Cash for Clunker...Really?

[jugman]

Well....my new truck has arrived at the dealer and we will be getting it tomorrow. There is a "glimmer" of hope for "Old Red". Their used car manager will look it over and see if it's worthy for resale. If it is, the dealer will give us the trade-in value instead of the clunker program. I'm going to work hard detailing the crap out of it this afternoon. If there's a chance my faithful explorer can survive, I'm gonna go for it. I'll only lose a little sweat, zip wash, and armor-all. It's the least I can do for my 13 year old "baby".

ETA: At 167K miles, my V-8 gets 17MPG in town & 22MPG on the road. It has never burned a drop of oil! It also has 6 month old tires that I hate to lose. But, I've have always kept up with maintenance on this truck and as such, it has rewarded me with faithfulness.

How much better is the mileage on your new truck? If you don't mind me asking.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Oh no, it's true, almost all of our recycled steel goes over seas. The guy that used to work for me, deals with scrap a lot. And every time the chinese sneeze about something, the price of scrap cars falls. Last year around this time, scrap was over $400 a ton, but because of this cash for clunkers stuff, it is at $75 a ton, and he is really hurting.

A good friend of mine works for a major auto dismantler/recycler in this area. He said that the Arabic countries are buying up a lot of the salvage cars that they are in the market for. GM will sell damaged cars at auction that cant be sold as new due to damage, they sometimes will have no title or a salvage title. My guess would be that they are being exported and then eventually repaired and sold.

 

[liv luvs disney]

The problem is that you are expecting something logical and rational to come from Washington, dont hold your breath waiting for that to change.

Isn't that the truth!!!

 

[des1954]

How much better is the mileage on your new truck? If you don't mind me asking.

The Mariner will have the V6 w/ 6 speed tranny. The EPA rates it at 24MPG city & 28MPG hwy. Now that being said, my V8 in my Explorer is EPA rated at 14MPG city & 17MPG hwy. I don't believe the EPA ratings. I had a 1999 Grand Marquis w/V8 that got 22 city & 27 hwy & my '97 explorer is 17/22, not 14/17. And that has been the mileage consistantly since day 1.

I just cleaned out all the stuff from my truck and gave her a good "once over". Why? I don't know. I doubt the dealer will nullify the C4C deal & take it on trade. Blue book is $6k on the truck, but that is so unrealistic.

I think I might steal a Disney tradition and use it myself. Whenever Disney "retires" an attraction & builds a new one, a piece of the original attraction is built into the new one. It may or may not be visible to the public, but if you want to see an example of this, look at the front of the cash register stand at Mission Space gift store. It has the old "Horizons" insignia built into the face of the stand. I think I might pry the Explorer Eddie Bauer tag off the lift gate & find a place to put it in the Mariner. If it won't come off easily & with no damage to the tag, I'll take one of the V8 tags off the side of the truck. I can't think of anything else small enough to use. Of course, I could strap one of those new tires I just bought into the back seat as a remembrance of "Old Red".

 

[des1954]

A good friend of mine works for a major auto dismantler/recycler in this area. He said that the Arabic countries are buying up a lot of the salvage cars that they are in the market for. GM will sell damaged cars at auction that cant be sold as new due to damage, they sometimes will have no title or a salvage title. My guess would be that they are being exported and then eventually repaired and sold.

This is a HUGE business in Mexico for highly valued American cars,,,,, only they are stolen vehicles. One of the cable channels had a documentary on this recently. The thieves move quickly to get vehicles across the boarder, and once there, all VIN#'s and identifiers are stripped. The vehicles are then sold on the black market, or chopped & used for parts.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

This is a HUGE business in Mexico for highly valued American cars,,,,, only they are stolen vehicles. One of the cable channels had a documentary on this recently. The thieves move quickly to get vehicles across the boarder, and once there, all VIN#'s and identifiers are stripped. The vehicles are then sold on the black market, or chopped & used for parts.

Ask anyone in the southwest that has had a car stolen.

 

[ntsammy5]

Let's see what affect this has on auto sales in the months after the program ends. Sales will fall through the floor.

 

[2goofycampers]

That is the pesos for Porsches deal. Didn't you get your pesos ?

 

[2goofycampers]

Let's see what affect this has on auto sales in the months after the program ends. Sales will fall through the floor.

Let's see how many repos happen.

 

[ntsammy5]

Let's see how many repos happen.

Yeah, but I doubt that the auto financers are relaxing their underwriting standards for this - but you never know.

 

[RvUsa]

Deb, to get the emblem off, heat it up with your hair dryer, and then take some dental floss and work it back and forth behind the emblem to cut the adhesive... it works.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Deb, to get the emblem off, heat it up with your hair dryer, and then take some dental floss and work it back and forth behind the emblem to cut the adhesive... it works.

John..... she is in FL.... the whole state is a blow dryer this time of year.

 

[RvUsa]

I thought of that after I wrote it, but I wanted to sound like I know what I am doing sometimes. LOL

 

[LONE-STAR]

John..... she is in FL.... the whole state is a blow dryer this time of year.

Its not just FL. Tx. is about the same. Right now the heat index is 108 in the shade and 123 in the sun. We took the ford emblem of my DW GT mustang that she totaled. Now it rides on our golf cart.

 

[liv luvs disney]

The Mariner will have the V6 w/ 6 speed tranny. The EPA rates it at 24MPG city & 28MPG hwy. Now that being said, my V8 in my Explorer is EPA rated at 14MPG city & 17MPG hwy. I don't believe the EPA ratings. I had a 1999 Grand Marquis w/V8 that got 22 city & 27 hwy & my '97 explorer is 17/22, not 14/17. And that has been the mileage consistantly since day 1.

I just cleaned out all the stuff from my truck and gave her a good "once over". Why? I don't know. I doubt the dealer will nullify the C4C deal & take it on trade. Blue book is $6k on the truck, but that is so unrealistic.

I think I might steal a Disney tradition and use it myself. Whenever Disney "retires" an attraction & builds a new one, a piece of the original attraction is built into the new one. It may or may not be visible to the public, but if you want to see an example of this, look at the front of the cash register stand at Mission Space gift store. It has the old "Horizons" insignia built into the face of the stand. I think I might pry the Explorer Eddie Bauer tag off the lift gate & find a place to put it in the Mariner. If it won't come off easily & with no damage to the tag, I'll take one of the V8 tags off the side of the truck. I can't think of anything else small enough to use. Of course, I could strap one of those new tires I just bought into the back seat as a remembrance of "Old Red".

You are cracking me up! You sound just like my husband. He has emotional attachments to his vehicles and his guns. In fact, I read your post to him and he said, "I like that lady!"

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Its not just FL. Tx. is about the same. Right now the heat index is 108 in the shade and 123 in the sun. We took the ford emblem of my DW GT mustang that she totaled. Now it rides on our golf cart.

I guess this is my chance to brag about the fact that it was 77 degrees today, 40% humidity with a low of around 60.
Nice sleeping weather.

 

[LONE-STAR]

I guess this is my chance to brag about the fact that it was 77 degrees today, 40% humidity with a low of around 60.
Nice sleeping weather.

Yeah its your turn but just wait till the snow starts falling. We will still be in shorts.

 

[bigdisneydaddy]

Yeah its your turn but just wait till the snow starts falling. We will still be in shorts.

You definetly got me on that one, 4 months from now I will be strangely silent on this subject

 

[LONE-STAR]

You definetly got me on that one, 4 months from now I will be strangely silent on this subject

Enjoy the outdoors while you can. We don't get nice outdoor weather until late
September or October. For now we just hide in the A/C until the sun goes down. But my job puts me in the sun all day quite often.

 

[Tigger1966]

DW and I were saying this may end up like the housing problem once people figure out that the clunker had cheap insurance and no big car payment. I never did understand why someone would trade a paid for LTD just for gas milage only to get the payment and higher insurance
As far as helping out the little guy these people who make this stuff up think everyone can afford a new car if they just cut back on the nonessential things they buy (food clothes for the kids and mabe the rent) I mean who need thoes things when you can have a NEW CAR
The people in washington have no idea what it is like to live in the real world