Cash for clunkers goes flop

[maluchm]

How the heck are these clowns going to run anything if they can't even get this one right? So now these dealerships, the ones that were not forced out of business be the government in the first place, have yet to receive....what, maybe 30% of the funds back?!?!?

Sure.... you can run my health care and tell me what's good for me!

 

[Himark]

Yepper blow the motors with the silica sand is what we are doing here. I did here of a guy that found a way to profit from this and still meet the govt guidlines.

There is a guy in Omaha that has his 98 suburban on craigs list and is selling off the body parts mirrors seats.. I guess it ONLY has to run and drive in to get the 4500 bux.

 

[Himark]

BTW, Ollie is right...

This whole thing is smoke and mirrors so we dont keep asking them where the banker bailout trillions of dollars went.

 

[Snowizard]

I look at the 'clunker' program failure from a different angle, but I agree with the comments^^^ above.

How much energy was used in mining, refining, producing ,and transporting all the raw materials used in a vehicle?
Iron, Steel, plastics & rubber( from oil) cloth fabric, on and on.

How much energy was used in all the tooling, machining, stamping, casting, molding, electronics and wiring, etc,etc,etc??

Now add in all the energy used by the good folks who work in all the related industries running to work, and back home every day ( I know, they need the work but...) and factor that against the energy that is just plain lost by not letting the product ,vehicle, run through its natural life cycle.

With the Dem's it all about looking good for them, and having "good intentions", never mind the results were a failure. In the mean time their own conscience is cleared because they had "good intentions" for the common folk.

Bottom line, a lot more energy was wasted by destroying perfectly functional vehicles, than will ever be "saved" by destroying them before its time.

( There I said it.........now I gotta go outside and do some more paining on the old homestead. )

 

[2001rmk700]

I heard on the news that the next looming crisis will be when all these people that bought new cars (because they found out their "clunker" was worth $4500) find out that they can't make the payments and then the cars will be repossesed. If you were driving a $1000 car to start with then you probably will not be able to make the payments on a new one for very long-------- nice one Barry !

my thoughts exactly i guess it will help the repo companys lol

 

[Ollie]

I look at the 'clunker' program failure from a different angle, but I agree with the comments^^^ above.

How much energy was used in mining, refining, producing ,and transporting all the raw materials used in a vehicle?
Iron, Steel, plastics & rubber( from oil) cloth fabric, on and on.

How much energy was used in all the tooling, machining, stamping, casting, molding, electronics and wiring, etc,etc,etc??

Now add in all the energy used by the good folks who work in all the related industries running to work, and back home every day ( I know, they need the work but...) and factor that against the energy that is just plain lost by not letting the product ,vehicle, run through its natural life cycle.

With the Dem's it all about looking good for them, and having "good intentions", never mind the results were a failure. In the mean time their own conscience is cleared because they had "good intentions" for the common folk.

Bottom line, a lot more energy was wasted by destroying perfectly functional vehicles, than will ever be "saved" by destroying them before its time.

( There I said it.........now I gotta go outside and do some more paining on the old homestead. )

Actually, that was something that was brought up by the sierra club.
They more or less said the increased fuel millage achieved thru the cash for clunkers programs is dwarfed by the enviromental costs associated with it. They would have prefered the feds simply buy the clunkers outright for 4500 and not push the "new car" angle.

 

[ericbigbore]

Ollie, that is pure crap. The program is flawed but not because of anything to do with unions pal.

BTW I belong to one of the biggest unions around the IAFF, and if we did not have the union on our side the 100+ cancer types that Firemen get still would not qualify for us to get life insurance to pay to our familes when we die 10-15 years earlier than the rest of you clowns. Nuff said.

Wrong answer union boy! This is a huge pay off to the people that got us into this mess. The UAW is a joke and are in full support of Obama and cash for clunkers. Don't be naive!

You're talking apples and oranges, carry on.

 

[Anti-Hero]

Wrong answer union boy! This is a huge pay off to the people that got us into this mess. The UAW is a joke and are in full support of Obama and cash for clunkers. Don't be naive!

You're talking apples and oranges, carry on.

That is right on! UWA sucking off the slow people to stay afloat for what maybe 1 more year?

 

[bobback]

Another successfully ran gov't program!

 

[Weekday Warrior]

friend of mine runs a repo outfit, he's gearing up for a very busy season

 

[blue fluff]

I can't believe my conservative representative voted for the additional money to go for this. His Facebook page erupted with angry and annoyed constituents when he announced it. Guess the constituents aren't as dumb as Congress thinks.

 

[batman]

i'm just thinking how many new cars we bought people this year w/ our tax dollars.

it was just a classic "redistribution" of our income disguised as a "stimilus."

 

[Wade]

They pre-sold the market. Humm, how you going to convince people to buy cars in 3 months? Now everyone's waiting for the next big deal to come along.

And, what's going to happen, when they go back to people and ask for the $4500 bucks back, because the car didn't qualify? I'm sure the saleman, didn't promise them It'd all be OK. And, the person's response, I want my car back then! Whoops, we owe you an engine. Dang.

You guys sure it was the UAW and United Brotherhood of Lawyers that came up with this brainchild? They'll just print some money, and make everyone happy, it's the liberal way.

Wonder how many foreign cars sold under this program?

 

[Motley Doo]

All I know is if I traded my old 89' Suburban in and I saw them blow the motor up in her, I would probably go on a killing spree.

 

[Ex-Member]

All I know is if I traded my old 89' Suburban in and I saw them blow the motor up in her, I would probably go on a killing spree.

Yup, same for my truck.

 

[Wolfrun]

My son was here last weekend for a funeral so we had saturday to just knock around. He has decided that I ought to have a new pickup. I have a 97 GMC 2500 4/4 with a fresh engine 70,000 ago and I like it. It probably books for 2,500 or less so he thinks it would make a great clunker. Of course the biggest dealer in the state is here in town so we had to try them all. All of them in a 2500 ext cab or crew cab are 40,000 in anything I would want so I would end up holding the bag for 35,000. The only one I really liked was the GMC again and I can buy the same truck 5 years old and about 85,000 miles for around 14,000. There is no way in hell I could make my self buy the new one. That new car smell isn't worth 21,000. I agree there will a lot of repo outfits pretty soon and I really can't stand dealing with Obama Motors. The sad part was, the most uncomfortable truck that I liked the least was the Ford.

 

[Gainster]

A new wrinkle in the "Cash for Clunkers" program

By Diana Fairbanks
Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 1:54 p.m.


Cash for Clunkers has proven to be a wildly successful way of getting people to trade in their old cars for more fuel efficient ones. In fact, the government has pumped another two billion dollars into it to keep it going.

But what happens now with all of those clunkers?

They were supposed to be destroyed.

So why are dozens of them lining the back lots at one area dealership?

The answer is tonight's Fact Finder Report.

New cars have been flying off of these lots as more and more drivers take the government up on its cash incentive to replace gas guzzlers with more fuel efficient vehicles.

Dan O'Connor, General Sales Manager for Bill Marsh Auto Group says, "It's been a win win win really for the environment, the customer and us."

But while those lots are emptying out, these are filling up. Rows of dozens of clunkers behind Bill Marsh Price Point in Traverse City.

O'Connor says "we're trying to hide them back here but as the amount of them continues to grow you can see there's a lot of them back here."

80 clunkers and counting. Everything from past prime pick ups to jade green jaguars.

As part of the program these cars must be made undrivable.

So why are so many clunkers parked here instead of put out of service?

O'Connor says "really they're just sitting there waiting for the go-ahead from the government to start disabling them."

Call it the dealer's cash for clunkers insurance plan. The government said dealers could wait to disable the clunker until they received government reimbursement.

O'Connor says, "We've submitted 80 deals. We've not been funded on any but they have been communicating on some that had some errors in them and we've resubmitted them so we're still on hold right now. And since Bill Marsh hasn't been reimbursed yet, the clunkers are stuck in back lot limbo.."


O'Connor says, "We knew going into this partnership with the government there might be some hiccoughs. We still have 100% faith that we're going to get paid for all of them. We haven't even thought about a contingency plan if something goes wrong."

So what is the plan for these clunkers once the government pays up? Smash 'em.

Bill Marsh has contracted with a local metal company. That company will pay Bill Marsh $50 per car, what the government allows, and then the metal company will smash them and get the scrap metal value.

Through the rules of program, the dealer must disable the engine, but other things like fenders and wheels could be sold as parts.

O'Connor says, "We just chose to go with a company that is not going to do that. They're just going to smash them and use the metal."

Diana asks, "As a car guy, does it hurt you a little bit?" O'Connor replies, "it does! It goes against everything I've ever been taught in the car business. I'm going to euthanize these cars and I'm used to fixing these cars so it's different."

 

[Trukker]

Wouldn't it be easy just to knock 4500.00 off the invoice of a car than deal with all the used junk.

 

[swampwater]

And what is the real reason for cash for clunkers?
Swampy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqfuZ7hiap0

 

[skibreeze]

A few of you have posted that you expect to see a bunch of repos on these new vehicles down the road. I completely disagree as the financing has been very tight for some time now. Banks are only giving loans to folks with good credit AND the ability to repay based on good debt to income ratios.