Cash4clunkers, scrap metal price for your trade in

Strizzo wrote:

benzbaron wrote: It doesn't make any sense that there is a cutoff at 1985 for gas guzzlers. By 1985 cars had O2 sensors and all sorts of tricks up their sleeves to improve mileage. If you want to get real pigs off the road go for cars from the 60s and 70s.

i think at least part of that is so that it doesn't target classic cars that could be restored or used for parts

That's exactly the reason for the year cut-off. We don't want all of our classics taken to the shredder. Let the market determine what old cars are worth keeping, not a government program.

foxtrapper wrote: It matters. It matters a whole lot. For you don't get the trade in value of the vehicle. So you show up with your old Toyota Tundra because you're sick of feeding it (17 mpg average). You want to trade it in on Honda Fit and you're all excited about getting this bonus. You figure you'll get the $7,000 trade in on the truck, plus the $4,500 cash4clunkers bonus, and be sitting pretty. Nope. You dont get any trade in, you get the scrap metal price. Oh boy, $40. Not the $7,000 you were expecting. So, you can get either the $4,500 cash4clunkers voucher, or the $7,000 trade in value of the vehicle, but not both. Which would you chose?

It's called "cash for clunkers", not "cash for people who are driving vehicles already worth a bit of change that have significant trade-in value on a new economy car".

Makes sense to me. Hey, it's not meant to be a bonus for someone trading in a 2006 CTS-V because they want something better on fuel. It's to help people swing a newer, cleaner and more efficient car than the "clunker" they are currently driving.

A thought about the cutoff date: at least in these parts, anything pre-88 that is still on the roads is unlikely to be driven by someone driving it for financial reasons. It is, instead, either a classic, or so far in the minority that it isn't worth "targeting". There ARE argueably a "lot" of '85-'95 clunkers that have been chosen by people for primarily economic reasons.

Nathan

foxtrapper wrote:

aircooled wrote: Does that even matter? I thought you just got a $4000 credit (or whatever it is) to a new car. You get the scrap value also? Sounds like a bonus to me.

It matters. It matters a whole lot. For you don't get the trade in value of the vehicle. So you show up with your old Toyota Tundra because you're sick of feeding it (17 mpg average). You want to trade it in on Honda Fit and you're all excited about getting this bonus. You figure you'll get the $7,000 trade in on the truck, plus the $4,500 cash4clunkers bonus, and be sitting pretty. Nope. You dont get any trade in, you get the scrap metal price. Oh boy, $40. Not the $7,000 you were expecting. So, you can get either the $4,500 cash4clunkers voucher, or the $7,000 trade in value of the vehicle, but not both. Which would you chose?

I think the point of this program is to get old cars off the road, not new ones. So it's to set a lower limit on older gas guzzler cars- for people who have old Explorers and whatnot.

It's not a bonus- it's a lower limit.

E-

I think that the carbon footprint to produce a new POS car is not worth it in the long run on the enviroment . China is going to be fronting the US the money so you are only helping their economy . This is a no win bad deal for the US no matter how you package it with commercials and chics and rainbows and flowers .

I think the point of this program is to get old cars off the road, not new ones.

They miss old cars completely by requiring the car to be 25 years young. Old dogs are banned from this program. You can use the Tundra I mentioned, it's new enough. But the Fairmont is too old.

The Explorers you mention will often times have a higher trade in value than the voucher. So my example stands. You would lose money by going the voucher route instead of a regular trade-in. Yes, I know about padding the price of the new car to cover the fake high trade in value of the old car. But it's an important game, I lost many a sales selling new cars at a dealership that didn't do that.

The only people that can possibly gain are those with thoroughly trashed semi-new cars. Those folks don't usually buy a new car anyhow. True, some do. But most are used car buyers. The program doesn't cover purchasing a good high gas mileage clean running used car.