Cash for clunkers

You mean you can TRADE a 308 in .... the CARS program only applies for NEW CAR purchases. Did
something change that allows traders to buy used cars on this program?

From the CARS site:

Important Things to Know

* Your vehicle must be less than 25 years old on the trade-in date
* Only purchase or lease of new vehicles qualify
* Generally, trade-in vehicles must get 18 or less MPG (some very large pick-up trucks and cargo vans have different requirements)
* Trade-in vehicles must be registered and insured continuously for the full year preceding the trade-in
* You don't need a voucher, dealers will apply a credit at purchase
* Program runs through Nov 1, 2009 or when the funds are exhausted, whichever comes first.
* The program requires the scrapping of your eligible trade-in vehicle, and that the dealer disclose to you an estimate of the scrap value of your trade-in. The scrap value, however minimal, will be in addition to the rebate, and not in place of the rebate.

 

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/CarsSelectModel.jsp?year=1985&make=Ferrari

 

Yeah, to TRADE IN. The OP said implies his USED 308s were available to BUY with this boondoggle.... how does
this link change that? SURE the old F-cars are worth $4500 on a Prius... WHY????

Or maybe I'm just misreading it and it's just a tongue in cheek 'trade IN your 3x8' - but I guess I'm just
dense and can't see why anyone would do that.

 

Only 328 and up, from 1985.

The 308s are too old, as 25 year max for trade in.

man am i disappointed, I was really looking forward to getting a new Ford Focus and getting $4500 for my Fcar.

Doug

 

So you mean that I could get a voucher for the seventy GRAND I have in my
'86 328 GTS and get a [gulp] Prius for FOUR THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED less
than LIST? OMG.... gotta go..... Will LOVE to see the sodium emulsion injected
into her 8 Italian cylinders before she goes to the crusher!!!

Oh, so GREEN I AM!!! Do I get a 'smug' bumper sticker in exchange?

 

Yea, me too.

 

You guys are too funny!

However, it might make sense in my case - have a '72 Datsun 240Z, selling for $5,500 obo. Haven't been able to unload it for whatever reason, but if they were giving $4,500 (and some manufacturers are matching that), it may have been worth it.

Of course, it doesn't apply to my car (too old), but I could see being "romanced" by the thought of getting that credit.

 

A local radio station this morning mentioned that someone traded in a 1987 Mercedes Benz 560SL convertible in the cash for clunker program. The car needed some work, not sure how much. But the owner traded it in toward a Hyundai Accent.

 

I also heard that "they" are removing the engines and filling the cylinders with some sort of epoxy to prevent the engine from running again? If true...seems like a huge waste!

 

They drain the oil and fill the engine with a silicate based fluid designed to seize the motor. Criminal, IMHO. Most of the footage I've seen, the cars have been anything but clunkers.

 

That's just wrong. I love those old SLs. Maybe he thought it was the "Clunkers for Classics" program.

 

The vast majority of vehicles turned-in for the program have been late-1990s Ford Explorers and similar. Not-Exactly collector machines that have a historical significance, deeply-rooted sentimental value, or strong sex-appeal, frankly. My family owned one - they're completely and totally disposable. Who Cares. Some fogey traded in his Benz for a Korean car....there will always be ONE out there, folks. LOTS of rusty, poorly-maintained Benzes out there I wouldn't waste my sweat pushing off a cliff for a $1. Unless there are dozens and dozens of nearly-new Bentleys being exchanged for Priuses, I'm not going to act as though this is a sign of the Apocalypse.

 

The specified mixture used for a dignified death (after appropriate End-Of-Life counseling) is sodium silicate and water. It is applied to the crankcase after draining the oil, kind of like an undertaker who drains the blood and injects formaldehyde. Here's a video of a Jeep Cherokee dying a dignified death

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OhW9u9R49w&feature=PlayList&p=FEAC2AC1708B4D61&index=2&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL

OMG! I have a Cherokee just like that one, only mine has a 318. A great car... I think I'm gonna cry.

Here's an Oldsmobile Aurora - the V8 sounds kinda sweet, for a while

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0IcIxhd8ks

 

Glad you posted that!!! Destroying operational cars is automotive genoscide! Here in Houston, the dealers have taken in hundreds of cars, destroyed them as directed, but can't send them to the recycler because those guys won't take them without the unavailable government-completed papers and cash. Translation: the dealers have hundreds of non-operational cars stuck on their hands! The other phrase in the government statement included "...until the funds run out." Well, because the documentation laged the operation, the program oversold - and that's why additional funds are requested, to cover their a$$e$. Besides, when has FedGovCo ever been able to terminate a program?

Wrong forum for my rant. Won't happen again. -rick

 

I have picked a license plate for our 308. Would actually be neat on any Ferrari.
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

I remeber reading about a woman who donated her Duesenburg to the scrap drive in WWII. I think it was in Indianapolis, but not sure. A general comandeered the car for parade use, and the woman who had donated it was furious, demanded that it be scrapped for the war effort, and so it was. "....there will always be ONE out there, folks."

 

The is the best idea ever!

Many people drive clunkers for a reason....$$$

So the best way to fix this problem is to give them incentive to buy a new car get a payment that can't afford (along with other expenses that they probably are not considering such as full coverage insurance) and this will magically cure the economy's ails...........

Lets rewind a couple years to the last time the economy was not doing too well. Unemployment was high but the administration at the time said that better things were in store for the economy going down the road. What were they referring to? The rapid growing precantage of homeownership. We all know how that story played out.

When will the government learn to keep it's nose out of the economy? Sigh.

To stay on topic though, I am sure that a 430 would qualify for a trade in.

 

...and we can't really blame the people who have 'taken advantage' of this program.

Group 1 - the group which can afford to buy a new car - just opted to get a little of their tax money back, and moved their purchase date up a little.

Group 2 - the group which is too stupid to understand that you just can't get 'something for nothing' and that 10mpg improvement (when new) will somehow offset $15,000+ in debt. Yes, in Houston, dealers - who are in bed with the loan companies - are selling the cars for full cost (read: loan amount) and then giving the $4500 back as a cash rebate. Yes. It's a car loan AND a $4500 cash loan rolled together! We got into this mess not because of banks or mortgage brokers. We got into it because we bought a bunch of stuff that we couldn't afford! How is MORE debt going to fix that? It will, however, make Obama's auto industry baleout appear to be working...

I'm in group 3; the group that feels that this is state sponsored automotive genocide. And granted, the Exploder is probably never going to be a 'classic' - but they also said that about the Jaguar Mk. II before they trashed them all in demolition derbys.

-rick

 

So let's see:
1. More stuff in the landfills,
2. More loans,
3. Many of these people will drive more since they can go farther on the same $
4. Fewer jobs for mechanics.

I do understand however why they destroy the engine. Given the fabulous imagination of US entrepreneuers, these cars/trucks etc would have been sent to South America, just like the drowned cars from New Orleans area.