Clunkers OH Really?

[Robert]

I like cars and machinery in general, I also know quite a few people that could use a good car and don't really have the money. So when I saw these cars marked as clunkers I was kinda pissed. I am not mad at people that took this deal because there are quite a few on this board that did this deal. I am mad that good cars that people could have used are being destroyed in the name of whatever. That again our government took good vehicles and are destroying them 3 billion later. My truck would have qualified for the program but I just couldn't part with it like that.

[stormrider]

Our local Chevy dealer has a yard full of them. There are a lot of them in better shape than a lot of cars on the streets today. Could have made it better, say if you had a gas guzzler that burns oil, that needed lots of repairs, come trade it in for pocket change for one of the clunkers. Still would have gotten guzzlers off the road and would have helped those in greater need. I would have loved to had a new ride but don't want the payment but could have traded a 87 Dodge van for something that got lots better milage with some of what was traded in. Oh well, .... It also takes out a lot of good used parts for those that can't afford new parts.

[Tropic traveler]

I hear you Robert. At the dealer I work we have only 3 clunker trade ins. Two worn out Town Cars & a well used mid '80's conversion van. Our G.M. didn't jump on the C4C bandwagon right away, he waited around a while before letting the salespeople take 'em. We would have had one more but they gave the guy $4,500 off for his trade & kept it instead. It was a late '90's Mercury Villager van, low miles in excellent condition, only thing wrong was it was smoked in & stunk! The detail dept. has been detoxing it & it will be the "new" customer shuttle van for the service dept. We only had 3 cars that were eligible for the C4C program. the Mercury Milan & Mariner plus the Lincoln MKX. All the other cars in the Lincoln Mercury lineup either cost too much or didn't get good enough mileage.
You should have seen the C4C lot at the local Toyota dealer here. LOTS of decent looking cars mixed with lots of true "clunkers". As a rule, anything the government gets involved in WILL be wasteful & have unintended consequences!

Oh, BTW.... we still haven't been paid for the C4C cars & haven't blown up the engines yet either!   That may be some fun!    

[..]

As I've written before. The bailout for the clunker financing in 12 to 18 months will be enormous.

I really do hope I'm wrong.

[six2go #152]

As I've written before. The bailout for the clunker financing in 12 to 18 months will be enormous.

I really do hope I'm wrong.

That could be a possibility, but the local paper here in Ft. Wayne reported that  80% of the clunker deals in the area were paid for in cash(no financing). Seems lots of people were just waiting for the right deal at the right time.

[Serk]

Yeah, being a lover of all things mechanical, I found this program very sad... Those were mostly perfectly good operable vehicles that are being destroyed...  :'(

Here's one of the most interesting ones I saw:

http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=121299

[Robert]

Serk NOW THAT'S FUNNY thanks I had to work on those and really they were a pos no I mean really a pos no A really big pos I used to hate those things I swear it was one reason Maserati was going out of business. They had twin turbos that went to a carb now rather than doing it right they put the carb in a box and pumped the turbo boost into the box. This is really a poor mans way to do things. They leaked oil ran for garbage even new and there's so much more I hate to say it but in my book that really qualifies. Thanks I really had a good laugh at that one after all the annoyance those things caused me its nice to see one go up in smoke. But I really don't think that you will have to add anything to the engine it will self destruct.

[MAD6Gun]

The dealer I work for destroyed over 150 cars and trucks. Most were traded in on Honda's. Most of the vehicles traded in were SUVs and Pickup's. Some were in good shape just high miles. We had a 99 Caddy come in with 120,000 miles with a darn near perfect body and interior. We locked up the engine and sent it to the shreader. What a waste.  From what I heard some dealers "locked" up the engines and then sent them to salvage yards. We sent them to the local recycler to be shreaded, never to be seen again.
 Last I heard the dealer is still waiting for something like $400,000 from the governemt for the deals to be finalized. I also heard that the $4,500 is going to be taxed.  I  may be wrong about that,not sure.