Welsh drivers are keeping their cars for longer than the UK average.
Scrappage figures just released show 928 vehicles were crushed in Wales, just 1.7% of the total last year.
That’s comparable with the South West but East England recorded only 272 cars destroyed, or a marginal 0.5% of the total.
One in three cars scrapped was in the North West around Liverpool and Manchester and one-in-six was in Birmingham region.
Britain has seen a surge in scrapping cars throughout 2020 as the pandemic hit. Data from the national Scrap Car Network saw an increase of over 10,000 more drivers scrapping their cars in 2020 compared to two years ago in 2018.
Overall, 37,000 cars were scrapped in 2020 and the data showed that across every part of the UK drivers scrapping their cars was up on the years before.
As the pandemic took its grip last year and people were forced to work from home, or sadly, lost their jobs or were furloughed, the figures show that people have rethought guessed the use of their vehicles and turned to cycling, running and walking as other forms of getting from A to B.
In terms of the national picture, car owners in Birmingham led the way and scrapped over 3,600 cars throughout 2020, followed closely by Manchester (2296), Liverpool (1964) Newcastle (1909) and in fifth place, Glasgow (1812).
In fact, the North West as a whole was the region of the country that scrapped the most cars last year with over 18,329 cars over the period accounting for 33% of all cars that were no longer needed.
Tazamul Sarodia, MD, from Scrap Car Network said, “We’ve been the busiest we have ever been with people scrapping their cars in droves.
“As working from home has become the norm, drivers are seeing less and less need for their vehicles, plus with more people moving away from cities to more rural villages, the car isn’t seen as essential as it once was.
“We also found that unfortunately, scrapping a car for some has been a source of income to tide them over as job losses hit”.