RE: Cash for clunker cars

["Gary H." <spigot2039@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

To veer this somewhat on topic, it is important to note that the trade group SEMA, backed by letter-writing and e-mails and phone calls to elected officials from old car fans like us, effectively limited the "clunkers" program to exclude "classic cars" (e.g., 1962 to 1965 Mopars).

The "crush old cars" (most recent version "Cash for Clunkers" or C4C) program is a politically popular bad idea that returns, Frankenstein like, over and over again. It's simple minded enough to make into political slogans, so it gets passed. Any deeper analysis reveals it as a paper tiger.

Facts to ponder; the,C4C program is:

* destroying running cars that could help many working people, especially lower income working people.
* reducing the number of charity car donations
* causing a glut of excess steel and other recyclables that crashes the recycling industry
* bad for the environment - the manufacture of one new automobile creates 25.9 tons of non-recyclable waste. This  is what will be produced as new vehicles eventually are manufactured to replace those removed from the road. ... [I]t takes electricity to make a new car, and fuel to ship it. “The estimates vary, but somewhere between 3 and, say, 12 tons of CO2 are produced for every car you make,” says William Chameides, dean of the Nicholas School of the Environment at Duke University. Chameides calculates that if you trade in an 18 mpg clunker for a 22 mpg new car (22 miles per gallon is the minimum mileage allowed for a new car under the [2009 Cash for Clunkers government] program), it would take five and a half years of typical driving to offset the new car’s carbon footprint. With trucks, it might take eight or nine years, he says...."  http://www.houstonmopars.org/noscrap.html
* bad for junkyards, who get a major part of income from selling for reuse engine and engine related parts
* Unneeded -- There is overwhelming evidence of an historic pent-up demand for car purchases. No "clunker" program was necessary. 
* Wasteful --  paying people to destroy productive capital.
* Market distorting -- The used-car market is being sidelined in C4C, which is a clear blow to efficient markets.
http://business.theatlantic.com/2009/08/three_problems_with_congress_extending_cash_for_clunkers.php

By the way, I just saw a video on tv news showing a 1985 Maserati that was traded in for clunker credit; the car had 18,000 original miles and will be destroyed. Go figure. 

Thanks,
Gary H.

-----Original Message-----
>From: Steven Charette  
>I wonder who thought this was a good idea...


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