Cash for Clunkers extended through weekend
 

https://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/...n5200337.shtml

If you're going to avail yourself of the program, I'd do it quick.

nope! there are more entitlements of that sort coming.

jones, now's your chance to crush that pile

NO WAIT! don't crush 'em, sell them to china and india instead.

Screw that! I actually like driving this thing! The Tracker, however, would have been gone on the first day of the program.

Then again, alot of vehicles out there get the 22+ MPG I'd need for 4500 and definitely the 16+ needed for 3500.

Wasted Cash for NON-clunkers
 

It's really "credit towards an efficient or vaguely efficient new car, for guzzlers and vaguely inefficient vehicles regardless of whether or not they clunk".

I've seen a lot of new cars with September 01 dealer plates stuck on them. But, as the story says, the real guzzlers that they were supposed to be taking off the road are still in service. Like mine.

Yet people still feel that social healthcare won't fail here.

Why must every mfer on earth talk about health care when the clunkers program comes up?

Yes the clunker program is crap; it's pretty half-baked. The health care thing has been debated to death for decades. The stakes are much much higher. Hopefully they'll get that more right.

Dad called me yesterday, told me if I was gonna take advantage of that program to take Rusty on in before the funding ran out. The truth is this though. Rusty only goes maybe 200 miles a year. Dad just uses it to go back & forth to the hardware store and the dump as needed. IF I turned Rusty in to get my $4,500 voucher, this is what would happen. I'd turn in Rusty (Only goes 200 miles/yr). I'd leave The Beast at Dad's for hardware store trips, and I'd drive a new truck. The vehicle turned in hardly went anywhere to begin with.

-Jay

i'm w/ ya on that, but 3 things...

some of the vehicles selling aren't gas guzzlers
they will be destroyed giving the dealer no opportunity to resell
that will hurt used car buyers looking for otherwise good cars

Yup, as I said, "vaguely inefficient" qualifies...and yup, a major part of the point is to hurt used car buyers so they'll buy new cars instead. It's intended to not only stimulate new car sales by making that credit available, but also by damaging the used car market.

we're both thinking alike. i guess just like the bailouts, the manufacturers are being helped more than the dealerships.

we know that used cars have a greater profit margin than do new ones, so forget the less wasteful dealers right?

there were dealerships doing MORE than fine here locally that were mandated to close. WTH(eck)?!!!

I can't help but wonder what is going to happen in the next year or so. The people buying NEW cars now can't possibly have only been held back by a $4500 down payment. On a normal car loan that is only $50-75 a month for 5 years. You can't tell me that they didn't do it because of $50 a month. When you count insurance and $300 a month for a payment that 50 isn't much more.

Would now be a good time to become a repo man?

There's a lot of speculation among economists that cash for clunkers is mostly encouraging those who were thinking of buying a new vehicle soon anyway. May lead to lower sales later. Guess we'll find out.

I just did the math, IF Marvin was getting his EPA 18mpg, not the 24mpg (Rounded up as EPA also does) I've actually been getting from him, then the minimum $8000 I'd have to pony up for a new vehicle would pay the difference in gas for 15000 miles a year for 10 years at current prices. After 10 years, new car is probably worth what Marvin is now, Marvin is either worth the same or more :D ... also I am getting towards optimistic that I can get 30mpg+ out of Marvin eventually...

i understand, but cannot confirm, that certain vehicles that were thought to qualify, actual do not. so, now dealers are calling buyers back, asking for the "lost" $3500-$4500 that the program did not pay! :eek:

i'd wait to destroy any so-called clunker @ least until the deal was in stone. as previously stated, many of them could be re-sold.

just some details...https://www.cashforclunkersfacts.info/

i understand the idea is working, tho it's a tax payer subsidy. but, the top 5 or six car sales related to this program do NOT include any by GM or Chrysler, so...

the Ford Focus is #1 however.

Just found out my aunt used cash for clunkers to replace her old jeep with a 2010 Prius. She's most pleased with the built in GPS, apparently. Her jeep had 200,000 miles on it (not sure what year, but it looked pretty old last time I saw it) and needed some expensive repairs, so I guess she falls into the "was going to replace it soon anyway" camp.

That puts the incentives into some sort of perspective. 9.6 mpg would qualify for $4,500, and at $580 savings per year, that's 7.75 years worth of gas savings equivalent from the rebate.

In case you haven't heard, CARS may be ending real soon...again! Some dealers are exiting the program for fear of not being compensated if funding runs out.

well, here's a grade for the program. and this is even before the dealers ahve bee paid(in full)...

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/busin...7168933.column

From the article:
Is there anyone on this forum that wouldn't get at least EPA from that car? I doubt it.

Its old rating was 18/26 (21 combined), and its new rating is 16/24 (19 combined). Frankly I'm surprised that it rates so high but I bet we could do it.

Pretty sure, I can usually get at least the new EPA highway as the combined.... and that's without pulse and glide (Local traffic and road situation makes that impractical here) So I'd figure on getting 25 ish... Think they might have had EEC in those even in '86, in which case a later crown vic callibration might get it up to 30mpg highway.

i believe anyone here could beat by 5mpg or more the maximum of 18 allowed, in any vehicle!

so...perhaps even a vehicle w/ a 14mpg estimate could be beat. i believe the author's point was in reference to the age of the vehicle and the average driver.

you'd think a 23 year old V8 powered "boat" would qualify.

Even I've beat my EPA estimate by 5mpg.

I've gotten 27 out of a late model Grand Marquis with the cruise set on 70. Those Ford full size cars do quite well on the highway. I'vehad experience with several of them through the years:

1988 Lincoln Town Car (My great aunt's car)
1989 Mercury Grand Marquis
1992 Mercury Grand Marquis
1996 Mercury Grand Marquis
2004 Mercury Grand Marquis
2006? Mercury Grand Marquis (Not sure of the year, but its not that old, and has less than 10,000 miles on it)

Grandpa loved the Grand Marquis, can you tell? All of the cars above would do at least 25 on the highway with the cruise set on 70.