New car dealers ask Congress for $$ to take our "junk" off the road

[tcbnj]

Just read this from Automotive News - see item in BOLD RED

"Auto dealers are calling on President Bush and Congress to take emergency measures to help revive vehicle retailing and contribute to the nation's economic recovery.

The request came this week in a hand-delivered letter to an economic adviser to the president at the White House, the National Automobile Dealers Association told Automotive News today.

The letter asks Congress and the White House, after next week's election, to consider enacting refundable tax credits for car and truck buyers and restoring the tax deductibility of vehicle loans.

Some congressional leaders are planning economic stimulus legislation in a lame-duck session after Nov. 4.

Other options cited in the letter are providing federal funds for state programs to take air-polluting clunkers off the roads and giving businesses additional tax breaks for vehicle purchases. NADA Chairman Annette Sykora, a multifranchise Texas dealer, signed the letter."

More clear evidence as to why car dealers and to some extent the manufacturers are some of the least liked people in America. While they are clearly struggling and need help, letters like that to Congress don't encourage me to support them with a letter/email to Washington - WTF?!?

[VTJUNK]

Re: New car dealers ask Congress for $$ to take our "junk" off the road

That would suck, most of my clunkers aren't even on the road yet!

I want a tax credit for NOT buying new crap all the time I can't afford and adding to the credit problem in this country.

[milner351]

Re: New car dealers ask Congress for $$ to take our "junk" off the road

no kidding - this hurts me to the core, however - taking oil smoke spewing 2.2 chrysler minivans off the road that have been wornout for the last 20,000 miles wouldn't hurt my feelings -- there's no real "fair" way to do this...

except maybe the inspection system - I see both good and bad to this option too.
(which creates more work for mechanics, or creates state jobs for inspection stations if you do it that way)

For example - failing an inspection due to bad emissions from a worn out oil burning engine "picks on the poor" who can't afford to maintain thier vehicle properly --
however-
it also gets a potentially unsafe pos car off the road.

This does not necessarily pick on us car junkies - as most of our stuff may not look great- but generally runs like a scalded ape - and with a bit of a quickie tune up - we can pass the sniffer test pretty easily for pre '75 vehicle ratings.


It does make sense to eliminate "gross polluters" from the roadways -
(coming from my perspective as an engineer at ford in the fuel economy / emissions / certification arena)
- for examply - ONE of those 2.2 chrysler smoke bombs puts out likely 20x the emissions of a LEV2 or ULEV rated new car.... so - taking it off the road has a large impact.

[70.5CAMARO]

Re: New car dealers ask Congress for $$ to take our "junk" off the road

every car i own, I own outright, they may be "clunkers" but they dont leave me stranded and i could care less how much they pollute, next they will make me put emissions on my camaro, lol

[milner351]

Re: New car dealers ask Congress for $$ to take our "junk" off the road

I agree - I sort of pride myself on the fact that we've not had car payments for a few years now.

The beauty of the emissions on the older cars, is - they're not hard to meet - with a good tune up.

Even the EFI 90's stuff can pass inspection without too much trouble - even with plenty of mods - just need to keep the cats in place and show up for the test with the car good and warmed up.

I hope this "crush em for credits" rubbish doesn't get any traction in congress.

[BangShift McT]

Re: New car dealers ask Congress for $$ to take our "junk" off the road

[rant]

One of my biggest issues with the whole idea of removing old vehicles off the road is, how does that help the environment, really? Instead of recycling, using the same frame and body until it physically and mechanically CAN NOT be used anymore, it makes no damn sense to me to give up my 20-year-old beater just so a manufacturer with their corporate head up their ass can sell the car that NOBODY REALLY WANTED.

[/rant]

I gotta stop before I go ahead and unload my true feelings here...trust me, it's a very colorful speech.

[Fordplay0621]

Re: New car dealers ask Congress for $$ to take our "junk" off the road

Wont work! To many auto parts restoration companies and would put to many people out of work. And then you would have to enforce it.

[squirrel]

Re: New car dealers ask Congress for $$ to take our "junk" off the road

I think the best part about the whole crush-cars-for-pollution-credits thing is that we already scrap a few million cars every year....and the gov't programs have no way of discerning those cars (that were going to be crushed anyways) from cars that folks would keep on driving.

It's all a big scam, no matter which way you look at it. However, if you're in the car selling or making business, you might be on the profiting end of the scam.

[tiresmoke!]

Re: New car dealers ask Congress for $$ to take our "junk" off the road

Seems to me like DF wrote something on this a few years ago.


Lousy, cheatin'-ass SOB's wanna rake me over the coals some MORE?!

Hey Remy, make some room on the chill-out couch.......my head's a-spinnin'.

[HillbillySailor]

Re: New car dealers ask Congress for $$ to take our "junk" off the road

Wow. Been away from the board for awhile (gotta love recruiting!) and come across this...

My response is...NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! I understand why someone might think this is a good idea IRT the environment, but it's really about the greedy auto manufacturers (as everyone else has poiinted out). I won't accept any form of junker buy-back program. If we do, we're letting the genie out of the bottle and it will be real hard to put it back in. In the parts of Texas that this program is active in, I bet the price of olders cars has been affected to a degree.

[ss427]

Re: New car dealers ask Congress for $$ to take our "junk" off the road

Vote with your wallet(the only vote that is Really counted). I believe a certain oil company invented this deal, and I
have not purchased fuel or any product from them in 10+ years. And this includes walking right by one of their gas
stations, gas can in hand, to the consternation of a fellow co-worker. We were out of gas in the company truck, was
a non car crushing station 1/4 mi further down the road.