Cash for Clunkers Program
 

Do you guys know about this? have questions?

The official rules will be delivered the 24th, but I have a rough understanding of how this is going to work. Up to $4500 for taking your gas guzzler off the road and buying an efficient car begins this Friday.

info here

mpg ratings here

linkto a pdf of the actual law

So my last car, an '82 Buick Century, isn't eligible. It was too old.

I just wanted to say that that's dumb. It's exactly the kind of car that should be taken off the roads. Well, I suppose full size vans, trucks, and SUV are worse.

What are they going to do with these clunkers? Melt them down?

they have to be crushed. engines and drivetrains may not be parted out, but other bits an pieces may.

They're smart that you have to prove you've had the car for a year. Otherwise people would be buying clunkers just for the trade in potential.

Exactly Glatt. I was skeptical, but those two points answer a lot for me. I was saying to J, what, you can go on Craigslist, buy a $500 beater, and get $4500 for it? OK, no you can't.

This is the part that concerns me:

ok....so...like....how do you know when they run out of money? it's going to take a few weeks for the dealer to get paid after the deal is done..... scary

So you just repossess the cars, right? If the buyer won't pay you back?

Oh the irony...:eyebrow:

The most over priced cars:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/01/ove...ner=yahooautos

Same thing they would do to that car if you traded it in - scrap it for spare parts.

Drove a newer version of that same car in the early 1990s. It was all over the road. Even my 1980 Honda Accord in that same month was more stable. Keeping that car on the road was a tribute to the mechanic and the attention of its driver at all times.

Makes no sense to buy a clunker when its very design makes it all but amazing it is still one the road. Would you melt down a miracle?

I can't believe the Wrangler and Liberty are on the list but the Commander isn't... and they have the Wrangler msrp at $28,000 but they start at less than $22,000. Hmmm.

I didn't go to the link yet to read it because I'm in a rush, but I watched the session in Congress on CSPAN when they first passed it in committee, and it is a bad bill. First of all, you have to buy a new car, you can't get a used one. Second, if you're getting rid of a gas guzzling SUV, you only have to buy a new one that gets ONE MORE MPG, and if it's a car, FOUR MORE MPG. That is seriously fucked up. If they were going to do it, it should have been for much better gas mileage, and you should be able to get a used car. This is just another giveaway to the auto companies.

Dianne Feinstein and Olympia Snow were working on a much better bill. I hope some of their ideas got incorporated into this one before it passed the full Congress.

Remember what those who would pervert any soluton want. More SUVs. Why does an SUV have a large engine compartment? Then the world's crappiest cars can still use 1968 technology engines. Then the vehicle need not be an 'integrated' design.

Congress is a cross section of many opinions. Some want vehicles that even a bean counter could design. That is an SUV - designed by bean counters - no innovations - 1968 technology engines. SUV have minimal engineering and exemptions from many design and safety requirements.

paraphrasing:
'i didn't read the link, but i DID want to misquote some information'

(mean comment deleted before posting)

it really depends on what you think the objective of the action is. I think it will definitely stimulate some sales. it will have a minor positive effect on emissions, too. what is more important today?

The program in a nutshell.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/fresh-gr...-clunkers.html

The costs and potential pitfalls.

http://thehill.com/business--lobby/c...009-06-10.html