Yes, a lot of votes. But, in my earlier post I was not referring merely to casting a ballot and considering it done. That is just the start. Stay engaged. Know the issues. Persuade your friends, family, co-workers. Rather than just cursing the darkness light a candle. And when some Debbie Downer blows it out, relight it. Keep relighting it. Easy? Usually not, but what of value is ever easy? The power is in our hands - unless we hand it over to others. What will our children and grandchildren say of us and what kind of world we passed on to them? Will we have been part of the problem or part of the solution? Even with all of its problems ours is still the best system of governance in all the world for it contains within itself the means to set aright that which has gone awry.

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
--Thomas Paine

dn.

 

For TWO WEEKS I got all the parts I needed DIRT CHEAP. Now I can't find 8gen parts at any price, anywhere. I have given up on the '83 as scrap is about $0.13 per # in my area, so you can imagine how many older trucks there are. (to me "old" is more than 30 years)

If there's ever been anything like a Golden Rule for gov't programs, it would be "DON'T MESS WITH THE MARKET". It works the way it does for a good reason.

I have been saying this for years. By my rough calculations it takes about as much gas to drive an auto for 50,000 miles as it does to manufacture an identical new one. Once again, as long as people find it financially practical to drive an old auto, why disincentivize it?

 

Yea, go after parts for an IDI.
Comparatively speaking if you tune the truck up it should get better mileage;
Our 88 F-SuperDuty 460 FI big block, 4.63 gears got 16 miles per gallon weighing in at 13,000 dry,
My dads 05 F250, FX4, 5.4 Triton, 3.73 gears gets 5-12.5 miles per gallon
My (used to be) 93 F250, 300-6, 3.55 gears got over 20.
Our 86 F350 Dump, 351 Windsor, 3.55 gears, got 12-13 but was also pushing an 8' Fisher industrial plow.
My 92 F250 IDI 4.10 gears gets over 20 (in town)
My old boss's 08 F250, 6.4 Stroke, got 8-9 (in town)

As for the tires, 16.5 used to be standard, try pricing a set (besides military surplus).
Less demand will make companies stop making it, from a business stand point there is no reason to continue production of something that doesn't sell.
History repeats its self.

Ok, I'll step off my soap box now.

 

As to the tires:

Less demand would reduce prices, all else being equal. But it isn't. Production will be reduced due to less aggregate demand. Supply and demand find an equilibrium after some time, and in theory prices will stay the same.

In this case, however, another force may come into play. In any market producer surplus tends to fall with the size of the market, because in a large market competition drives down producer surplus (lowers price paid by the consumer). As the market decreases in size, however, a condition closer to monopoly or oligopoly is neared as the number of players falls. The power of these remaining players to set prices in the face of competition rises. So, as the market for tires shrinks, the price would go up independently of the balance between supply and demand.

The immediate effects of CFC would be that the tire and part prices go down, yes, but in the longer term they become higher. If all time periods are averaged, they would be higher as well.

My very long and too carefully thought out way to say whoever thought up CFC is a commie *($@&%.

 

wow just wow is all I can say about this reply in this forum. just keep drinking the kool-aid,I am sure you will be fine!!

 

cash for clunkers was a fantastic program thought up and brought to us by the greatest minds in government ever.
just think about it!
people that could never afford a new car were convinced to trade in their perfectly good running paid for cars on a new vehicle they could not afford, and then lost the new car shortly after buying it because the economy tanked and they lost their jobs.
now they have to use public transport because there are no older cars to buy because they were all destroyed through the CFC program.


sheer brilliance.
the planners of this program should be re elected to office, so they can change the system and appoint themselves rulers for life.

 

Here's a real-world scenario of how CFC worked for me locally....a girl who works in a coffee shop I go to every morning was excited about the CFC program and how she'll "be finally able to drive a NEW car". The then-current car she was driving was an IMMACULATE mid-90's Mercury Villager Woody Country Estate wagon. I think it was based on the Marquis, IIRC. Anyway, this car was hospital clean, low miles etc. She had gotten it from her grandparents.
I know to a girl her age-early 20's-it is a totally uncool car but believe me, these are VERY practical cars.
Long story even longer-she traded this car in for CFC for some ugly *** Subaru WRX. Well guess what? Her insurance quadrupled, her property taxes went up 8x the value of the wagon, and now she has car payments. Well, I should say HAD payments because she lost the car due to non-payment. She now depends on getting around in~get ready~! her boyfriend and his '95 XLT 150~!
As sad as this story is, you cannot beat the irony of it!
Roger

 

I would drive around in a borrowed f150 over a mercury wagon of my own ANYDAY!!


Just sayin'!

 

that is a chauffeur driven F-150 not a borrowed F-150

 

Haha even better Tom!!

 

"Wow" is all you can say? Qualify your claim. What do you disagree with? I read these posts about people who traded in their vehicle for something new. Some lost it because they were irresponsible with their monies. Is the government supposed to meddle with peoples' personal finances? Seriously! One has to make these programs work FOR them. A lot of people have. Besides here, I don't hear people complaining about it. Personally, I hope they do it again! More parts at cheaper prices for me! How can one argue that this program (CFC) didn't work for we 80's through 90's Ford truck owners! What did I post that wasn't common sense factual?

 

haha thats a great story!

 

i hate it too!

 

what good is it if your a ford person voting to have another cfc or the past one. so when they do it agin you have a limited time to get a few good parts and the rest gets to china to send over all this other crap. this is whats wrong right here. this is the problem. soon there wont be any of these old fords that i love so much left. its rare to see any around anymore. even more rare to see an 70s-early 90s ford truck anymore. it wouldnt be so bad if it was worn out rusty beat on ones but i see these nice fords sitting in lots ready to be destroyed and think what is wrong with people.

 

exactly. this is not about getting death traps off the road.
this is about getting perfectly good vehicles with a lot of life left in them off the road to replace them with new plastic crap.
as an example. the hast CFC program was very specific what could and could not be turned in.
a 75 impala with a 454 that got 7 mpg? nope!! too old. a 98 crown vic that got 25+ mpg? yup!! get rid of that gas guzzler for a foreign pos that gets 22 mpg.

as an example. at one dealership i saw a mint 99 mustang GT with 302 5 speed. 13,000 miles on it. the owner wanted a prius. so she junked it.

6 months later she realized the prius was as big of a piece of crap as she was told it was and dumped it, but she could not get her mustang back cause it was already melted down for some cheap overseas POS.