Has anybody else been paying attention to the "Cash for Clunkers" bill the US Congress is working on?

It's supposedly modeled after the California "cash for clunkers" law.

As I read it, the short version is trade in an old car for a new "green / economy" model and you may get as much as $4,500 back ... and its mandatory the old car gets crushed so it doesn't end up back on the road using too much gas and polluting.

If that's the case, then the day of the cheap driver will be long gone ... you would have to out pay whatever the government is willing to ... and we could see rust bucket parts cars selling for several thousand dollars ...

From my viewpoint, this is the "perfect storm" of legislation for the government ... they get press points for being green, save gas, dictate that we buy the new Government Motors econo-boxes to spur car sales, and get rid of all the old junkers at the same time.

John W

The new Government Motors is a scary thought here in Canada also + we lost a lot of older cars when the price of scrap topped $300/ton a year or so ago.

Yeah, we had that happen here also ... I had forgotten about it. My favorite junk yard used to have cars back to 50's ... last time I was there it was hard to find anything over 8 - 10 years old.

That means many old cars in need of restoration will end up as scrap metal and some years down the line folks will regret this. At least I think they will.

Bear

Here is a link to a New York Times story about the proposal:

Rules May Limit Use of Cash-for-Clunkers Program

Apparently someone has at least been paying attention to classic car owners' concerns, because, under the proposed rules, the car can't be more than 25 years old.

It also has to have been owned and driven for at least one year by the person trading it in ... which should stop "flipping".

There are other limitations, which you can fidn in the NYTimes story.

John W

parked my service truck and went to work for one of my customers. I now work in a wrecking yard here in Lewiston. The Cash for Clunkers would eventually end our business; when we get in the 'clunkers' we cannot strip and sell so much as an ash tray off of them no matter how good the parts are. They have to be crushed in their entirety. The Association of Auto dismantlers is trying to fight it.

Each of us should call or write our congressmen and senators and tell them to vote no. It works, just do it. We can't stop the slow creep of socialism, but we sure can slow it down.