Cash for Clunkers!

[a440]

Okay,
I know that this has come up before and there was brief discussion about the topic.
I by mistake ran into a few videos of "Clunkers" that were turned in for trade. I must say that it made my heart sink! Some of these cars not only being classic and still good cars, had under 50,000 miles on them!
I can understand an old piece of crap that is a rust bucket. The issue to me is that some of these cars could have lasted another 200,000 miles or so!
I don't understand why "they" could not do a program for needy single mothers. Or families that need reliable and safe transportation at a low cost.
Here are a few examples in video. If you want to see more do a Youtube search for cash for clunkers. It will break your heart!
From what I understand they put some kind of gunk after removing the engine oil into the motor and ran it until the motor sized.

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Beautiful Volvo!

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1994 BMW 530 -- this is such a rare car!

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1998 Caddy Seville that refuses to die!

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560 SEC with less than 90,000 miles!

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This just makes me sick to my stomach. I am a big car fan as much as vintage appliances fan.

Sad.
Brent

 

[cfz2882]

fiasco!

that whole mess was a huge waste of taxpayer dollars,many,
many good rare and desirable cars and trucks(from what i
understand cars had to be less than 25yrs old to qualify)
-a few were junk that were worth far less than the subsidy,
a nissan pickup with the lower half of the body rusted away
is one i seen local.In my area,ford explorers,'94up dodge
pickups,and '90s chevy suburbans seemed to be common-many
in good shape and worth more than the subsidy given.
i will not deal with a new car dealer ever again because of
this and i am glad it was a huge fiasco!!

 

[volvoguy87]

C 4 C

I agree that it was a colossal waste. How much of the subsidy money went out of the country? Car assembly lines are easy to send offshore. Somewhere around HALF of the cars produced are from non-US nameplates. (I drive a Volvo and a Saab). In other words, making new cars is easily outsourced. (There is also the gray area of foreign-owned car companies building cars in the US vs. domestic car companies building cars outside of the US).

From an environmental standpoint, C 4 C was a failure too. Considering the amount of resources and energy used to create a new car, AND dispose of the old one (reuse uses no energy, but recycling does use energy), it is unlikely that enough fuel would be saved by each vehicle over its useful life to compensate.

If they REALLY wanted to stimulate the economy across the country, they would have given vouchers for people to repair their cars or have them in for maintenance. It's darn near impossible to outsource a mechanic!

Also, I feel cheated. I spend time, money, and effort making sure that my cars are maintained in tip-top condition. This ensures that they are reliable and deliver peak performance and economy. Even my 23.5 year old Volvo with pushing 150,000 miles is consistently dependable and remains economical to drive. I feel that the C 4 C program, in many cases, gave people who did not properly care for their vehicles a huge sum of money to a new car. The program did nothing to reward people who perform good maintenance or encourage people to take better care of their cars.

I think that repair and maintenance does more for the US economy than simply buying a new car. It's not big, flashy, and attractive, but the financial aggregate that is maintenance and repair adds up to a whole lot and I think that was completely ignored.

Furthermore, I think that car companies could make more money off of parts and service than they do now. I think they should advertise for people with older models to bring them in for service. They stock parts for more years than most people think, the mechanics are trained, why not make some money off of it? I know I can bring my 1987 Volvo in to a dealership for service (I've done it) with excellent results. Volvo made money servicing a 20+ year old car! There's potentially lots more where that came from too.

Yup, that was a rant,
Dave

 

[qsd-dan]

Cash for Clunkers was a massive fraud perpetrated on the American taxpayer. Hard-earned tax dollars were confiscated by the federal government and given to other people to help them buy new cars, all in the name of fixing a problem that didn't even exist.

 

[tolivac]

In the C4C program the dealer did hav e the option of telling the customer that he could get more money in trade in value for the car rather than the c4c value-don't know why that wasn't done in the case of the cars shown in the film clips-PRETTY STUPID dealer.Should be bitch slapped-these cars could have gotten a good trade in for the customer-and nice resale for the dealer on the lot.Yes overall the C4C program was pretty stupid and wasteful.I have seen other clips of the cars motors being destroyed-then the final indignity-the car then has to be run thru the krusher.Then the crushed car goes thru the shredder.More of a waste than what it saves.Yes,the energy needed to destroy the car is more wasteful than finding those low mileage and classic cars new homes.Politicians get more dumb as time goes on!

 

[whirlcool]

And now we have "cash for insulation" coming our way....

It's just a give for home repair stores...

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aNGrRkT7GyQ0

 

[amyswasher]

Band Aid to fix unemployment

You half to be kidding me? Government does not need to be in the home improvement business, or the car business. As for the cash for clunkers, most of those could have been parted out and would have made more money for the owner. Sounds like the plan was to make parts scarce, so people in a few years, will have no choice but to buy a newer car(under 25 years is a good market for rebuilt parts). I used to help my father fix cars (shade tree) and it messed with my mind when I saw what they do to these engines. It the opposite what is supposed to happen. It made me cringe. Sad Sad Sad!!! "Look people I'm using borrowed money to give these people a job putting in windows." Too bad they will be out of a job in two weeks again, oh forgot to mention, they were on the job for only two week, so they cannot collect unemployment. "See it works, unemployment claims are down, the plan works America"

 

[hunter]

It gets better though....

all the stimulus money for 'green jobs' for example.

Where on earth do y'all think that the items for windmills and such will be manufactured? If you think USA, think again...our tax policies ENCOURAGE offshoring of EVERYTHING.

Hunter, who is in the market for a new pressure cooker and finds he must spend >$200 to buy a Euro made one (i.e. NOT Fagor but instead Fissel or Kuhn Rikon (for the moment)) as everything else is China made. (I don't use China made ANYTHING that will come in contact with food)

 

[reo580]

I'll drink to that!

My feelings exactly! Thank you Volvoguy87. I also think the good running cars should have went to needy people. If the Gov't really wants things to get going in my opinion, Get the Corporations OFF of welfare! I read a book under the same title. It made me sick. But I digress I keep up on my maintenance on my automobile. I keep it in top shape. maintenance vouchers would be a great idea. as someone on here posted already. my thoughts later, Derek

 

[a440]

I feel better....

Feel better knowing that this was sicking and I was not the only one that felt this way!
All of your ideas are aliened with what I was thinking while watching these perfectly good cars torn to shreds.
The few cars that I posted the videos above are only a small percentage. There were some wonderful cars that were killed that would have been more than enough for a struggling family to have to commute to work and such.
One thing that made me feel better was the mechanics talking about how sick they were having to do this, but a job was a job and they had to carry through. Many of the mechanics stated that they would trade their own cars to have the one they were about to kill. They could not however or the dealer would be find $15 grand per car. The "clunker" was in better shape than the mechanics car that was killing it. Makes sense to me. NOT! At least they could have the option to kill their "clunker" and trade it for the car that still had tons of life to it.
Thanks for helping me not think that I was nuts and missing something to this madness that was to turn out good.
Brent

 

[DADoES]

 
Geeeze. The 2nd clip (Volvo) was quite painful. Not watching any more.

 

[a440]

Thank Glen for watching.
It is quite painful.
I did not even post the "best cars". Some of them had under 25,000 miles. Gems!
I don't get it.
Someone is not thinking right making all the decisions.
Brent