The musings of a politically incorrect dinosaur from a forgotten age where civility was the rule rather than the exception.
Webster
The Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions." --American Statesman Daniel Webster (1782-1852)
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Cash for Clunkers....Revisited
Why am I bringing up a program that the Obama whitehouse ran through back during the heady days of the dawn of hope and change as it descended on America like the locusts crossing the southern border..I know...bad pun....
I was at work and we were waiting to tag off our airplane, it left a day early. We got to talking about the "Cash for Clunkers" thing the democrats pushed through during the annointed ones first term during the heady days of "hope and change" to help take a bunch of polluting cars off the road and let people get into newer fuel efficient cars. One of the avionic guys pulled up an article that described some of the cars turned in to the cash for clunkers program, the program that had a lot of problems. I recall some of the problems were that when you bought a new car, and if the rebate didn't materialize from the government, you were on the hook for the money. That meant that the dealer can and would sue you to collect the cash, or added the debt to the bottom line of the loan amount. Also to those that got their money, the following year, they sawe on their taxes...they had to pay taxes on that money. It proves an adage...Nothing is free...if it comes from the government....there is a hook in there. You may not pay now...but you WILL pay.
I saw the cars that got turned in and besides all the before mentioned stuff...it also destroyed the late model used car market.
Before the
government's CARS "Cash for Clunkers" program opened its doors, many car
enthusiasts voiced opposition to the plan, fearing that rare and
collectible cars would be at risk of government-funded destruction. Now
that all is said and done, it turns out they were, to some extent,
right.The NHTSA, which was handling the CARS program,
recently released a list of every vehicle submitted to the program,
which in turn gave their owners a $3500 or $4500 voucher towards a new
car that was substantially more
fuel-efficient depending on the
trade-in's efficiency.
While the list is heavily populated with trucks
and SUVs, many of them hailing from Detroit, there are a few oddballs,
and worse, a few tragedies.Since the program only covered vehicles going
back to 1984, some argued that there really weren't many collectible
cars produced in the allotted time period that even qualified to be
traded in. Like those opposed to CARS, they have a point and are, to
some extent, correct. With the trade-in list revealed, though, we find
that a few good cars did slip through. While we're glad to see that the
number is relatively low, it really makes us wonder how the owners of
these cars couldn't have gotten more than $4500 on the open market for
their treasures. There is one ray of hope, though. The list specifically
notes that the cars listed have been submitted to the program but not
necessarily approved or even reviewed yet, possibly sparing some of
these treasures.While there are several painful trade-ins on the
list to choose from, the most egregious has to be a 1987 Buick GNX. GM
produced less than 550 of the turbocharged, Corvette-beating super
Buicks in the mid-1980s and we can't believe what kind of condition this
car had to be in to prevent the owner for getting more than $4500 for
it. Considering the fact that CARS regulations required trade-ins to be
registered and insured by the current owner for at least one year, we
have to think that this owner simply didn't know what they had. We
imagine it's the same case for the person who traded in a 1992 GMC
Typhoon.
Unfortunately, the GNX isn't the only
high-profile casualty on the list. While we can believe that the owner
of the Buick may not have known what a special car they had, it's hard
to think that the owner of the 1997 Aston Martin DB7 Volante didn't.
Like the GNX, we'd love to know what kind of shape this car was in to
lead the owner to believe that CARS was the best way out. Same goes for
the person who traded in a 1997 Bentley Continental R.Other high-profile trade-ins that tugged at our
gasoline-soaked heart-strings included several Maseratis. To be fair,
all those traded in were 1980s models -- not the brand's peak. While one
owner of a BiTurbo gained notoriety for trading in his car after no one
would pay him more than $4,500 for it, he was only one of four who made
that call. An old Quattroporte and a 222E suffered the same fate.
Joining the Maseratis on the high-profile stage
was a 1992 BMW 850i, a 1985 TVR 280i Convertible, a 1999 Mercedes-Benz
C43 AMG, two 2008 Foose Ford F-150s, two 2008 Roush Stage 3 Ford F-150s,
a handful of Porsche 928s and 944s, dozens of Ford F-150 Lightnings
and dozens of Corvettes, though all of the C4 vintage.The list doesn't end there, unfortunately. While
the others might not be quite as high-profile, they're good cars that
slipped through the cracks as well. Other losses include BMW M3s and
M5s, Ford Taurus SHOs, Ford Mustangs, Chevrolet Camaros, Pontiac
Firebirds, Nissan 300ZXs, Mitsubishi 3000GTs, Toyota Supras, Audi S4s
and S6s, at least one Nissan 350Z and Mazda RX-8 and even a few
McLaren-enhanced Pontiac Grand Prix GTPs.
It's an ugly list for car
enthusiasts of every flavor, and we can only hope that many of the good
vehicles traded in were not top-of-the-line models but their cheaper,
less powerful and less impressive stablemates.While there were many collectible cars crushed,
there were also some oddballs. Hundreds of police-spec Ford Crown
Victorias met the crusher, as did a number of Post Office vans. Other
unexpected kills included the little known Laforza SUV, several Merkur
XR4Tis, a Sterling 827 and two custom-built Excalibur Autos Phaetons.
Less surprising were the dozens of Pontiac Azteks put out of their
misery.There were also a few head-scratchers on the
list. As noted above, the list contains only cars submitted, not
necessarily those approved, so we're guessing these will be shot down.
They include a 1998 Dodge Neon, a 2008 Scion xD, a 2008 Hyundai Accent
and several Honda Accords, mostly of the mid-90s vintage. What all of
these vehicles have in common is that they shouldn't qualify for CARS
since they all get more than 18 mpg combined according to the EPA.To see the complete list, CLICK HERE.
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I had to change the comment format on this blog due to spammers, I will open it back up again in a bit.