Cash for clunkers

[BradC]

Originally Posted by Kir Diesel

Heavy auto sales will help stimulate the economy people thats why they are doing this... If theres a heavy demand for cars and trucks again it will in turn create jobs.. etc etc etc..

Auto sales have always been a big part of Americas economy so i agree with what they are doing.

At least they are doing something.

Actually, it creates a false sense of economic recovery.

[Nors]

Originally Posted by Kir Diesel

Yeah we have a car we would love to trade it for that credit too and buy a new car but it doesnt qualify... maybe they will change some of the qualifications down the road.

Not likely since they can barely meet demand as is.

[The Captain]

There are much better ways to help the economy rather than making it easier for people to buy new cars.

This program just really bothers me. I can't put a finger on the reason, but just annoys me that they're handing out money so that you'll hop in a nice new ford.

[BradC]

Originally Posted by The Captain

There are much better ways to help the economy rather than making it easier for people to buy new cars.

This program just really bothers me. I can't put a finger on the reason, but just annoys me that they're handing out money so that you'll hop in a nice new ford.

Maybe some of the annoyance is someone else buying a car with your tax money? I know that pisses me off.

[Nors]

Originally Posted by BradC

Maybe some of the annoyance is someone else buying a car with your tax money? I know that pisses me off.

And then destroying a previously good car with your tax money? Yeah, this program doesn't make sense to anyone except the big 3 and their lobbyists.

[BradC]

Originally Posted by Nors

And then destroying a previously good car with your tax money? Yeah, this program doesn't make sense to anyone except the big 3 and their lobbyists.

Wouldn't it have made more sense to pay people to strip the cars of anything usable and auctioning that off to salvage yards or something?

You get to create jobs for the people stripping the cars AND you can offset some of the cost of the program via the resale of the used parts...

[StiChick06]

i don't understand that instead of blowing up the traded cars, why not auction them off overseas? at least the ecomony can get some money back some if they would do that rather then just blowing them up

[Nors]

My friend and I had that exact convo. (BradC) last night. Strip all cars down, recycle what you can, sell parts worth something, etc. We were just shooting ideas around and never really came up with a solid plan. But it seems asinine to destroy these cars. On the bright side (I guess) the program was originally supposed to use $4B, then they cut it to $1B. If they pass the "extra" $2B they are still below the original $4B. If that can be looked at as a bright side.

Mini is getting into the spirit

[StiChick06]

^ hahaa thats sadly funny

[The Captain]

Originally Posted by BradC

Maybe some of the annoyance is someone else buying a car with your tax money? I know that pisses me off.

Originally Posted by Nors

And then destroying a previously good car with your tax money? Yeah, this program doesn't make sense to anyone except the big 3 and their lobbyists.

Yeah, i'd say those are two pretty nice reasons.

And how they place a nice $50Mil. cost to the program, so you know some cronies are getting rich off of it, while the average american gets nothing except a pos american car for a few grand off...which does them nothing because the second they pull it off the lot that "discount" becomes part of their ridiculous depreciation.

I hate america.

[Nors]

Originally Posted by The Captain

Yeah, i'd say those are two pretty nice reasons.

And how they place a nice $50Mil. cost to the program, so you know some cronies are getting rich off of it, while the average american gets nothing except a pos american car for a few grand off...which does them nothing because the second they pull it off the lot that "discount" becomes part of their ridiculous depreciation.

I hate america.

At 23,000 dealers participating, thats only $2100 per dealer. I don't know what costs are involved, but I'd imagine disabling the car, towing the car, and other costs like that come into play. But yeah, I wouldn't count out someone getting paid.

[The Captain]

Originally Posted by Nors

At 23,000 dealers participating, thats only $2100 per dealer. I don't know what costs are involved, but I'd imagine disabling the car, towing the car, and other costs like that come into play. But yeah, I wouldn't count out someone getting paid.

If i understand the bill correctly, the dealers are fully reimbursed or should be, and that's part of the $1bil, $4bil, $3bil number, whichever they decide on. The $50mil is for administering it. So that's how much it costs just to run this program. Seems pretty steep to me.

[Honduh]

So why do they have to destroy the car?

As someone who worked at a dealer for 2+ years I wouldn't put it past them to be doing something shady with these cars. (the dealership not the government.)

[Nors]

Originally Posted by The Captain

If i understand the bill correctly, the dealers are fully reimbursed or should be, and that's part of the $1bil, $4bil, $3bil number, whichever they decide on. The $50mil is for administering it. So that's how much it costs just to run this program. Seems pretty steep to me.

Hmm.. I will have to look into that, but $50 mil isn't TOO bad when you think of how big this bill is (as in how businesses are involved). I am going to try to find out what the $50m covers.

Edit: just found this on cars.gov, this does not pertain to the $50m but an earlier discussion in the thread.

What happens to the vehicle I trade in?
The CARS Act requires that the trade-in vehicle be crushed or shredded so that it will not be resold for use in the United States or elsewhere as an automobile. The entity crushing or shredding the vehicles in this manner will be allowed to sell some parts of the vehicle prior to crushing or shredding it, but these parts cannot include the engine or the drive train.

[Nors]

Originally Posted by Honduh

So why do they have to destroy the car?

As someone who worked at a dealer for 2+ years I wouldn't put it past them to be doing something shady with these cars. (the dealership not the government.)

The fed will be going over all the records for the dealerships and any infraction is a $15,000 fine, IIRC. thats some motivation not to do shady practices because the money to be made on these "clunkers" is less than $15k.

[Honduh]

I sure am glad there isn't a single honda that qualifies for this.

[FazdaGt]

While I don't necessarily agree with the program, I can understand the attempt to boost car sales and help the economy.

However I also agree that it's really just giving a false sense of economic improvement while destroying perfectly good cars.

It's sad to know that they are making the cars useless.

I understand wanting to get older cars that pollute the air off of the roadways, but there are plenty of people still driving their "clunkers" because even with the $4500 help they still cannot afford a new car. So, we'll just destroy all of the affordable used parts that could be going to our local salvage yards to save that family a few bucks. Makes perfect sense huh?

A few government owned salvage yards throughout the country would make these parts usable, and as said earlier get some of the money donated back.

[Showoff03LS]

shreding these cars and not sending them to savlage yards will inturn hurt all auto savage yards cuz half of the places make their money off of engines and transmissions. the Gov. really knows how to screw over the US so they can make more for them selfs

[The Captain]

It honestly seems like the government is out to make it "seem" like we're doing fine, and then hoping that people will react accordingly and thus turning around the economy. But at what cost are they making it 'seem' like everything is getting better and what if it doesnt work?

[Showoff03LS]

it wont work as usual.