"Cash for Clunkers"...WTH?

Guest · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:06 pm

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/2 ... +car+sales

This has got to be the 2nd most retarded idea ever.

The first being oil companies being allowed to buy old "environmentally unfair" cars for cheap in order to avoid environmental fees (google Hot Rod Magazine's project "Crusher Camaro")

Albert · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 12:24 pm

Politics.....geeeeez.

I got a 10 year old clunker and I am keeping it.....it runs just fine.

Signcutter21 · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:07 pm

very disheartening for owners and rebuilders of older cars. Gonna make finding parts more difficult. At least they haven't TOLD us we have to get rid of our clunkers and HAVE TO buy one of the new eco-cars.

later,
mike

dog_party · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:38 pm

I just threw up a little.

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:39 pm

we already had this discussion about them doing this, apparently a lot on the forum are under the assumption that it won't make yard parts harder to get, on the other hand I think a good number of yards will participate in it too

not everything that gets taken to the yard is wrecked, and usually those are the ones you want something off of

it is one way of gradually pushing people into being forced to buy a new car

get rid of your 'clunker' and perhaps you no longer have a 2nd vehicle for when your DD goes boom

jeepkj02 · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:41 pm

Crushing an classic muscle car, they should go to hell for that!!

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 1:43 pm

well, i doubt many classics will get crushed

however, not all parts for classic muscle cars come from other classic muscle cars!

tjkoen01 · **Posted:** Fri Jun 12, 2009 11:23 pm

JeepinJarhead03 wrote:

well, i doubt many classics will get crushed

yeah, they will get crushed before they become classics! :evil:

so what is the definition of a clunker anyway?

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Sat Jun 13, 2009 1:29 am

anything made by US car manufacturers before 2010

KJ 119 · **Posted:** Sat Jun 13, 2009 6:50 am

So if I trade in my 56 F-100(8MPG)for one of those hybrid thingies(45MPG) you mean they'll actually give my $4500.
I think replacing an old Gremlin for a hybrid would be a tragedy.
THIS IDEA SUCKS!

xturboexpress · **Joined:** Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:43 am **Posts:** 75

I think you all have the completely wrong idea.

If you want to trade your 80's piece of crap in for a new car, you get $4500 (pending the mpg of the new car). I don't see whats so bad about that.

The people with "valuable" classics or cars they want to keep keep them... no one is saying "lets go crush 60's muscle cars."

I think the plan is aimed at all the terrible domestics that were made in the 80's and 90's not anything anyone would consider precious.

The buyer gets $4500 free bucks that turn around and go right back into the failing auto industries.

That $4500 combined with the discounts you can get right now mean you could drive off in a new Liberty for under $15k easy. I heard Nitros were being sold for 16-17 brand new with Chrysler current deals before even considering the extra gov money. Technically that's is $11,500 for a brand new KK.

There is only $1B in founding for the whole project last I heard, so I doubt when its been spent its going to make any impact at all on parts availability.

I just might go out and buy a $500 Crown Vic just for the discount it's worth, I sure wont mind it being turned into a pancake =)

tomsjeep · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2009 5:59 pm

But the legistlation states something to effect that engines that get less than 18 mpg will have to be crushed, and the parts cannot be farmed out or resold.
Since gearing and drivetrain has a lot to do with mpg, how will these folks know what mpg an engine gets?

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2009 7:07 pm

exactly

to assume that such a bill will stop at 'if you want to' is putting a bit too much trust in the source

to allow people to crush vehicles for cash does not require legislation

xturboexpress · **Joined:** Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:43 am **Posts:** 75

JeepinJarhead03 wrote:

to assume that such a bill will stop at 'if you want to' is putting a bit too much trust in the source

Are you trying to say that the Obama administration is going to come knocking on the door asking for keys to every 10 year old car or older than gets less than 18mpg? Really? Otherwise it very much is an "if you want to" situation.

This thread sounds like a monster truck show edition truck-a-sarus is going to come through suburbia consuming every muscle car in its path.

tomsjeep wrote:

But the legistlation states something to effect that engines that get less than 18 mpg will have to be crushed, and the parts cannot be farmed out or resold.
Since gearing and drivetrain has a lot to do with mpg, how will these folks know what mpg an engine gets?

They will most likely be using the cars original sticker MPG, as I have heard that the whole car will be crushed, not just the motor. The point is again, what does it matter? These are not going to be desirable cars. Everything being crushed is going to be something the owner cares less about than a discount on a new economy car. Even if we "lose" 100 iroc Camaros or 5.0 Mustangs, whats the real damage done and why is this a "go to hell terrible idea?" Their are hundreds of thousands of them left, and any part you need could still be had aftermarket. There is not going to be any terrible shortage of parts for any car.

Money is going to be indirectly injected back into Domestic auto makers, and the average MPG of cars on American roads will go up slightly. Oh, and you'll pay it all back in taxes.

JeepinJarhead03 · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2009 8:58 pm

source has nothing to do with obama or the administration

simply the federal government and not anymore specific than that

yes we will pay it back in taxes, as we will the other wasteful spending, and the reality being, if people are crushing clunkers.. guess what..

they probably aren't driving them thus not raising the avg mpg of the pool of vehicles on our roads

for the price of the "45mpg hybrids", 4500 bucks is not going to make or break a sale on them, you can either afford to purchase one, or you can't. such vehicles don't exist along the economy affordibility line as a 9000 dollar brand new dodge neon :lol:

along that line.. it doesn't take much stretch of the imagination to figure out where taxpayer funded 4500 dollar bonuses are going .. back to low-middle class tax payers? probably not

if you think this smidge of questionably misappropriation of tax payer money is trustable and not a introduction of groundwork for actual government regulation of what you can't and can't drive, that's fine you're entitled to that opinion

i personally feel as 'good natured' as it seems at first glance, both the direction of the flow of taxpayer money and the characteristics of it's legislation simply strike a bad chord with me and i honestly find it hard to believe that it isn't just the first step prior to the government telling us what we can and can't drive regardless of what we already own, it certainly wouldn't be unprecidented - with automobiles yes, in other terms no

anyway i'm going to continue reading but i'm done commenting - it's all yours

daspes · **Posted:** Sun Jun 14, 2009 9:50 pm

REMINDER - NO POLITICS

I can't believe that this thread has lasted this long, concerning the subject...

Nice job to those who have posted, lets keep it going.

---

Personally, I think the bill is a horribly bad idea. So many ways this can go wrong. Heck my brand new JK at 15 MPG city may fall under this bill as a clunker...

xturboexpress · **Joined:** Wed Jan 09, 2008 1:43 am **Posts:** 75

daspes wrote:

Personally, I think the bill is a horribly bad idea. So many ways this can go wrong. Heck my brand new JK at 15 MPG city may fall under this bill as a clunker...

MPG is only half the equation, it has to be old, too.

I don't really want to argue, and I'm not much for politics, but even though this program is doing great in Europe, I don't see it holding up long here. I just like that its finally a little bit of gov spending that nothing is keeping me from absorbing, even if I have to buy the clunker to trade in. I've been eying the new Genesis coupe 2.0T for a while, and $4500 is a pretty significant chunk off that price tag. Base is about $21k so that's $16.5k for a brand new well-warrantied coupe that out of the box rivals cars twice as expensive.

I've heard JK's are going cheap right now too. I'm not going to deny $4500 if I'm going to be paying taxes for the rest of my life either way =)

"Cash for Clunkers"...WTH?

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