Scrappage dies, deals don't

Mazda is the latest manufacturer to highlight the deals and savings available on its cars once the scrappage scheme ends.

The manufacturer says savings of up to 2000 are available from dealers, whether you have a car to scrap or not. Other manufacturers such as Kia, Nissan, Peugeot and Toyota will continue to offer cash for old bangers, too.

Save even more cash
Follow our guide, though, and it's possible you could save even more money than these deals offer.

Concentrate on the cost to change and, by maximising the value of your old car and minimising the price you pay for the new one, you can save a packet.

Step one
Use our free valuations to see if 2000 is a good deal for your car. An offer of 2000 might well be 10 times the real value of an old banger, but in many other cases you could get far more for your current car on the open market.

Step two
Look at the What Car? Target Price to find out the most you should pay for a new car. These prices show that while savings on Mazdas might start at 445 on a three-door 1.3 TS 2 supermini, they top out at 3736 on the RX-8 coupe. That's almost twice as much as the manufacturer is shouting about with its post-scrappage offers.

Big savings
Armed with these two pieces of information you can be sure of getting a great deal, but shop around dealers and internet brokers and you could get an even lower price than our Target Price.

Our deals pages list some of the biggest savings available, so start shopping around.