look at the picture in this article
Top 10 'cash for clunkers' purchases | MNN - Mother Nature Network
cash for clunkers was such a cruel thing for our trucks. theres less and less of them on the road as it was. the one in that picture looks pretty straight too!

 

CFC was bad for a lot of older vehicles. Whats the current value of a scrap vehicle in your neck of the woods? Its $12.50 per 100 lbs. here in Maryland. There are a lot of vehicle getting sucked up in this trap as well.

 

I scrapped 4 cars just before Christmas. I think this is a good thing. Lots of yards are getting cleaned up of vehicles that would have never seen the road again, and were just collecting rust.

 

You are so right on the folly of this program. It succeeded in driving UP the price of used vehicles by eliminating a number of them. These were, for many people, the only vehicles many could afford to buy. Couple this with the fact that it did NOT succeed in increasing total overall new vehicle sales over the long run: It merely "fast forwarded" a number of new vehicle purchases that would have otherwise been spread out over a longer period of time. It also artificially created demand that could, in many instances, not be met by available inventory. Subsequently, following the end of the program, sales dropped off PRECIPITOUSLY; creating financial hardship for a number of dealers. My wife's cousin who is a sales rep at an Illinois dealership notes that this scenario played out all across the country. And, it served to drive up even more the obscene debt of our nation.

On a related note, while for a time there was an increase in the number of these venerable Ford trucks in the salvage yards it was a supply that really could not be properly absorbed before far too many of those trucks succumbed to the crushers.

Consider this: Those of us who drive and maintain these old Fords are probably "greener" (I really do not care for that term but that would be a whole other thread) than the so-called enlightened among us in that no energy or resources have been expended to build new vehicles for us for at least the last 15 years! Properly tuned and maintained they can run quite clean. The 92 Bronco with the rebuilt engine our son & I installed ten years ago passed CA emissions testing after the installation of a new CARB compliant converter with CO & NOx numbers BETTER than a lot of much newer vehicles. And, he gets 17 MPG with the Beast he has dubbed "Frankentruck" based on its numerous parts from 1992 to 1995 models.

In closing, recall the words of the late Paul Harvey: "Not all that we call progress is".

dn.

 

I hold nothing but contempt for the CFC program. As stated above It did Nothing to help out the economy. It only made providing used parts for used vehicles (since thats the only thing a lot of us can afford) even more difficult than what It already was, and It also succeeded in driving up the prices for these well valued parts.

I feel the only true reason (whether it was official stated or unstated) was only to make consumers switch to buying the overly regulated and technology riddled throwaway pieces of garbage of nowadays.

 

This might be old news for some of you, but I did catch wind that the Federal Government was thinking about bringing back the Cash for Clunkers program. I'm highly displeased with this.

 

we all hate this. dont watch any youtube vids you might get real sick like i did. also dont go to allofcraigs.com and type f150 scrap because its just as bad. stupid govt dont know nothin. i dont see how this helped anything it just ruined americas future and and history all at once.

 

they better not ever ever do this again i will be so POed. i hope you didnt scrap any ford vehicles. rusty or not they still got good parts that somebody is looking for.

 

I don't want to upset any one so I won't say what I just did ...

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

Sharing experiences here is great but remember to speak with your elected representatives. Senators and members of Congress are always hearing from those on the other side: Let them know how YOU feel. They will seldom see the light unless they feel the heat. Be respectful and courteous, but be firm. Argue your case with facts and tact. You may be surprised to find out how much they agree with what you have to say! Many times they assume we have no opinion on a matter because they do not hear from us.

If you are still hitting a brick wall start looking for his or her successor and work hard to make it happen!

dn.

 

Yup, They sure do ...

Unfortunately, their actions do not match their words.

-Enjoy
fh : )_~

 

I never trusted the CFC program, which is why I'm still driving my 91 F150. I remember hearing shortly after the program started that many dealerships were holding on to the "clunkers" until they got their government checks for them because they didn't trust the gov't to pay up.

I remember seeing so many early 90's era Ford trucks at one dealership, and many of them looked clean and probably ran just fine. My rule of thumb is that I never believe anything the government tells me; and if they tell me something is good for the economy, it's a really bad idea.

As for our elected representatives [and I use the term elected very loosely]... well, I could go on for days. I am not challenging that there are at least some politicians out there who actually care. Here's the problem I have: politics is a career for many of them. There are many politicians who will retire directly out of office, and that's all they've ever done in their lives. Never worked a real job or done anything other than politics. The average salary for a congressman/woman is 175k a year.

Can anybody explain to me why it is that those who are appointed to serve the public, are often making much more than those they "serve"? This goes to their heads and they somehow think they're untouchable. That's why we have jokes for politicians like Newt Gingrich & Anthony Wiener & Rob Blagoyavich [or however you spell his name.] These types of people get in office and then let the money and the power trip go to their head.

I can't keep going. Well, I could, but I won't. I have a novel of political BS floating around in my head. The current system is a joke and it's going to take much, much more than a vote to change anything. But that's another discussion for another time.

 

Once I redo my rear bumper this is getting put on it.

 

With all due respect:
Y'all are crazy! CFC destroyed the engines. Having said that: some of the engine parts are still good. (But I try to use as little used engine parts as possible.)
The wrecking yards around me (There is quite a few around me) For those in DFW I live off of Sylvannia and NE 28 street in Fort Worth. About 5 miles from Carson street. and 1 mile from Brennan. (2 streets of well known wrecking yards.) These yards are FULL of trucks from our era!!!! Parts o'plenty for great prices! I can get a windshield for $20.00 USD. Speedometer/Odometer/PSOM for $40.00 or less. Bumpers in perfect condition for $40!
Also less of our trucks affect the supply and demand for parts of our trucks, and I don't know about y'all, but the prices for brand spankin new parts for our trucks are at the lowest I've ever seen them!
I'm all for CFC! Cheaper parts, Less demand for fuel (our trucks burn a lot comparitively), less demand for our tires! (newer trucks use different sizes)
For folks like us who like to hang on; it's better than ever!!!
I say brang it back!!!!

 

Not to poop in your Cheerios, but the thing with CFC as it was written and inforced, The engines were to be destroyed, and the cars are allowed in junkyards for at most 6 months, then were to be scrapped. After the program fell apart the CFC cars and trucks were seemingly mostly scrapped so stealerships could get back some of the $$ they lost. The vehicles you see I'm willing to bet are just regular junkers, not CFC. The junkyards I go to are full of them too, but then again I see tons of them still driving here. Not everyone was stupid enough to go for the CFC BS.

Took many good trucks off the road, and I had seen to many beautiful trucks get destroyed.

Also you say that parts are cheaper than ever and that tires will be cheaper, false. Supply and demand work in different ways. If there is less of a demand, they will make less, and prices will get higher. Newer trucks use bigger rims, so trucks with smaller rims will have to pay more for the "special" tires. SO on and so forth.