Cash for Clunkers
- Thread starter mc2az
- Start date
getlost4x4
Expedition Leader
isn't the whole program political.
anyway. what is the government doing with all these old vehicles they are collecting. is there going to be anyway to buy parts at cheap rates for scrap purposes of course. i would love to find a New Power Wagon and strip the axles, steering and sway bars for a project on my commander.
anyway. what is the government doing with all these old vehicles they are collecting. is there going to be anyway to buy parts at cheap rates for scrap purposes of course. i would love to find a New Power Wagon and strip the axles, steering and sway bars for a project on my commander.
Ursidae69
Traveller
RedRocker said:
According to the Federal Highway Administration, as of 2007, there are ~136 Million automobiles registered in the USA (Link) That does not count all the ones not registered but still running, nor does it count the millions of autos in the salvage yards.
So the question is, would the clunker program really cause a perceptable rise in used parts prices? I'm no economist, but I'd be inclined to think no. Also, if the engine is disabled the rest of the vehicle will be out for salvage, so technically the number of used parts excluding engine blocks will go up, probably causing used parts prices to actually drop.
Last edited:
getlost4x4
Expedition Leader
that would be good for axles!
i wonder if you can talk to the dealers and see if they would sell some of the parts off the vehicles they are trashing.
i wonder if you can talk to the dealers and see if they would sell some of the parts off the vehicles they are trashing.
Chris85xlt
Adventurer
i thought the ideal of cash for clunkers is to make those with money to spend it now and at the same time get these "clunkers" off of the road. That includes those who wants to keep their "clunkers" by starving them of spare parts and such.
Antichrist
Expedition Leader
This should really be in the existing thread under fireside chat, but, oh well.
If that's the case on used parts, then it's probably not going to have much effect on new car sales. So far the numbers are showing that of all the cars sold under the 1st phase of the program, around 25% or less I think, were sales that would not have happened anyway.
As for the spares, the law states they have 180 days to crush or shred the car. A lot of vehicles stay in junk yards a lot longer than 180 days. Also, it's the entire drive train that has to be destroyed, from what I've read. The car dealer has to disable the engine before it leaves his lot.
T.Low
Expedition Leader
There is a good reason why most people that have clunkers actually have them in the first place: they cannot afford car payments of any worth while amount.
By taking advantage of this government transfer payment subsidy program, they are going to have more debt and higher monthly financial burden including higher insurance premiums among other extraneous costs. No lessons were learned by the mortgage crisis.
The "good" that will come from this to the environment is very debatable; the financial "bad" occured by many "clunker" families taking on increased financial commitments for the next 4-6 years is very real.
If money to General Motors came with the stipulation that the ceo gets fired etc, then my tax dollars to clunker owners should also come with stipulations regarding their respective debt to income ratios, and frivolous spending habits, etc. (For instance if they have cable tv, which i do not btw, they should not be able to qualify for my tax dollars to buy a new car, which i also cannot afford)
While the 2001 van my buddy traded in may or may not have been worth the $3500 credit I helped subsidize, it was by no means a "clunker". "Clunker" is very effective marketing on the part of the administration. Many people may have a hard time argueing with the validity of getting real "clunkers" off the road. A clunker is a decrepit, dilapidated automobile. Not a shiney 2001 van that needs a radiator, a brake job, and a new set of tires.
Not getting political, just saying...
Last edited:
winkosmosis
Explorer
I think someone being interviewed on NPR said that the drivetrain of a clunker can't be salvaged.
winkosmosis
Explorer
Oh, just the engine and the shell have to be scrapped http://cbs4denver.com/local/clunkers.cash.colorado.2.1111873.html
mc2az
Observer
I didn't mean to open a spoiled can of worms. I was just whinning about all those spare or replacement parts I could put to good use. Wasn't my intention to get political. I have been scraping parts out of scrap yards since I was knee high with my dad. So I wondered how long we will be able to keep our CJ's & XJ classics going. Thats why I posted here on the Jeep forum. It's none of my business if someone wants a new car, I just love my old jeeps. I went to high school in a CJ3B (wish I still had that one) and wonder how hard it would be to keep it alive. I drove by a car lot today with an XJ out front with a rattle can message painted on it about the clunker deal. I didn't see a political message.....I saw an axle, window, trim, transfer case................
alosix
Expedition Leader
I think you just hit a nerve here.
While the purchase side (subsidizing some other guy with $4500 that has to come out of all of our pockets at some point) sucks, the parts are what kill me.
I see that XJ I think of a running I6, another AW-4 to keep my TJ happy...
The fact that the XJ and ZJ were #s 3 and 4 on the last total I saw really does it for me.
This program is crap from top to bottom. It does very little for the environment, it hurts the scrap market, and it puts us more in debt. The only people it helped were the banks that are getting interest on these loans (which will probably default anyway.. but hey that's what the bailouts were for) and the car dealers for a month.
I think it hurts us all a bit, which is why you get these reactions when its posted anywhere on a vehicle centric site.
Jason
alosix
Expedition Leader
The problem here is, as soon as you remove the engine from the mix, the profit margin goes negative for the salvage yards. Even if they get the car for free there are several man hours there that they have to pay for somehow for tearing down the vehicle to get the parts out to sell.
They'll normally yank the engine, trans, seats and airbags and put those in a warehouse. Then store the shell until enough parts are pulled off of it. In the clunker case, they'd have to pull everything that they think might sell and store it somewhere before the shell could be crushed. Increasing the cost of the teardown.
There's also the fact that most of the salvage places I've been do need to see the car work first (even if wrecked) before they'll use the parts. Its hard to check the condition of the transmission if the car won't move because they killed the engine.
Antichrist
Expedition Leader
And they only have 180 days to do it.
A perfect example of that is a guy on a Land Rover forum has a 5-speed disco that has a broken front axle and a bad center diff. Even with the center diff locked, it won't move. But he's figured out that if he welds something between the front propshaft and chassis it will go. So he's doing that, driving it to the dealer, and buying a new car.
If the scrap yard doesn't realize why he did what he's done, they could potentially sell a defective gearbox to someone since they have no way to really test it.