I would clean this place up!!

[Ace]

http://jalopnik.com/5713098/the-base...nker-graveyard


Kinda depressing

[Mick]

What was depressing was sitting in line at the scrap yard waiting for some of these cars getting unloaded onto the crusher. Watched some really nice cars and trucks get crushed - knowing some idiot traded it for a new car he couldn't afford any other way and likely got repossessed within six months anyway.

What a farce Cash For Clunkers was!!

[IdahoScrapper]

Exactly Mick! The program was/is incredibly wasteful and disgusting. Then so is the government as a whole.

[Scrap man]

I wish I could spend a week in there. Even if the cars aren't working, which a majority of them probably are, they'd still be good for parts. Sadly, they,re government property, and there's little chance of getting access to them because of that (unless there's no gate or security, then it would be easy to get at)

EDIT: I heard that the companies were supposed to fill some parts of the engines with silicon beads. Assuming they did, the cars wouldn't work anyway.

[IdahoScrapper]

That's my understanding as well. The dealers taking vehicles in were to destroy the engines, further proof of how useless the government is. Taking something that works...and destroying it.

There are videos on youtube where they fill it with "liquid glass", then race the engine till it seizes.

Again, a total disgusting waste of time/resources this epic fail of a program was.

[Scrap man]

All it was was a waste of time, money, and resources. But what else do you expect from the government these days? To be honest, I expected worse

[IdahoScrapper]

I was with my brother when he stopped in at a lot to look at a used car. He noticed a truck that was headed to the clunker program. Still looked good, mid 90's pickup. He wanted the tires which still had a lot of tread left. Salesman didn't care if he were to swap them, but didn't think his boss would allow it. It's this kind of waste that just irritates me. Had people brought in last-on their-leg cars, I wouldn't have had as big an issue with it.

[Ditchdigger]

I said at the time, they should've allowed people to bring in worse clunkers, and for a fair price, trade up to a better clunker. It would've still accomplished the goals of getting old polluters off the road (actually, even moreso), and stimulated the auto industry just the same. And the people who could never even dream of making the payments on a showroom new car, program or not, weren't going to be able to participate in the program anyway, so it would've helped a whole additional group of people. Instead, a whole lot of remaining serviceable life was scrapped...

[Bigblue12v]

Amen Ditchdigger..... the real clunkers and gas guzzlers are still on the road because their owners can't afford a new car payment. So now the sides of our roads are still littered with broken down ugly cars because the government doesn't want THEM to upgrade, they just want more middle class people to live beyond their means.... how lame.... I worked in the auto salvage business when the C4C program happened and I thought it was the most ridiculous thing in the world.

[Patton]

The dealership near me let me swap parts, it is just that I needed the glass and couldn't swap. Told me the rules of the program said the cars had to be exactly like they were when they were brought in, only non-running.

It was a governmental farce of epic proportions.

[happyscraper]

one good thing it got all the oboma bumber stickers off thee road.

[Mechanic688]

I still like this bumper/tailgate sticker

[PartTimeScrapper]

WOW to good gut busters in one night thanks Mech. I should get my cop buddy to run that guys plate and send him a thank you...

[Gnraxlrose88]

Cash for clunkers. I was detailing at a Honda dealer while this program was going on. There was nothing but problems from the beginning. First, the government didn't think that the program was going to go well. They allowed every dealer (x) number of vehicles they could take in, without allowing enough money to cover (x) amount of vehicles for all the dealers in the program. So, we got our first 5 in, and found out that, because other dealers had already claimed (x) number of cars, our dealer might not get paid for the vehicles on the list, because the money was already gone. So, the dealer stopped taking cars in and began stressing about how they were going to get $4500 a piece for the 5 we had, when the max value was $500-$2000.

2 weeks later, government dumped more money into the program, and the dealers were guaranteed to get the money for the clunkers they had already inspected as "clunkers", but could not take in any more. So, our back lot begins filling up with cars...and I begin getting sadder...now mind you, about 5 of our 40 were junk. The other 35, (our newest was a 2005 Chev panel van with 125,000 on it), included 3 S-10 Blazers, a Pontiac Aztec which EASILY could have resold for $7000, early 90's Toyota 4x4 pickup, different jeeps, Dodge Ram, and a nice F-150, and a almost showroom condition 1997 Chev Silverado.

Rules of the program: Vehicles had to get a combined MPG of 19 or less, and had to be traded in on a vehicle that got combined 25 MPG or better (i believe.) Vehicles had to be complete, and parts could only be removed by the salvage yards who were receiving the vehicles. No Engine components could be resold by the salvage yard. Vehicles had to be crushed within 90 days of receiving.

Well, the GM of our dealer allowed us to..."alter" the vehicles. We pulled aftermarket stereos/wiring, I pulled a few accessories off of vehicles (like a light bar off of a Dodge Dakota that sold on C/L for $100), and any "parts" had to be replaced...so if you pulled a bumper off to replace the damaged one on your truck, you had to put the damaged one on the clunker. A couple guys swapped tires, one tech traded bald tires on stock Toyota rims for a set of 31's on American Racing rims off the 90's Toyota pkickup. Hell the GM himself paid me $20 to pull some shelving out of a panel van on my lunch break one day so he could use them in his garage at home.

Then, the lube techs pulled in the vehicles, drained the oil from the pan, and dumped in a mixture of water and the "liquid glass", drove them back to the back of the lot, and were instructed to hold the throttle at 2500RPM and the engine should have seized in 15-30 seconds. Ha, rules. They were holding them wide-open throttle. Had a Jeep Wrangler running for 5 minutes before it seized. It was fun.

[miked]

The worst of this stupid progam is it made used cars more expensive and used parts harder to find. So who in their right mind can't see this hurt poor/not rich people? They had the same/similar program in Europe. I think most of the citizens there are far to brainwashed to rcognize their governments were screwing them. I wonder if more of our citizens will wake up? Mike.

[IdahoScrapper]

Yep, just another gubmint fustercluck. Wouldn't surprise me if a lot of vehicles got repoed because they couldn't make the payments. So now they're out the car that was most likely in good, running condition, plus the car that got repossessed.

You just can't fix stupid, whether it's in the government or the general public.

[miked]

The same thing happened in the housing market. Senators and Representatives made rules requiring banks/mortgage companies to lend to people who had no ability to pay the loan back. Now we have a bunch of unhappy people whose houses have been forclosed on and may never recover from the experience. These people who got lied to are now being told it was the fault of the lenders. Just another grab for power. Mike.

[Mechanic688]

I heard from a dealership that they were bringing in cars so fast that they didn't have time to sabotage the engine, and was just selling them to the boneyard with good motors still in them.

[Area67]

many,many drivetrains went to old Mexico, that was not prohibited by the letter of the law. This "program' was corporate sponsored insanity that actually increased carbon footprint according to the OECD (The BEST analytical engine on the planet). It was designed to encourage consumption,unnecessarily. I doubt any party can address the harsh realities of modern America, we (as communities) are the last, best hope for sane policy.

[Mechanic688]

I doubt any party can address the harsh realities of modern America, we (as communities) are the last, best hope for sane policy.

If you think about that too hard, it's kinda scary,,,