"The scrap scheme was done to boost consumer confidence, and it has done just that.
Its German market, where a similar scrap scheme has been introduced, was up 22.5%.
Germany, however, reported an 18.4% rise in sales, boosted by a car scrap scheme that subsidizes new auto purchases.
Their version of localism seems to be directing funds towards councils and waiting for them to fail so they can justify scrapping schemes.
"Their roads investment record has been a chaotic series of U-turns – they claimed to support investment, but cut £4bn in planned investment and scrapped schemes in 2010, only to promise to restore them again after 2015," he says.
Neil Shearing of Capital Economics, a consultancy, reckons that German and other scrapping schemes to boost car sales will add fully 1% to GDP in Slovakia, and 0.5% in the Czech Republic and Hungary.The biggest worry now is the Baltic three, which are seeing the sharpest falls in GDP.
But the picture remains grim for the mass market, despite a pickup in demand thanks to government scrapping schemes across the continent, JPMorgan said.
Scrapping schemes, or the European version of the U.S. "cash for clunkers" program, have been introduced continent-wide, slowing losses within the auto sector in France while boosting sales in Germany.
"Our bias is to think that production in the fourth quarter may not improve significantly versus the second quarter of 2009 given risks of a volume slowdown in Western Europe as the appetite for scrapping schemes moderates, especially in Germany," JPMorgan wrote.
