Some of those clunkers are not really that much of a clunker. The Oldsmobile Aurora V8 is a pretty good engine and hot-rodders like to build hot-rods from them. It is one of the very few 4valve cyl, dual overhead cam V8s made by GM, and is derived from the Cadillac Northstar engine.
Most of those cars should be donated to low income people in trade for the POS they may be driving (income lower than a certain amount, and only to replace a car of poorer condition). It also shows how stupid some people are. Some of the used car values on the cars turned in are greater than the $4500 that they receive on the clunkers program.
So what will really happen from all of this?
* more stuff going to landfills (not 100% of a car is recyclable)
* repair/replacement parts get more expensive – rebuilt engines come from somewhere.. you can’t use the crank or the block of these engines in a rebuild because of the scoring.
* Used cars get will more expensive – these cars would have probably gone on the used car market.
* New cars get more expensive – prices were going down until this.
* People who had a car that was paid off now have a new car that will be depreciating quickly and have yet another ‘mortgage payment’. (less discretionary income.. which is needed for recovery)
Dealers may also be gaming the system…
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How about $4500 towards a roof-top solar array of 5KVA or better?.. $4500 will buy you 2.5KVA+. I wonder how much CO2 we would be prevented this way…
