be involved in hit and run collisions.

Now those figures have increased quite a bit, or certainly the number caught has increased