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OT. Tryed to get Cash for my Clunker today, without success

R

Robert in Md

Member
Tried to trade my old 89 Dodge 250 today for a new O9 Chevy Silverado 1500 WT. Guess what the Dodge don't qualify. The 3/4 ton Dodge according to the program is a class 1 truck and the 1/2 ton Chevy is classified as a Class 2 truck. The Dodge mpg # is 11 and the chevy mpg is about 17. I thought the purpose of the program was to increase gas mileage.
Also the dealer has done about 7 trades and has dropped out of the program fearing he will get stuck without the $4500 . The dealer says he's afraid the money will runout while his paperwork is in the pipeline.
What a mess !!!
As a side note my 89 Dodge 250 gas gussler will quality for a Chevy Colorado 4 cyl. with its short 6 foot bed.
 
It might help if you can show yourself to be a donor to a certain political party.
It's sure greasing the skids for a lot of other things.
 
Local news did a feature on the program. Lady traded in her 1996 Chevy Blazer, she said it was in mint condition but was a gas hog, for a new Hyundai car. Followup was the fact that anything traded HAS to be crushed. Engines can't be reused. Meanwhile, I could use a 1996 350 Vortec and tranny.....
 
? something like if it costs more then $4,500 to get you better they will send you to the crusher !
 
The anchor on one of the local TV stations gives his opinion now and then. He had the same take on it that I did after watching a news story showing some of the trade-ins being crushed. Some of these vehicles look like they're worth a lot more than $4500. Why would somebody take $4500 for a vehicle that would be worth twice that any other day of the week? Are they just caught up in the frenzie of this latest government giveaway,or they really STUPID? Or both?
 


What happens to the vehicle I trade in?

The CARS Act requires that the trade-in vehicle be crushed or shredded so that it will not be resold for use in the United States or elsewhere as an automobile. The entity crushing or shredding the vehicles in this manner will be allowed to sell some parts of the vehicle prior to crushing or shredding it, but these parts cannot include the engine or the drive train.
 
I"ve heard that this program has been tried several times over the years with no success to speak of beyond wasting our tax money. Situations like your talking a bout are one of the failing points. Too you get people trading in older vehicles that pollute "twice" as much as a new one. Thing is they rarely drove the older one but plan to drive the new one all the time. The end result is that the new car pollutes only half as much but gets driven four times as much causing a net increase in pollution vs the decrease the goverment thinks their getting. All in all it"s JUST ONE BIG WASTE OF OUR TAXPAYER DOLLARS......
 
Is the Hyundi a USA automobile????? Wasn"t this supposed to stimulate the USA economy???????????????????????? and why the $4500 figure,,,,wouldn"t $1500 have been good enough, and distribute the plan amongst three times as many buyers???? Where do I send the "Thank You" card for this screw up?? (postage due, of coarse)!!
 
FWIW - I was able to get mine processed. Wife's van was 9 yrs old, 135K miles, tranny rebuilt once and on the verge of going out again. The $3500 we got (plus part of the salvage value) was dead even for the blue book private sale value and $1K over the trade in value. It looked like a good car, but I wouldn"t wish that dying tranny on anyone.

The comment below about not selling the engine and drivetrain stops short of the whole story. The dealer has to drain the oil, fill it with sodium silicate, then run the engine until it locks up. Then the salvage yard can get it for parts. $15K per offense if you are caught trying to sell the vehicle or drivetrain. Parts only and none from the engine or drivetrain.

I was the dealers 3rd sale in the program and I got there 10am Monday. Had to sign a document that if for whatever reason my vehicle was found after the fact to not qualify for the program, we either had to pay them back the $$ from the program allowance or return the new vehicle in the same condition.
 
I thought if you traded in a truck you might pull eveything off of it good. Pull the bed, doors, on my truck the old alt, P/S pump, and radiator are still laying here. Actually nothing says it had to run, just be registered for the last year.
 
Are you sure? I think the dealer mislead you.

Check out the article below. You should be able to trade your truck off for a 1/2 ton or new 3/4 ton.

http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2009/07/reminder-cash-for-clunkers-expected-to-start-july-24.html
pickuptruck
 
The program has been suspended. There are so many deals backlogged they're afraid they may have already used up the allotted funds.
 
Program is suspended, ends at 12 midnight on 7/31. What a joke- the short-sighted saviors running our government actually thought this would work. Right in line with the rest of the garbage they're trying to ram down our throats.
 
In the past few months, I've put $10K in my '96 Dodge. It was paid for before I did, and it still is. I'm going to get a million miles out of that son of a gun if it kills me. Do I care if it guzzles diesel or offends anyone because it does? No way. Million miles if it kills me and the bushes and the ozone and... Besides, haven't hit 90 degrees once this month of July in the midwest. Might be the first time in recorded record I heard a weather guy say the other day. Doin my part to warm things up, at least a million miles of it. Grin.

Mark
 
Hyundai has a plant in Alabama...so it's just as American as Toyota or Honda, and probably moreso than GM, Ford, or Chrysler products built in Canada or Mexico.
 
I wonder if sodium silicate will be the drug of choice when they start euthanizing the 'elderly', and who is to determine at what age a person becomes elderly?
 
The so called official word is the junk yards can sell anything off the junked vehicle except the engine which has to be "disabled". They have 180 days to do that and then the remains must be crushed. Our lube tech has had the fun of disabling them by draining the oil, adding the stuff, and holding the gas to the floor till they quit, usually spreading parts on the ground.
It bothers me to do this to perfectly good vehicles that someone could make good use of. We have only had 1 vehicle that was really ready for the junkyard. I guess my thoughts are I've always had to scratch and scrape to get anything in life. I've only had 1 new vehicle in my life and it's not likely I'll be able to afford another new one any time soon. I guess having to work hard for everything makes me appreciate something so intentionally destroying things does not sit well with me.
 
I'm right there with you. I put 5k into my '97 RAM- 3 years ago when it hit 280K. It now has 349k...guess I may have to drive it another 100k to get my money's worth. It great to have things paid off!
 
Hope and change.
That would be pocket change at the rate things are going. Gee they ran out of money. I thought the presses were running 24/7.
Kind of like the tv scam with the converter boxes. Hey maybe they will find some more money for the clunker scam. I can tell it has already cleaned the air up drastically. Fresh outside now.

Farmer
 
Buzzman72, Bull $hit on hyundai being American. What about the balance of payments? What are the people in our country thinking???
 
This is clunker program about the dumbest thing that I have seen. No common sense. My BIL has a 1994 Ford short box pickup that looks OK but is rusty. He was thinking of doing the clunker thing but he didn't want another payment. The engine is in excellent shape and he said that it had a lot of pep. What a shame to waste that engine and tranny for this program when someone else could use it. Actually, it seems that when trading in a used vehicle, people are mostly giving the vehicle away when it is all said and done. The final nail in the coffin is to give our money to the foreign companies so that in the long run they can do us in.
 
Some interesting comments. Guess what's a waste and a failure depends on your point of view. Keeping in mind I'm not a Demo or external_link supporter:

1. The program is successful. Problem is it's too successful and they couldn't plan for what ended up happening. Complainers were saying early on it was going to be failure and the public would never take full advantage of it. Thought even if it was outrageously successful that the money might last 30-45 days. Real prognosticators - may not have lasted a week.

2. I'm not sure which taxpayer's money I wasted. I paid a heckuva lot more than I got from this in Fed taxes last year. Feels more like I got some of mine back.

3. The manufacturer, car dealer and salvage operator are all making money or they wouldn't get involved in it. There were several good parts on my vehicle even though it was on its last leg. The salesmen I talked to were plumb wore out from all the customers coming in and they're moving cars they wouldn"t have otherwise.

4. One legislator has already been quoted as saying that they hope they can continue to fund the program beyond the 1 billion. Said of all the other stuff they've been throwing money at to stimulate the economy, this program has shown the most direct impact and tangible benefits to date. If they're going to throw my tax money at something, at least toss it to Joe Taxpayer for something useful instead of some corporation or organization that spends it for their benefit and not mine.

5. Global warming not withstanding, the car I have now will be cheaper on gas to operate and I will likely run it for several years after I pay it off, just like I did my last one. I was going to buy a late model used, this got the payments for a new one down to reasonable. Dealer told me some are buying econo cars via the program for $8K - $10K, which makes a new car affordable to some people for the first time in their life.

And to the original poster, I agree the dealer was likely fibbin' to you about what you qualified for. Likely he wanted to turn you down due to doubts about the program and used that as an excuse instead of flat saying no. If they open it back up, you might try again at another dealership.
 
I wonder how many of our taxpayer dollars were spent just playing and finding ways to sieze an engine???...........I also wonder how much pollution was created running the engines just to sieze them?????........I could say governmental stupidity and waste never ceases to amaze me but in the past few months I've become almost immune/used to all of it.....
 
What's wrong with you, this board is not for logic and common sense. You're suppose to whine and complain about about our socialist country and somebody else getting something while you're on farmers welfare, VA benefits, etc.
 
I believe this link is evidence that Hyundai is building cars in America, and is hiring American workers to do it...same as Toyota, Honda, and other Asian nameplates.

As far as the balance of payments...folks like me were hollering about that way back in the early '70's and it fell on deaf ears. So you reap what you sow.
Hyundais Plant in Alabama
 
It is good to see that Hyundi has sent that many jobs in this direction.. 2,700 at the plant plus a supply line of at least 5,500 more workers... then add dealerships...well, this is good...And,, they ARE making a good product... I could only wish that the plant and entire car were the born and bred designs of USA engineers and bankers, and all the subcomponents were good ol USA...But this sure beats seeing the cars being unloaded from a ship..............Back in the 80's-90's, I recall replacing camshafts on Chevy engines with 12,000-17,000 miles on them,, ( heco in Mexico) 1979 chev pickups on their third heater core when they were less than two years old, 700R4 transmissions that were "job security" for us technicians,,,GM X body cars that had a book full of recalls, including brake modifications, paint commings off bodys in big chunks ,,Ball joint replacement on 88-89 chev pickups that were less than a year old....ect,ect,ect... Wish THAT was different also... Maybe if some of the PORK money from the GM top brass had been invested in USA plants like the new Hyundi plant, and taken more pride in the design and workmanship on their vehicles,, GM perhaps would not be bankrupt.....Whew, I am going to chawl off this soapbox before I need a ladder........
 
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