Clunker program may have unexpected twist...
This story in today's Spokesman Review is very interesting. I wonder if the used car folks are serious about this or just bellyaching because sales slowed a bit since the cash for clunkers program kicked in. It worries me to think that a lot of perfectly good vehicles will be destroyed. Those are usually the cars I buy because I commute from Idaho. I carpool with my wife and ride my bike as much as possible, but still I rack the miles fairly quickly so buying new just doesn't make sense for me.
Does this unintended dynamic concern you?
About SRTC
SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.
SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.
5 comments:
I have been thinking of taking my pickup to a dealer for the Cash for Clunker deal, but I did not like the fact that they ruin the engine. that is the best part of the pickup. It has 145,000 miles on the pickup but a nearly new engine with only about 10,000 miles one it. I don't drive it a lot, and I really need a smaller one to fit in my garage better. It is always interesting how one seemingly great program hurts people they never thought it would effect.
Yes, I don't like the fine print of this program and agree that it's going to nearly-eliminate the decent $3-4K cars that lower income families (we're not just talking about high school kids here) need.
I hate that it uses the word "clunkers" because the real clunkers do not qualify. The 1982 Ford with a cracked block that has been sitting in my alley for the last 5 years, that car doesn't count. If this program gets rid of all of the decent cars that we could "upgrade" to, what's left? To get this clunker fixed and drive it around while it spews oil and exhaust into the air at far higher rates than any of these cars people have been trading in for cash-for-clunkers.
So, Charles how much do you want for that truck?
And, Rachel, I hear you. This program can't last too long, though. I can't see the government sustaining the expense for much longer.
So, hopefully, some of those $3,000 to $4,000 cars will survive. I also gree that they should be paying for the old vehicles just the same.
I think it was Al Gore who did a similar program in Tennessee several years ago while he was in state government and paid $700 cash for any vehicle that was brought in and destroyed.
Well the government says it is worth $3500, seems like the used car dealers could be making deals to offer the same or an amount close to what the government is offering on a newer car, and without all the fine print, or destroying the engine.
Good point Charles, but I suspect they don't want to pay that much for a car. They are used to getting most of their cars dirt cheap.
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