Congress considers ‘cash for clunkers’ proposal

[sweeps]

Owners of old gas hogs would get $4,500 to have them taken off the road

Article

[GrimJack]

There was a program in CA for a while where they paid for tune-ups for older cars. I would guess that buying the old clunkers for that might work to clean up some of the CO2 and other pollutants more cheaply than trying to sequester it.

[disneysteve]

I'd be curious to see the details and what cars qualify. My car is 11 years old. It isn't worth $4,500. I might consider giving it up for that amount, though.

[kork13]

Sorry, steve.... eligible cars must have an EPA mileage rating (when new) of less than 18mpg. Just guessing, but I'll bet your corolla could nearly double that...

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by kork13

Sorry, steve.... eligible cars must have an EPA mileage rating (when new) of less than 18mpg. Just guessing, but I'll bet your corolla could nearly double that...

It is a Camry, but you're right. I just looked it up. Different sites give different MPG numbers but all are in the low 20s. Oh well.

[kork13]

oops, sorry about the mixup... got the little brother of yours. lol

[scfr]

Originally Posted by kork13

eligible cars must have an EPA mileage rating (when new) of less than 18mpg. .

So ... If this bill passes, the trend of rewarding those who made bad decisions continues ...

[Investing First Steps]

Originally Posted by scfr

So ... If this bill passes, the trend of rewarding those who made bad decisions continues ...

My thoughts EXACTLY.

[Thrif-t]

Well woo-hoo for us. We have a 1985 conversion van just sitting in our driveway. We've been wanting to get rid of it. It still looks great as we've put money into the body but the underbody is gettting rusty from sitting out in the weather plus it only has 70k miles on it. We can get a 2k trade in credit for it, if I'm reading that article right. I was thinking we could only sell it for 500 if we were lucky.

[cptacek]

So we have enough of a budget surplus that is just floating around to give people $4500 to take their junk cars off their hands?

[irmanator]

This is crazy!!

[sweeps]

I agree this rewards bad behavior. But if we have to bail out the auto industry, I think this is a better plan than just handing a big pile of money to the automakers.

[irmanator]

yea you have a point there, still don't like it.

[Investing First Steps]

It's definitely better in many ways, but slower too. Plus more than likely if they buy a new car, it will probably be a Honda anyway.

[Thrif-t]

Originally Posted by Investing First Steps

It's definitely better in many ways, but slower too. Plus more than likely if they buy a new car, it will probably be a Honda anyway.

Not us we only buy Chevy's as my FIL worked at the Chevy plant for over 35 years.

What's wrong with it anyway...I mean they are giving people a credit towards a new or used car to get things going again, I dont think it's so bad. Not like you are turning in your old car and get a check for it, you do have to purchase something else. And those purchases keep people working making more.

[Investing First Steps]

The concern is largely that they're only giving that benefit to people who purchased a fuel-inefficient car in the first place. So basically the idea is, if you were someone who bought a Hummer you can't afford to put gas in now, here's $4500, if you were pragmatic and bought a compact car, too bad for you.

[disneysteve]

Originally Posted by Investing First Steps

The concern is largely that they're only giving that benefit to people who purchased a fuel-inefficient car in the first place. So basically the idea is, if you were someone who bought a Hummer you can't afford to put gas in now, here's $4500, if you were pragmatic and bought a compact car, too bad for you.

That's true, but I view this proposal more as an environmental issue than a financial one. I think the point is to get the inefficient cars off the road and put people into more efficient ones. This isn't a new concept. It has been done before on state levels but maybe not a national level.

[Investing First Steps]

I'd rather just subsidize the more fuel efficient cars so everyone benefits. Too be honest I don't have a huge problem with the plan regardless, however I think there's an awful lot of the ramifications of moral hazard going on right now and so part of me recoils at even small manifestations of it.

[sweeps]

This amendment is dead.

[melissa15531]

And what does a new car cost these days? How many people are unemployed? Yeah im going to give you my junkie car that still runs good for a $4500 credit and now have to buy a new or newer car that costs about 20-30 thousand dollars. yeah right! not gonna happen.