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Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks

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  • Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks


  • #2
    Re: Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks

    At least one guy gets it, more-or-less.

    Local Toyota dealers are being pretty aggressive in chasing the C-for-C. Taxpayers are thus helping fund the purchase of new imports?

    ...

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    • #3
      Re: Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks

      All the vehicles we have recieved are on their last leg. They would have been off the road within a short period of time, so yeah the environmental effect doesn't hold water for me. We have about 20 sitting on the lot right now that we haven't been paid for, so we can't blow up the engines. I'm actually looking forward to that part. I've heard you're supposed to just run the engine with the solution they give you to lock up the motor and they won't throw rods or anything like that. I say BS, we're going to run 'em with the pedal on the mat until they give up.

      The Chevy store across the road has a huge dumpster out front with a couple of cars sticking out of it like they were just thrown in the garbage. Kinda funny, but one is a Ford F150 that's in better shape than mine. I have to get a picture.

      Originally posted by Loren
      At least one guy gets it, more-or-less.

      Local Toyota dealers are being pretty aggressive in chasing the C-for-C. Taxpayers are thus helping fund the purchase of new imports?

      My Dad calls me last night and tells me they traded their Mitsubishi Diamante for a Toyota Corolla under the C-for-C deal. Thanks Dad!
      There was nothing wrong with the Mitsu. It was a nice car that they bought new for something like $33,000 and it was well maintained with low miles. Now it's going to be scrapped. My Dad did admit that it bothered him the car would be scrapped and that it was such a waste, but they wanted to trade it in and the dealers wouldn't give that much in a trade. Nice car or not, they just don't hold their value. Oh well, now there's 4 Toyos in the family that I have to pretend to sound interested about.

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      • #4
        Re: Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks

        Next they should pay to have roads torn up so they can be rebuilt, to stimulate the economy. Throw away your tools, mechanic's or gardening, domestic or import, to buy new ones to stimulate the economy. Take whatever you have to the dump so you can start over and make the neighbors pay more taxes to fund it, or put the bill with the pile of T-bills we hope China will buy this week, so we can owe them more money and pay them more interest. Our kids can cover it later, right? It is all stunningly stupid.
        ...

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        • #5
          Re: Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks

          from the article: "Attempts to reduce the use of fossil fuel should focus on two different policies: higher gasoline taxes and increased rush-hour tolls on highways. If gasoline costs more, everyone faces an incentive to drive less. "

          These disincentives don't really work, though. When the speculators drove up the cost of gas far more than a tax hike would, gasoline sales did not go down very far. And raising highway tolls for rush hour will make those people drive on surface streets instead, using even more fuel.

          Although I do agree with him that the whole program is stupid.

          My fabulous web page

          "If it don't go, chrome it!" --Stroker McGurk

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          • #6
            Re: Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks

            I have a problem with my tax dollars paying for someone with a clunker to buy a new car. I don't have what they deem a clunker so I can't get the up to 4500 dollars to buy a new car.
            It's not the destination, but the journey and the friends you make along the way that counts.

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            • #7
              Re: Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks

              Yeah, I have a clunker. But is is my clunker. It is PAID FOR. It has well over 200,000 miles on it. It gets 35 miles per gallon and needs new front struts. But I will be damned if I am going to trade it in so I can strap myself with a car payment.


              Ron
              It's really no different than trying to glue them back on after she has her way.

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              • #8
                Re: Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks

                yours probably wouldn't qualify...it gets better mileage than the replacements!
                My fabulous web page

                "If it don't go, chrome it!" --Stroker McGurk

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks

                  Apparently Ford is looking good saleswise from CFC. The Focus is the most purchased car so far.

                  http://www.autoblog.com/2009/08/03/report-ford-focus-is-top-selling-cash-for-clunkers-car-nearly/?icid=main|main|dl4|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.autoblo g.com%2F2009%2F08%2F03%2Freport-ford-focus-is-top-selling-cash-for-clunkers-car-nearly%2F
                  I R Bob
                  You can't drink all day unless you start in the morning!
                  2007 LH, 2008 LH, 2009 LH, 2010 LH, 2011 LH, 2012 DNF/BLOW'D UP, 2013 LH, 2014 LH

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                  • #10
                    Re: Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks

                    For a guy from Harvard he's a smart sumbitch.
                    Act your age, not your shoe size. - Prince

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks

                      Saw my first true causualty of the F'n program today a 95 Mustang 5 liter with 50,000
                      miles on it.I know a guy in the dealer and he said the owner could not get 4 grand for it
                      selling privately so to CfC it went.He traded to a HHR.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks

                        Originally posted by antmnte
                        Saw my first true causualty of the F'n program today a 95 Mustang 5 liter with 50,000
                        miles on it.I know a guy in the dealer and he said the owner could not get 4 grand for it
                        selling privately so to CfC it went.He traded to a HHR.

                        See, I told you so, Brian!

                        Here's some of the stuff I've been running this week on the welfare/bailout fiasco known as "Cash for Clunkers" (Maybe it's not "Haaa-vaaad" quality, but it identifies some of the defects in this horrible program.

                        CASH FOR CLUNKERS: THE "$800 TOILET SEAT" OF THE BAILOUT

                        According to Avery Goodman, at Seeking Alpha, Edmunds.com has calculated that the $1,000,000,000.00 in borrowed money that the federal government has blown on the Ca$h for Clunker$ welfare/bailout program will yield a net increase in sales of between 22,000 and 86,000 units.

                        Remember, payout of welfare vouchers for vehicles that would have sold anyway does not yield any net benefit to sales. Thus, only sales that would not have occurred but for the bailout cash on-the-hood are the true measure of the program's effects.

                        In other words, the cost to the taxpayers for each one of those additional sales is between $45,354.00 to $11,628.00 per car!

                        Goodman posits that a $20,000.00 per additional unit sold (over what ordinarily would have been sold without the CARS welfare voucher) is a reliable estimate.

                        But, it's not clear that all of these sales increases are true increases (i.e. cars that would never have been bought but for the welfare voucher). Some of the sales are undoubtedly canabalized from future sales that would have occurred regardless.


                        The sales last month from the federal incentives may result in fewer buyers later this year after the program ends, George Pipas, Ford?s sales analyst, told CNBC today.


                        Thus, the cost-per-additional-sale could possibly be even higher.

                        Goodman concludes:


                        The "cash for clunkers" program is yet another boondoogle - an expensive waste of precious taxpayer dollars. Government spending should be reined in, in light of the multi-trillion dollar unsustainable deficits that this nation now faces. However, if we must increase government spending, the money would be better spent on infrastructure and education improvements that might help bring jobs back to America, and encourage long term growth, rather than cosmetic improvements to the short term earnings of makers of high mileage automobiles, many of which are foreign companies.

                        This government is, unfortunately, a reflection of the current state of economic immaturity that prevails in America. The vast majority of people, including most people in Congress, do not understand the forces that drive the real economy, and see only the short term view. That is how they get manipulated into allowing the Federal Reserve to behave like a slush fund for big banks, passing programs like TARP into law, and enacting programs like "cash for clunkers" which all abuse the taxpayers.

                        * * * *

                        CASH FOR CLUNKERS: JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG


                        The frenzied "gold rush" for borrowed welfare money better known as "Ca$h for Clunker$" has temporarily abated as the greedy looter-vandals await the "mack daddies" in the U.S. Senate to print and spend billions more.

                        The "halftime" pause has allowed time for a host of sickening viral videos on how government suckling dealers vandalize perfectly good engines (mostly V8s) to qualify for their CARS welfare checks. Some engines have fought destruction for as long as 45 minutes. As one technician destroying a Ford Bronco engine says as he watches the sickening sight "What a waste! What a Waste!"

                        These videos have captured the attention of talk radio and cable news.

                        This is causing an emerging backlash against the CARS program. Here as some examples:


                        "What a bunch of fraud, waste, and abuse on all levels up to Obama. Stupid program, and these clowns featured in this video are the monkey wrenchers that fix peoples cars that are unable to themselves. There ain't no freakin' difference between neutral and park for revving it up you dork. Except maybe it could roll over you as you try to kill it. Built Ford Tough Bronco windsor holdin' strong to the very end... "


                        "What a waste. Good vehicles being self-destructed from within. They can take this "clunker" program and... Well you get the idea."

                        "This is the Automobile Holocaust... what it means to you is higher taxes in the years to come."


                        . . . .
                        Ford, of course, is benefitting the most among the Detroit 3 from the Cash for Clunkers bailout. However MORE THAN 50 PERCENT OF THE CARS WELFARE VOUCHERS ARE GOING FOR THE SUBSIDIZED PURCHASE OF FOREIGN BRANDED VEHICLES. (JUST AS TRUTH WITH SPEEDZZTER PREDICTED)

                        The Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association was also among those predicting a backlash against the CARS welfare plan:


                        "It wouldn't surprise me if there is a consumer backlash once car owners realize that 'Cash for Clunkers' is nothing more than a clever slogan for a program to spend $1 billion of our tax dollars to fund a government subsidized vehicle trade-in to help new car dealers sell cars," said Kathleen Schmatz, AAIA president and CEO. "Consumers will soon learn that they are simply trading in their vehicle and will still have to jump through all of the hoops to qualify for and purchase a new vehicle."

                        "The much heralded fuel efficiency and environmental benefits of purchasing a new vehicle could easily be achieved through better maintenance of an existing vehicle or trading up to a newer used vehicle, according to AAIA. Any savings from improved miles per gallon will be lost from the costs involved in destroying and disposing of the 'clunkers.'"

                        "AAIA has strongly opposed "Cash for Clunkers" that prematurely destroys vehicles and their valuable parts and components. 'Destroying vehicles with many more years of life denies consumers more affordable used vehicles and pulls vehicles from the aftermarket supply chain,' said Schmatz."

                        "The Consumer Allowance Rebate System, the [Orwellian newspeak] official name for 'Cash for Clunkers,' offers vouchers up to $4,500 to new car dealerships for consumers who trade-in their vehicle for a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle."


                        I wonder what Ford's VANDAL-IN-CHIEF, William Clay Ford, Jr. ("Li'l Billy") thinks of when he hears another potentially collectable Ford V8 is being wasted with a sodium silicate solution? Is all that he can hear the cash register ringing up another taxpayer funded "bailout" sale?

                        Cash for Clunkers needs to die . . . now! Urge your Senator to vote against additional funding for destroying American V8s and European vehicles from the 1980s and 1990s.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks

                          Speedy, it's sickening.

                          Mea Culpa.

                          Brian
                          That which you manifest is before you.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks

                            Brian,

                            It is terribly sad. The YouTube videos are like a punch in the gut.

                            A possibly good story I hope some freelancer does for one of the big Source Interlink print magazines (HRM, PHR, CC, etc) is a teardown/post mortem of a V8 mill murdered in the "Cash for Clunkers" program. How much damage does all that "liquid-glass-for-oil" really do? Is there anything that's salvageable?

                            Freiburger, are you listening?

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Smart Guy Eloquently Says Cash for Clunkers Sucks

                              Speedy...great idea.

                              The story is going to have to be a back door job though. All that junk is supposed to exit stage right to the squisher tout suite.

                              Brian
                              That which you manifest is before you.

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