Gordon Brown has indicated that car manufacturer’s finance houses may have the same support extended to them as other banks and finance providers – allowing them to offer incentives such as 0% finance to prospective car purchasers. Richard Burden, the Labour MP and chair of the all-party motor group, met with Brown last week to discuss options. He said “We talked about using the facilities that are available to banks to underwrite consumer credit. Most domestic customers will buy a car on credit and the people offering 0% finance deals, a lot of those will be run by offshoots of the manufacturers. He was receptive to that.”

Ministers are also looking at other schemes to stimulate demand including “scrappage” incentives where motorists looking to trade-in older polluting cars for new green models may be offered a one-off payment. Germany, Spain and France are looking at similar measures worth up to £2,000. The Business Minister Lord Carter told peers recently that “we are considering [scrappage schemes] carefully.

Visit www.Better-Deal.co.uk, with direct links to ten major car manufacturers, for up-to-the-minute offers on car loans and incentives on new cars to UK car purchasers.