Copypasta: Cash for clunkers

[water]

and while I was there, I looked around, and saw HUNDREDS of 'Cash for Clunkers' cars, just lined up,
waiting for their final trip.......... Here is some of them.....

I have more photos, but you get the idea.
This one junk yard, recycling center has approx. 800 of these.

Some are in excellent condition, at least were, before the engines were seized/destroyed.

Leather interior

I asked a few questions,

They cannot sell the whole vehicle, but can sell all/any parts, except engine, (which is useless, anyway)
Trans, body panels, glass, doors, electronics, suspensions, - all available.

And because they have so many of them, parts are cheap.
But this will not last forever, as the source, the Cash for Clunkers deal is over.

These cars have to be disposed of within 180 days (6 months +/-)

So, soon they will start crushing them, here...........

Turning this

into this.

and sending it 'away'

15 to 20 at a time.

So, some math.

Here is approx. 22 cars. These are not actual clunkers, but its the same idea. These do not have motors or trans.

About 25 tons of scrap, mostly steel. Value $135 /ton delivered to Boston area. Goes in a shredder,
turned into steel 'peanuts' into a ship, sold to China, or wherever.

25*$135 = $3375 per load. Delivery costs $ 750 +/- so Net = $2625

When we do the 'clunkers' with engines, approx 16 cars/load. (Same weight)

So we have a system that turns 16*$4500 = $72,000 of OUR tax money, govt funds,

into $2625 of profit for the junk yard. (Plus whatever parts they sell before crushing)

$72,000 + .gov = $2625

So the next time you see me, or my brothers, nationwide, rolling down the highway,
with a load of 'junk' cars,

Just think, WE ALL paid $72,000 for that pile of scrap,
that's going to China, to come back, as 'new' stuff, or not.
A lot of the scrap stays in China, as 'I' beams for construction.

Makes me feel better every time I see my neighbor driving his new Toyota,
that he got a $4500 'discount' on.

And now they want to run health care!!!

No, I don't haul coffins, yet.

Hows that ' Hope and Change' working for you now?

 

[Floptical]

Man alot of those uncrushed cars have to be worth more that the $4500

 

[OzSTEEZ]

We also lessened our demand on foreign oil. Most the new cars bought in the C4C program get at least double the mileage the old clunker got.

 

[JAXvillain]

funny that pretty much all of them were chrysler/dodge/jeeps

 

[Amstel]

close. here's the new math.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/28/autos/clunkers_analysis/index.htm

Clunkers: Taxpayers paid $24,000 per car
Auto sales analysts at Edmunds.com say the pricey program resulted in relatively few additional car sales.
By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNNMoney.com senior writer
Last Updated: October 29, 2009: 5:58 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A total of 690,000 new vehicles were sold under the Cash for Clunkers program last summer, but only 125,000 of those were vehicles that would not have been sold anyway, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the automotive Web site Edmunds.com.

Still, auto sales contributed heavily to the economy's expansion in the third quarter, adding 1.7 percentage points to the nation's gross domestic product growth.

The Cash for Clunkers program gave car buyers rebates of up to $4,500 if they traded in less fuel-efficient vehicles for new vehicles that met certain fuel economy requirements. A total of $3 billion was allotted for those rebates.

The average rebate was $4,000. But the overwhelming majority of sales would have taken place anyway at some time in the last half of 2009, according to Edmunds.com. That means the government ended up spending about $24,000 each for those 125,000 additional vehicle sales.

"It is unfortunate that Edmunds.com has had nothing but negative things to say about a wildly successful program that sold nearly 250,000 cars in its first four days alone," said Bill Adams, spokesman for the Department of Transportation. "There can be no doubt that CARS drummed up more business for car dealers at a time when they needed help the most."

In order to determine whether these sales would have happened anyway, Edmunds.com analysts looked at sales of luxury cars and other vehicles not included under the Clunkers program.

Using traditional relationships between sales volumes of those vehicles and the types of vehicles sold under Cash for Clunkers, Edmunds.com projected what sales would normally have been during the Cash for Clunkers period and in the weeks after.

Edmunds.com's estimate of the ultimate sales increase generally matches what industry experts had thought, said George Pipas, a sales analyst with Ford Motor Co (F, Fortune 500). But that misses the point, he said.

"The whole purpose of the program was to provide some kind of catalyst to kick-start the economy," he said, "and by all accounts the extra production that was added this year was a boost to the economy."

Ford was one of the biggest proponents of the Cash for Clunkers program and several Ford models were among the top sellers under the program.

While auto sales in September were hurt because auto dealership inventories were drained of products by the program, sales this month are already back on track or better, Pipas said. "I think the October sales results will show Clunkers is behind us and there's no more payback or inventories issues."

Emunds.com's projection indicates that, without Cash for Clunkers, October's sales increase would be even higher.

 

[Applesauce]

I can't believe they are destroying perfectly fine vehicles like that.

Because the companies are out of business??

Why can't someone think of donating them? There is some sort of charity or 9067900 that could use a vehicle or two!

 

[JAXvillain]

the engines were all permanently disabled rendering them useless

 

[fly]

Man alot of those uncrushed cars have to be worth more that the $4500

Yeah, looks like a right wing, anti Obama chain mail to me. I doubt those are real C4C cars...

I can't believe they are destroying perfectly fine vehicles like that.

Because the companies are out of business??

Why can't someone think of donating them? There is some sort of charity or 9067900 that could use a vehicle or two!

Are you not up on the C4C program?

 

[water]

Yeah, looks like a right wing, anti Obama chain mail to me. I doubt those are real C4C cars...


Are you not up on the C4C program?

I didn't get it in an email, I pulled it from another forum.
:admin:
No idea what the original source was.

 

[fly]

I didn't get it in an email, I pulled it from another forum.
:admin:
No idea what the original source was.

While the stats may be good (I dunno), it does seem likely that those cars are worth more than $4500.

edit: I did a quick Edmunds search and a 2000 Grand Cherokee (base model) has a dealer retail of $4700. None of those vehicles look 10 years old...

 

[Applesauce]

Yeah, looks like a right wing, anti Obama chain mail to me. I doubt those are real C4C cars...


Are you not up on the C4C program?

Yes, but I guess I didn't know that they went and destroyed them.

*shrug*

 

[fly]

Yes, but I guess I didn't know that they went and destroyed them.

*shrug*

The idea is to get fuel inefficient cars off the road. If they don't destroy them, the plan doesn't work.

 

[Applesauce]

The idea is to get fuel inefficient cars off the road. If they don't destroy them, the plan doesn't work.

Right. But, the plan was sorta silly in that they capped the mileage at 18 MPG or less. That was sorta laughable. Ours averages 16 MPG, because of the all the city driving.

 

[water]

The idea is to get fuel inefficient cars off the road. If they don't destroy them, the plan doesn't work.

WELL WHATS YOUR EXCUSE FOR PUTTING OUT SO MUCH HARMFUL GAS?

 

[water]

While the stats may be good (I dunno), it does seem likely that those cars are worth more than $4500.

edit: I did a quick Edmunds search and a 2000 Grand Cherokee (base model) has a dealer retail of $4700. None of those vehicles look 10 years old...

I don't know why anyone would go from a car that was paid off (mostly?) to getting a new car with a new loan.

 

[Jonny_B]

WELL WHATS YOUR EXCUSE FOR PUTTING OUT SO MUCH HARMFUL GAS?

I love baked beans. I can't help it.

 

[Floptical]

I don't know why anyone would go from a car that was paid off (mostly?) to getting a new car with a new loan.

I'm willing to bet you a majority of the participants financially shouldn't have been buying something new anyway.

 

[Jonny_B]

I don't know why anyone would go from a car that was paid off (mostly?) to getting a new car with a new loan.

People also pay the minimum payment on credit cards and take out payday loans. I think they're just stupid.

 

[my little brony]

We also lessened our demand on foreign oil. Most the new cars bought in the C4C program get at least double the mileage the old clunker got.

That's a load of bullshit Not only is the average increase in fuel efficiency far below 100% but consumer cars are not the major use for foreign oil and the number of vehicles that actually went through this program is pretty small compared to the number of older vehicles on the road.

And this is on top of the fact that with most of the people who participated in this program at the very least had to have the credit to buy a new car meaning the poorest people who drive the worst cars which have the worst mileage and worst emissions didn't get to participate. Not only that but those perfectly good cars could have been sold to a low income family that could use it to get a better job and bring their family out of relative poverty.

Oh and let's not forget all the fossil fuels used to transport the vehicles to the crusher, crush them, then transport the steel elsewhere. One of those trucks uses far more fuel than was saved by its entire load of clunkers.

Basically, this was one of the most inefficient, counterproductive and wasteful government programs in recent history.

 

[Floptical]

I read this week a study that showed that owning a dog or a cat for a year caused a larger carbon footprint than owning a SUV for a year.

http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/2009...e_planet/index.html?source=rss&aim=/tech/htww