OT cash for clunkers trade in

[Young Ed]

My neighbor told me last night that he heard the traded in clunkers were to have the engines destroyed. I thought that sounded like the stupidest thing ever so I went in search of confirmation. He's right. Here's a quote right from cars.gov FAQ

"Can a dealer resell the traded-in vehicle?"

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.

[Levand16]

$4500 for a car that will never be sold again, or in other words no way for the government to get the $4500 dollars back. Is it just me or is this a stupid waste of my tax dollars! The sad part is most people think that money just comes from no where, no harm to anyone.

[Young Ed]

Basically they will get a couple 100 dollars out of it for scrap value. Or maybe the dealerships get that after collecting the 4500 from obama. If everyone gets the 4500 thats 222,222 new cars. If everyone only got the 3500 level thats 285,714 cars. So this ordeal is supposedly going to sell ~250,000 new cars between july and november? What happened to everyone being broke and out of work?

[dezeldoc]

Everyhing can be resold except the motor, the program is stupid and won't work. the cars it is designed to get off the road are mostly owned by people that don't have the means or credit to afford a new car. some guy was braggin about his daughter that is a teacher and how they walked out with a new car for 15,000 grand and she used the 4500 and then got another 1500 from the dealer, that wasen't no deal most all the ford and dodge dealers are matching the 4500 rebate and all the other insentives, my kid looked into it and he could get a extended cab ranger for less that 9,000 grand, but once again he has no credit being as he is only 18. and another thing why is it that they are allowing the import cars to be included in this, it should be american cars manfactures only.

[Young Ed]

Ya and you can't trade in pre 1984 vehicles either. If someone was truely driving something that old it should be included.

[dezeldoc]

Norm, their is a website they make you use to determine the mpg and that is what they go off not what you get. so if your car actually gets 13 but the chart says 18 then again you get hit so not all is fair with this garbage.

[Young Ed]

Norm there is no sliding scale. You get either 3500 or 4500. I put your 95 lumina van into the calculater and you could get 3500 off a dodge caravan. I tried to go to a modern chevy van but I didnt recognize the name of their new minivan in the list of available models. Your new van would only need an average MPG of 2 higher to qualify for the 3500.

[Young Ed]

I agree Norm it doesn't make sense for you. Now if your same van had say 183K then maybe. Oh I looked at it a little more and apparently in addition to the 3500-4500 the buyer also gets the couple hundred bucks the clunker is worth in scrap.

[Dennis Hemingway]

and another thing why is it that they are allowing the import cars to be included in this, it should be american cars manfactures only.

dezeldoc, What is a import car? My Toyota Tundra was made in America and the Furd Ranger I traded in on it was made in Mexico.

Dennis;)

[JIPJOBXX]

Well I thanked Obama yesterday for giving me 4500 dollars for my old GMC S-15 as I now own a new HHR.

Here is how the deal went:

My trade in rig got 17 MPG and the car I bought gets around 28 to 32.

You haft to have owned the car for more than a year

And you haft to show proft of insurance for the owning that rig.

There is a government site that shows you if you fit into there program. http://www.cars.gov/

I traded in my 2003 Honda Civic for 7,000 dollars and I got 4500 dollars for the clunker deal. Also Chevy had some of there own rebates also. So the sicker price of the car was nearly 22,000 dollars but when I finished the deal I got my new car for 6,998 dollars. Nice deal and I appreciated my tax dollars going into my new car:D.

You also get a big tax brake at the end of the year by uncle SAM for just buying a car at this time.

I really didn't want to give up my S-15 or my Honda but the deal was to good. So now I'm looking for another small truck for my weekend trips for picking up junk or whatever.

That's the deal a new 22,000 dollar car for 6998.00 dollars not bad. Jon:cool:

[dezeldoc]

Hope you have better luck with the HHR than some friends had.

Dennis, their ya go splittin hairs! Kia, Hyundai get the point.

[dezeldoc]

Norm i had 2 dodge pick ups that were nothing but problems, way to many trips to the dealer and they bought the first one back, now the one i have is going the same route as the first. i don't know about you but i don't like to buy something new and have problems with it then have to take it to the dealer to get it fixed repeadly for the same problems. both were first year change over models never again. were is the final dollar going in the end norm it is not in this country.

[greg g]

GM is out of the mini Van business as is Ford. Chrysler and Dodge are the only US marques making "mini" vans.

Dealers have been instructed to drain the engine oil, and add 3 quarts of sodium silicate and run the engine at 2000 Rpm for 10 minutes or till it siezes which ever comes first.

The idea of this program is to get clunker gas suckers off the road, and hopefully stimulate sales of new vehicles or would you rather seem them go titz up now after getting the billions of your money already. From what I have seen the cars that are being traded in are not only clunkers and guzzlers but also far from the well maintained vehicles that have been mentioned. And yes your trade in vehicle need to get 18 or less on the epa charts to qualify, so I dooubt Norms Van would qualify.

I spoke to a guy the other day. He had a 99 chevy silverado with 145000 on it. He used it to plow and the frame is just about gone. So he trucked on over to his local dodge dealer, bought a 09 Ram hemi (nor rated at 21 MPG highway) and the dodge dealer doubled the 4500, so he got 9k against a 24k truck. How is that a bad thing for him the dealer, the sales person, the anew Chrysler company and the economy???????

Now the govt is a bit short sighted as they could have trundled may of these cars off to emerging countrys or maybe even Cuba, and recouped some of he expense of the program.

[JerseyHarold]

The whole program is designed to lure people (some of whom shouldn't be getting into a new car for financial reasons to begin with) into the showrooms to get the economy moving again. The economy is in the toilet because of excessive debt. What happens when you buy a new car? In most cases, you get an auto loan and, VOILA! you're in debt! How does this fix anything?

[JIPJOBXX]

Well this morning after stating here that I bought a new rig with the trade a clunk program I found a 1987 Dodge Dakota with 92 thousand miles on it and bought it for 500 dollars. So yesterday I gave away my old s-15 for the clunk program and now I have another truck to do my weekend stuff. Nice rig and I bought it from the original owner. I know its a Dodge but for five hundred dollars it runs great and looks pretty good. It not as fast as my S-15 but then the S-15 was a six cylinder and this has four.:D:D:D

[Young Ed]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090731/ap_on_go_ot/us_cash_for_clunkers

you just knew they couldnt do it right.

[dezeldoc]

dang it ed ya beat me to it!!

[JIPJOBXX]

Well glad I got on the band wagon yesterday! What a way to run a railroad! I feel sorry for the folks that kind of put this deal oft as it was such a good program. Well tomorrow I take position of my trade a clunk deal and I got in just under the wire.

[Young Ed]

Dont worry I won't be at all surprised to see another billion or 2 thrown at this waste of a program

[PatS....]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to just let nature take it's course??

Just how many "clunkers" are really on the road and just how much are they really driven? Thousands are junked every day naturally...they just wear out.

Seems to me most folks who can afford it will buy new or nearly new rather than deal with an "old" car. Up here, there are very few daily drivers over 15 yrs old.

And what about people who can't possibly afford a new or near new car, are they not allowed to get the last few miles out of an old "clunker"?

Or kids just starting out whose Mommy and Daddy can't buy them a new car, are they relegated to public transit for the time it takes to be able to save up to buy a new car?

Why can't they get the 7 year old minivan or Jeep Cherokee???

And if you crush all the old pick-ups, who is going to haul the stuff we have that needs hauling?

Some stuff won't fit in a Toyota Echo. Me for instance. I don't fit.

Taking a running driving licensed and insured car and destroying it seems like a total waste to me. How much energy and resources does it take to replace that vehicle?

Why not let it live out it's usefulness?

[dezeldoc]

The powers that be want everyone in debt, off the block you loose a couple grand or more on a new car. i am done with new cars for the problems i have had i will buy a used one and not take the hit of a new car and also the problems, as we say on the hot rod diesel sites "I am my own warranty station"

[HalfdollarMayflower]

Pretty smart on the part of the new mega-conglomerate Governement Motors...eliminate lower-priced alternatives...

While adventageous (on the surface) for some, the people I really feel bad for are the poor. We've just given them a $4,500 invitation to a debt many of them can't afford (or qualify for). Unfortunately, there will be some who take the bait, only to realize in the coming weeks, months, and years they can neither afford the payments nor the full-coverage insurance, and guess what, the car they 'thought' they owned goes back to the suits. And good luck finding cheap runabouts once this program really gets cranked up; those cars just appreciated into the $4,500 price range.

And we wonder why Wall Street is a shamble!

[HalfdollarMayflower]

Taking a running driving licensed and insured car and destroying it seems like a total waste to me. How much energy and resources does it take to replace that vehicle?

Why not let it live out it's usefulness?

Excellent points all around! I wonder what the environmental footprint of driving an older vehicle versus the scrapping of one and production of another looks like.

It seems funny to me that this is being spun as a means of conserving fuel resources and stimulating the economy (or a sector of the economy)...lest we forget that it takes fossil fuels to mine the raw materials, transport them to mills, refine & manufacture them into ingots, beams, sheet, etc. Those goods are then brought to manufacturing centers (also using fossil fuels) and made into the finished goods, then transported to ports of destination via-fossil fueled railways & semi trucks.

I'm beginning to think that Detroit should go belly-up. Let them reorganize, change to a competitive business model, and produce a quality product once this quarter-century. It's a sad state of affairs when my old MoPar is the most dependable vehicle in our little family fleet of 97-07 vehicles.

[JIPJOBXX]

You know I must be the odd ball out here as I do not have any debt! My little HHR is my first venture in many years into bowering money. I bought this house that I live in for 32 thousands dollars and paid it oft in about five years. I kind of figure that I'm a product of the great depression and I was taught if you can't afford it than don't do it. When I bought my Honda I paid cash for it, my Dodge was all cash and well what can I say? Just seems to work for me. So I'm retired and have a nice egg nest and a great retirement with no bills but the general day to day bills. I'm sure the credit companies must be looking at car loans alot more carefully than a few years ago so maybe buying a new car is not so bad if it helps the country.

[jimainnj]

Headlines local paper " Brakes put on cash for clunkers ? " Dealers say it can take 5 hours to process paper work because of overload, an other program not working?