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OT: $4500 old car 'bailout'

I've seen a bit of press on this proposed $4500 for 'old cars' that get less than 18 miles per gallon. While my VW won't qualify, not by a long shot, my pickup truck might. But keeping it on topic...maybe a Bus with a 009 and a drippy solex might qualify too? :-)

What do you guys think about this idea? I think it's smoke and mirrors, if you buy a new car, even with $4500 off, your cost for insurance, tags, and so on will go up. I don't see how anyone could take advantage of this offer and come out ahead, even if you paid cash for the balance due on the price of your new ride, minus $4500. After all, when you put crooked folks like Dianne Feinstein behind an idea, what you get is another bailout in disguise. That $4500 doesn't come out of thin air.

It's a ploy to sell more cars in my book. And apparently I'm not alone in my logic that this is just a bad idea all around.

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Opinions?

Chris

Reply to
halatos
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well, you know what they say about opinions....... that said, here is mine:.... the cash for clunkers idea is a decent idea, on one hand, and a very misplaced effort on the other.... offering "up to" (didn't specify in the article what it takes to qualify for the 4500 is, or what kind of scale they are talking about) 4500 dollars in vouchers to be used to purchase a new car is all well and good, if the folks driving the old cars were doing so because they can't afford a newer car... and some are, no doubt, but lots of folks realize the value of keeping a vehicle for a longer period of time... then there are those that just plain ole like their cars... the folks that can't afford to purchase a new car and make the payments, may still not be able to afford it with the vouchers... this could lead to folks getting in over their heads... as you, and the article, pointed out there is also more to buying a new car than just the purchase price...

Reply to
Joey Tribiani

"Hal" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@21g2000vbk.googlegroups.com... > Amen to that. There's more to buying any car than just the purchase

off topic(my specialty!), but I have a friend that is a carguy... well, he's sort of a car guy, he loves old AMC's and all french cars.... and he HATES vw's with a passion... he owned a 71 or 72 used beetle at one time and he insists that all vw's are pieces of crap that couldn't run if you wanted them to... he had lots of problems with his vw and it soured him toward them... I tried tactfully (um... sure...LOL) to explain that buying a neglected car, and not knowing how to repair it properly(he is NOT mechanically inclined) lead him to an opinion based on his experience, but it's not an accurate representation of vw's... his sister bought one new(his older sister) and the only problem she had was rust after a few years in the rustbelt... so, he is convinced that they all "suck"... I live in Virginia and he lives in Florida, so I made it a point to drive my karmann ghia on a trip to visit him... now to make a pointless story even longer, my ghia was very neglected when I bought it... I could drive that sucker anywhere, but always had to do roadside repairs on the way home... anyway, I spent less than 100 dollars and one evening and one saturday giving the car the much needed maintenance that it needed.... the car is rock solid reliable now and has been since I did the work... even driving it nearly 2000 miles in the four day trip wasn't enough to convince him so I resorted to something he'd understand... I pointed out that his old jeep and his old ambasador always return home on a flatbed, if he can get them to run!

pointless, I know

Reply to
Joey Tribiani

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I don't think it's such a bad idea, in principle. A person could trade in their old 72 rust bucket Buick Riviera and get a small efficient car that has a 5+ year warranty and won't cost them a penny in repairs for quite some time. And what would the payments be after putting $4500 down on a hyundai or something like that, maybe $150 a month? But we all know, that's not what will happen. What will happen is people will trade in their Buick and buy something they can't afford because they have $4500 extra to spend. And (I haven't read the details of the proposal if they are even available) such a program is open to abuse. What's to stop me from going to a junkyard, buying an old Buick for $100 and making it run just long enough to be able to get my $4500 towards a new car? Either way, the money should only be for new cars built predominantly in the US.

Reply to
Rev Turd Fredericks

Its being promoted in Australia. Usually by "greenies" who with evangelistic fervour believe its better to mine Canada for heavy metals, to ship those minerals in a fuel oil powered ship acorss to Japan which cross contaminates seas by pumping its bilges out , transporting rogue molluscs etc in the barnacles etc,, to refine those ores into metals using electricity from Nuclear Power stations, to process those metals and combined with plastic made with hydrocarbons / chemicals pumped out of the Middle East and also transported via fuel oil burning ships to Japan and turned into batteries/sheet metal, assemble the bloody lot into a Prius and then ship those cars all over the world with more fuel oil fuelled cargo ships. Much bettter to do that than leave some mainly ferrous product from the 60,s anmd

70,s that has already had its manufacturing pollution cost paid for, much better to do that than use some Euro diesel that gets better mpg than the Prius. As I said by Greenies, left wing politicians and new car salesmen. QED. John
Reply to
John

Hear hear!

J.

Reply to
P.J.Berg

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