You guys are funny. Caring about goofy football. I guess go Colts but I really dont care!

My friend Mike & I did an informal survey at about 6-8 large car dealers in the Indianapolis area, during the Cash for clunker program. We walked in the back of each car dealer and checked out all the clunker cars. I only fournd one nasty DI with terrible dog smell inside. And 1 old range rover that was ultra low riding with done air springs. However I did make it out to Durango on a Mtn bike trip and found a DII in good shape traded in. I did discover that each car dealer had to pay up to $500 per car for an independent car carrier to remove the cars to be crushed. I found great in condition Cherokee's, Xterras, Pathfinders that had plenty of life left. Some cars with less than 80k on them. They didnt have to crush all the cars but remove the engines within a time period. Right now in Indianapols our old minor leauge baseball stadium infield is used as a holding pen for all the cash for clunker cars. You cant see in only from the air.
IMO it was dumb program. It was passed by congress and the Senate and signed by the President so they are all to blame. I hate letting usable items go to waste. I saw a few cars with brand new tires. They had to have less than 15,000.
I just thought how many of the people went out and bought a Nissan Cube. Althought its an interesting car, defiently a downgrade from a full size SUV.

 

So sad to see a land rover go to waste... I don't hate Obama, I'm just not a fan.

The cash for clunkers program was stupid. Any time the government gets involved in any market, such as the auto industry, it artificially manipulates it. When it manipulates a market, it has certain consequences. By creating an incentive for consumers to purchase a new car, the government drove the decision making process of car buyers and caused them to make purchasing decisions at a different time than they normally would have. This lead to a boom in car sales that would have normally been spread out of a period of 2, 3, 4, or 5 years. After causing the boom last year, the government caused an increase in car buying THEN, which right now looks like a success.... But what happens now that the program has ended and all of those people who would have been buying a car this year (next year, year after, ect) already have a new vehicle? They will obviously not buy, which will again slow down car buying right back to where it was before cash for clunkers. Classic boom-bust.

Luckily the auto industry is still chugging along right now (barley). Hopefully we wont see the consequences of cash for clunkers, but I never thought the idea was really thought out well. Hopefully i'll be wrong.

 

Actually they had to destroy the engine so it couldn't be reused. Then they had, I think, 90 days to crush the car. During that 90 days they could sell parts off of it.
Only someone with more money than brains would trade in a D110 for the program. The VIN alone was worth more than they got for a driveable 110.