Tell us about your 'Cash for Clunkers' experience.
 

We traded in our clunker- '93 Jaguar XJ6 avg- 18 mpg (with multiple problems) in for a '09 Hyundai Elantra avg-28 mpg. The Elantra is a decent car for the money. We also traded an F-150 for a new F-150. The Ford dealer had a good point. "If the gov't had let the dealers/manufacturers know the program was coming, they wouldn't have been caught with low inventory." This is interesting because the lobbyists for car collectors knew about the program and asked for the cut off to be cars newer than 1984.

This sounds similar to the scrappage scheme here in the UK however here, the car must be registered 1999 or before and basically you get £1000 for the banger, and £1000 off the new price of the car. It has to be new though. But my argument was that people driving 10 year old+ cars are not the type to go and splash out on a new car, especially if it's only got £2000 off!? It does mean you can get a decent small car for around £5000.

Anyway, it seems to be working somehow, the only problem is the money allocated for the scheme by the government is running out fast!

I was able to trade in my '94 Isuzu Rodeo (16 mpg) for a '10 Kia Soul (26 mpg). There weren't too many problems with the Rodeo, but the A/C was broken (and here in Texas that's bad) and the front window motors were about to burn out (again).

I wasn't even looking for a new car but then this program came along. And I was able to get the full $4,500.

Scrappage is working because it's also physiological & people are spending more on a new car to get the 2 grand discount. It's a bone to people who buy a nearly-new car & then run it into the ground, the scrappage is an incentive to buy a new car now while they get money for their otherwise worthless car regardless of spending more. I know of several people who kept right dogs of cars going for a few months when rumours of this scheme started so they could get a new car instead of a 6 month old demo car.

There are several issues with pushing folk to buy new and then scrapping their old vehicles:

1) Whenever a new car leaves the forecourt the value of of the vehicle drops by a couple of grand !

2) In several cases as the scrappage scheme (where the government and the manufacturer share the amount of the reduction) went in, prices went up.

3) Scrapping the car often reduces the available spares for the remaining examples of the vehicle.

Trev

I wanted to trade my 1984 Chevy Truck in and get the cash for clunkers (since no one would ever give me that much for it)...and because the manufacture date was 1983 I was told it was 'too old' and couldn't :(

I "cluncked" my 1997 Dodge Dakota with 172K miles for a 2009 Hyundai Elantra. The Dakota looked good but had serious exhaust issues; the total repair bill was $2500. With the bad exhaust I was averaging only 13 mpg (the CARS average was 16). The Elantra should double that or better.

We didn't WANT to .... but we clunked a '95 Ford Mustang GT convertible .... my wife and I both loved that car. I mean, it was a MUSTANG - convertible; 302 8-cylinder; loaded .... it was a real muscle car. But it was only worth about $1500 and it was 15 years old. The smart thing to do was to take advantage of this program and get $4500 toward a new car ... so we got an '09 Toyota Yaris 5-speed manual sedan. I'm amazed at the gas mileage (compared to the Mustang) .... and, truth be told, I actually LIKE this Yaris ....

I Klunked my 94 Chevy work truck with 240K. It was a beatup work truck, but qualified and Dodge gave me double Klunker value against a sweet 09 Dodge Quad cab. With out the double klunker bonus I would have never bought this much truck. It is still hard to believe that I own a top of the line truck like that. It makes my old chevy look like it came from the prehistoric dawn of time.

"my argument was that people driving 10 year old+ cars are not the type to go and splash out on a new car" - wrong as you said the 'money allocated for the scheme by the government is running out fast!', the owners of old cars are clearly the ones buying new cars

"1) Whenever a new car leaves the forecourt the value of of the vehicle drops by a couple of grand !- this was not true of Hyundai.

When I traded a secondhand Hyundai I10 was worth more than a new one, due to the backlog of orders.