Good News! Cash for Clunkers bill

Nothing really, at least that is what I had thought, except maybe some of them don't seem to like people from Berkeley very much for some reason. Which is fine with me, but don't expect me to just roll over and take it. Sorry, just not that kind of liberal. Berkeley might have it's faults, but I am not too convinced Oklahoma has it beat.

Well, we'll obviously never see eye to eye debating our personal views on how the world should be run over the internet, so I can agree to that anyway. Deal.

 

I think I'm going to go get my repo job back

 

According to a tidbit I saw or read somewhere tonight, the other side of the federal circus has to pass something before this comes law, I guess their bill will be "similar" whatever that means.

I've been trying to sell my diesel truck but I'm not sure I want to now. The way things are going I may have to convert it to run on waste cooking oil to be able to afford any fuel at all.

 

We've had this over here since the beginning of the month. £2000 for your 1999 or older car as a part exchange. Car must be legal and owned by you for at least a year. Highlights so far at various dealers are the 1 owner, 15,000 mile, one lady owner cars, various 1960s British cars, and even a few P*rsch*s...!

Scheme is capped to 300,000 vehicles or next June, whichever comes first and is called 'Scrappage'.

 

There we go - out with the "liberal Berkley inspired talking points." Why are you folks so afraid of Fox news? Does another point of view scare you? I suppose we should sensor them right?

Problem us in the heartland have with the pointy headed folks from the east and west coast is they always seem to know what's best for the rest of us as long as they don't have to be subjected to the rules themselves.

Have you ever thought of the impact this law would have on the tons of 1000's of small businesses across the country that repair those nasty older cars everyday. Remember it's small business that fuels the engine of this country now that the government will be running the industries across the USA. So go ask your local mechanic how he feels about this proposed boondoggle, or do you have mechanics in Berkley, maybe they're all electricians instead of mechanics by now with all those wonderful electric cars you must have there now.

Keep you hands off my money - next it seems the feds will be bailing out CA and NY - just what we need.

 

Good point! When did those cats in Washingtoon become engineers anyhow? Thought they were all lawyers and such... we know about lawyers...right?

 

No, but Oklahoma produced Mickey Mantle. There's one for all you great thinkers in Berkley to ponder.

 

Correction, our wallets. Remember, government has no money except what it gets from us.

 

I think you mean OUR wallets!

 

I like my news to be somewhat factual. Fox doesn't cut it for me. If it is good enough for you, fine watch it.

My hands aren't on your money, just as I suspect you won't be touching mine or at least I strongly advise you not to.

If you think your tough guy right wing BS talk scares me, think again. Quite frankly you are wasting your time on me with it. Just I am wasting my time on you. If you don't like Berkeley, stay away. The good thing about you living in MI or OK is that laws in Berkeley don't effect you. So, don't worry about what we do here and don't come here if you don't like it.

Bail out CA and NY? WTF? MI is so far beyond hope it isn't even worth bailing out.

 

But there are quite a few cars in that "25 year range" that I would like to have and play with...

There goes any chance of me finding a good running recently uninsured '87 Cutlass Supreme with T tops...

Is this a "sliding" year deal? meaning that next year all vehicles from 1985 are out and the new cut off is 1986?

 

Just heard the estimated cost to the taxpayers..... $4 Billlion

 

Wow, Its good to know my hard earned money is going to good use like my kids school, or nice new roads to drive on, or wait a minute how bout helping my neighbor buy a new car!!!???

 

"Where are the rods of the future going to come from if 25 year old and newer stuff is largely wiped out? We will have screwed the rodders of the future."

Dont worry about the rodders of the future, they can drive our cars. We will have been taxed to death by then.

 

You have to remember that the majority of the people in Congress and the Senate haven't been in touch with the real world for a lot of years. Many were pretty wealthy before they decided to head to Washington and others just got out of touch with the real world.
To them anything over five years old that isn't an exotic such as a Ferrari or Lambo is an ancient junker. They might keep an older Mustang rag top or Corvette in the garage at the summer home but for the most part their personal car if they even have one is the latest thing out in the showroom and will be traded for the next latest thing out in the showroom. Although Prez BO did have a Chrysler 300 for a family car a while back.
Most of them don't associate with anyone that can't walk into a new car showroom at any given moment and buy a new car.
Now try explaining to them that there is a whole society out there in the country who has never bought a car that cost enough that they had to make payments on it. Or in a lot of cases the people buy cars for cash because they can't afford to make payments or pay for full coverage insurance.

I see some fleet owners taking advantage of it to swap in older trucks and vans and some people like my 82 year old mom who trades cars every 12 years or so and pays cash may bite (she bought a new one two years ago) So you may see a whole batch of Mid/late 80's Buick Centurys traded in in the next few weeks but the stock market hit those folks retirement kittys pretty hard so they may not be trading any time soon either.

 

We're not asking for a bailout - CA will be out of cash in a a few days according to news outlet other than Fox. It's CA who has already asked for a bailout.

 

The Cal State Workers pensions will be coming due for all the baby boomers ......BANKRUPTING CALIFORNIA and then the feds will step in just like GM.. Believe me, I have had some deeply disturbed looks from the greenpeace crowd in thier prius's when my 31 A Rod comes along side ..

 

I feel the need to correct you on this post. This is a rebate that will be coming from the Federal Government, not the dealers. You state that the "..Dealers will be hiding the $$$ in the price of the new car. Just like before." If you are referring to the manufacturer's rebates on most new cars/trucks....It is not the dealers who are hiding this money in the price of the vehicle...It is the manufacturers who have been doing this.

I have been in the automobile business my whole life, both as an owner of a new domestic franchise, and as a sales manager of a multi line dealer group. I can guarantee you that every salesperson/manager would love to see all forms of incentives go away, and get back to old fashioned pricing and negoiating, instead of the manufactureres dictating the price.

 

These trade-ins in this new "clunkers" program will NOT be allowed to be resold, except as parts. Plus, the engine block can NOT be resold at all! So, it's not like there will be a sudden influx of nice, low-mile 5- to 25-year-old cars available on the used market. These cars will go away. Plus, where does that leave the collectables from that era (there really ARE a few, you know!)...Easy. They will be lost forever. As in WWII, when many, many pre-war cars (especially 'Teens and Twenties cars!) were lost for all eternity to be made into bullets and bombs and ships. That was a worthy cause, since the world faced true Evil then, and the US was there to save it, along with our Allies. The "clunker" program isn't one one-millionth as worthy as that was. And what does it bring? Feel-goodism from the Left, and a sense that "we are really doing SOMETHING for the envirionment and the economy! Rally 'round the campfire, break out the 'Smores and sing "Kumbaya"! That would do the very same thing as the "clunker" program does.

 

The overall premise of this takes into consideration that you *actually* believe in man made global warming. If you accept this as true, then you believe that the culprit is CO2 which comes, in part, from the burning of fossil fuels. Those who ascribe to this point of view think that legislation like this is a great idea "Hey, lets get those "guzzlers" off the road and have people buy "efficient" cars". Yeah....cars that require more energy to produce, and have more pollution emitted in their production than would be created by your average car over its' lifetime. Cars that the government has dictated have to be made, that no one wants. I must admit, I allowed a Saturn Vue Hybrid to be purchased....mostly because of fuel costs and the fact that I'd rather give money to Detroit and do my part to make the Middle East poor. HOWEVER...I hate the damn thing. As I mentioned in another post, my a** has more horsepower after a Mexican dinner than this thing. If this POS is the future, count me out.

The cars that Gubment Motors is instructed to make have completely unreasonable safety regulations. Small cracker box POS cars that will get you killed. A study was done that showed that for every 100 pounds that is removed from a car's weight, an additional 3,000 deaths occur. I can hit one of those cars with my 50....they will be obliterated, me and mine will still make it to the BBQ.

Gas guzzlers? I read somewhere that a fellow had his early 50s Chevy, with a 216, so well tuned that he got 30mpg......*regularly*. Don't tell me that new cars are SO much better, safer, or more efficient.

So many people today just want to *feel* like they can have an effect on the world, so they take up emotional issues and don't bother to consult *all* areas of findings and science. Hence why you end up with bills like this...completely hokey....or non-"Hokey" in this instance.

I have to address this. I read in one of Mr. Stude's posts, an item of condescension throwing an age old straw man argument out there. That blue state tax dollars are just dumped.....*dumped* into those poor, backwoods, rube fly-over states so they can get them thar an edumication. Whether or not you believe that, don't forget who tills the fields so you can eat affordable food and cotton for affordable clothing.

 

Never saw this bill as a threat to our hobby. The program is a voluntary program not a mandatory one. You wouldn't have to turn in an old car unless you wanted too.

If not many people take them up on the trade-in program, the next one could be mandatory.

 

Well said Poboyross!!

 

I guess you are conveniently forgetting about the piles of cash GM and Chrysler are sucking up to save a bunch of jobs in your state. If you are going to work with facts, let's keep track of all of them please.

And please, please don't tell me that auto job you have doesn't benefit from that giant mountain of undeserved cash that has been dumped into your state to the auto industry. But, I am guessing it does. Lose all those jobs in your state and a hell of a lot less people will likely be headed your way for car repairs. They'll be doing it themselves if they can even afford to do that. But, you are welcome, no thanks needed to the rest of the American taxpayers trying to help out you and your states ass. I see you don't really appreciate that a lot of your neighbors still having jobs they would have otherwise lost a few months back.

 

Wow. I can't believe this has lasted for 2 days without being closed. Would all the Democrats and Republicans please stop bickering. I guess opposite sides of the same coin always roll together.


Someone please shut this down so we can get back to useful posts.

 

Ha ha....I agree. I just can't resist when someone let's their flag fly....I just gotta tear it down!

And Stude....if you think you're the bigger man...in the wise words of Lord Humungus "Just walk away". Stop throwing down the condescension, dude.

 

It seems to me that the more fuel efficient vehicles get, the more the owners will drive them, they will also be encouraged to find employment farther away and therefore a longer commute. If you drive a reliable older vehicle that gets 12 mpg one will think twice before just hopping into it and spending 3 hours on a conjested freeway trying to get to work. My point is that the average person hears fuel efficent, and that just encourages them to drive even more, to the point where the fuel efficent vehicle may be no more economical to operate then a 25 year old vehicle that does not get driven as much.
I believe we have that cash for clunkers thing up here in canada too, however im quite happy with my 20 plus year old beater/daily and i have no intentions of trading it in to purchase a new vehicle (which i cannot afford) it looks like crap, although it runs good but ive gotten quite attached to it, still relatively simple to work on as well. As far as gas mileage i have never bothered to figure it out, as it doesnt get driven far enough for it to be a problem.

 

Dude - give it up, I am not in and never been in the auto industry - I'm a publisher, not everyone in MI is in the auto business typical short minded Berkley pointy headed thinking. CA is not the center of the universe. More cars are built outside MI than in MI. There I'm done with it, back to the original post cash for clunkers is a bad idea!

 

Good point. One volcano eruption can do more damage to the environment than all emissions man's made in the entire modern age. Even a cow fart can be "hazardous" and they'd fart regardless of man existing or not.

When they declared carbon to be a pollutant that's when it became obvious that it was self-loathing liberal guilt behind this bullshit. Humans are made mostly of carbon. Then again so is a lot of other life on the planet.

In the end it's just another illustration of what's wrong with this country and why most politicians should just be shot.