Anyone remember cash for clunkers

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Yeah I hated that. Did that right around the time I was shopping for my first car. Made it [censored] to find a cheap a to b beater
 
I'm going to keep my 84 3/4 ton burban going forever just to make environmentalists cry.

Just bought another gallon of bondo the other day.
 
2009ish right? I'm pretty sure my Jeep was eligible.

They'd drain the oil and red line the engine with sodium silicate. Basically the stuff turned from a liquid to a solid inside the engine.

I don't think the junkyards were suppose to allow people to pull engine parts, but the rest of the body was good for picking.
 
Terriable thing.
Painful to watch all those nice caddy Northstar getting purposely blown up.
It hurt the economy and a big waste of money. Most of the people that cashed in on it probably got thier car repoed by now. All it did was put people in debt and take away alot of cheap transportation.
Of all the members on here, did anyone make out on that deal because I never met anyone that actually said, Yeah, that was a Great program.
 
It was probably one of the dumbest things I can recall in recent history. A lot of good vehicles were destroyed needlessly.
 
Between C for C and a huge decline in new car sales after 2007, the used car market basically dried up and decent, useable DD semi-beaters went from around 2K to around 5K.
OTOH, new cars and trucks came at huge discounts, so new vehicles represented a good alternative for many buyers, at least for those who had stable employment.
 
The pickup featured in the YouTube video seemed pretty far away from being a clunker. In fact, I'd say it had the potential to be the perfect first car for some 16 y/o about to get their driver's license. Not to mention it was old enough to still allow all the hands-on type maintenance tasks that have historically served so well as bonding activities between fathers and sons.

Oh well, at least it is no longer polluting?
 
my uncle "turned in" his 1995 Bonneville SSEi(supercharged 3.8)w/300k mi, on a Hyundai Tuscon.

within 2 years the ride quality, and road noise level got to be too much for him, and he traded the Tuscon in on a Lincoln MKX.
He has since replaced that MKX with another, which is approaching 100k mi, and he now has a Continental on order.(should be in in the next 2 weeks)
 
the honda dealer near my work, had a Fullsize 80's Chevy conversion van, they had JUST taken in on C4C, spontaneously catch fire before they could attempt to blow the engine.

it was almost like the van committed suicide instead of letting them kill it.
 
Who FORCED anyone to do anything to their vehicle for some money?

There was money/fuel crunch at the time and culling the heard possibly spurred sales.
If foreign makers built the cars people needed / selected as replacements, so be it. Let the US /Canadian makers build cars people need.

They say no RSP here so we'll see how far this thread goes.
So many chant "Marketplace-marketplace-marketplace". The people in the marketplace had an option they didn't have to take.

I love the visceral hatred emoted by this topic......sounds coached....as if by certain radio stations.

Cash 4 clunkers never touched my life or those of my friends. Believe me, the fullest spectrum of lefty-to-righty is represented thereby.

But, as usual, it's good to have something to stand for. Kira
 
I know a lady who has joined the Cash for Cube program - she has had what looked like pretty minor wrecks - and twice her little cube cars get totaled by the insurance rep ... (matter of record)
 
Originally Posted By: turtlevette
I'm going to keep my 84 3/4 ton burban going forever just to make environmentalists cry.

Just bought another gallon of bondo the other day.

same with my f250 minus the bondo.
 
Ok. I will I admit I used the program. I was daily driving a 1986 Mercedes 420sel that was killing me in repairs. I lived that car and I miss it but I was worn out. I had stayed up may nights until 2 am trying to get it repaired so I could get to work in the morning. I was going through a rough patch of repairs and I believe that's what spurred my decision. After much thought I decided to do it. I was able to because my dad was willing to co-sign the loan for me since I had already ruined my credit by the time I was 19. My dad helped me because I had started to learn how to manage my money. I went to the local Mazda dealer and purchased a 2010 Mazda 3. I got the most basic car that had. An I sport. The only option it had over the base model I sv was air conditioning. It was a manual and had manual door locks and power windows. I received $4500 for my trade in and with some negotiation I ended up in a loan of $237.31 a month and a total of $12,300 in debt. The car was new and reliable and had great air conditioning. I was happy. I drove that car for 5 years and 115k miles and it was a good car. That purchased jump started my credit repair and now I have excellent credit. I traded the 3 in to the same dealership in 2015 on a new Mazda Cx5. This time I was able to do it alone and at a 1.75% interest rate. Also in 2012 I was able to buy my first home. I'm not saying that program was perfect but it helped me and I am glad. It helped me in more than just getting a reliable car. I would do it all over again. Had I had an older vehicle like my truck at the time I wouldn't have even considered it. I was just in a low spot and felt it was the best course of action. I visited the junkyard after and actually found my car and it was sad. I also found some really nice cars in the yard that had gone through the program that if I owned I wouldn't have used it. I caught a lot of flak on the Mercedes forum for this but none of those people had to rely on my car. I still own a benz but it's not a daily driver and if it breaks I have a reliable car to get me to work. It's great now since I put 25k a year on my car for work. Daily driving a 20 plus year old car wasn't ideal and that's my fault for getting into that situation but that's the way it was. I got the cheapest car I could and it worked out well for me.
 
Immature politicians get to play games like this and we pay the freight. It's a wonderful system, for them. Unintended consequences just mean there's going to be a new game to play. There's lots of games to play because we'll pick up the tab.
 
Worked fine for me. My mother-in-law fobbed off my father-in-law's early-90s Suburban gas-guzzler, and bought the most American car available (in terms of U.S.-made parts and assembly content)---a Tennessee-built Toyota Camry. She's still driving it eight years later, and saved more than half the fracked dinosaur juice that the Suburban would've swilled. She also sold her '02 Camry to me in the deal, and my son is still driving that one at 260+K miles. Multiple wins for my family from that "public policy failure".
 
the vast majority of vehicles that got turned in for cash for clunkers were just that.
i suggested that a few friends do that with worn out and barely running junk that was weeks away from the shreddin hole.
thats the only benefit.
i did the same with junk guns that didnt even have spare parts value when a local church group did their gun buyback.
they bought lots of garbage!
 
It generally was a good program for the economy, the environment and the carmakers and their employees and shareholders.

The losers out of it were the second hand market buyers.
 
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