Posted on 07/31/2009 6:34:27 PM PDT by newbie2008
There is absolute frustration across the board, Alex Kurkin, a lawyer based in Miami who represents several car dealerships, tells The Lede today. As of this morning, theyre not really confident about any deals, and no one can give them advice about what they should be telling their customers.
Mr. Kurkin tells us that the government Web site where dealers are supposed to register their deals has been crashing, and the dealers havent been able to plug in their information.
Barry Magnus, the general manager of DCH Paramus Honda, told us he was owed more than $80,000, and he wondered if would ever see it.
Oh my God, what a mess today,said Sally
Maggio said she generally makes her profit by reselling the engines, the most valuable parts of the cars she takes, but thats not possible because (engines) have been rendered unusable
That cuts down the salvage value of the cars and the incentive for salvage yards and wreckers to take them to almost nothing
And the process reduces the supply of used engines for people who cant afford to buy new car and come to the salvage yard looking to fix up old ones.
If a dealer doesnt have a separate document addressing this possibility, the dealer will likely have to eat it, Mr. Kurkin said. I certainly see lot of litigation over this.
Michael Gerrard, director of Columbia Law Schools Center for Climate Change Law, said in a statement that the cash-for-clunker program is not a cost-effective way to reduce fuel use or greenhouse gas emissions. Any energy savings, he said, could take several years to realize, considering the time it takes the fuel savings from a new car to exceed the energy cost used make it.
(Excerpt) Read more at thelede.blogs.nytimes.com ...
Wow! They have to actually DESTROY the car??
I would have given them some cash to take that 1988 BMW. Of course that would defeat the purpose of getting gas guzzlers off the road...
And what about recycling the metal? Are we going to fill the landfill with wasted metal?
Exactly right
They are destroying the engines by removing the oil and running a substance through the engine and running it until it is destroyed.
They are crushing the rest of the car.
Yup, it’s a plan to force people into not driving cars (unless you are rich.)
It’s all about control
This program is about as green the sky.
I think they are selling the metal to China to make more cars with no pollution controls on them
Ain’t irony ironic? And even more so because so much iron is being melted down!
You know, I think this is good that this happened and failed so quickly and miserably. If they can’t make sure THIS program goes off without a hitch, or a WEBSITE CANNOT GET UP AND RUNNING, how are you going to feel getting your healthcare from them.
But the dumbnuts are all “Profits are EVILLLL. Profits shouldn’t be made on my healthcare!!!” Good grief people, those profits are taxed like you wouldn’t believe and your retirement is invested in those PROFITS. Now that will all be gone and YOU will have to pick up the slack.
I guess I shouldn’t expect someone with half a brain to understand something that should be a requirement of completion of the 9th grade.
I sell about a million dollars a year in salvaged late model auto parts. We are paying $150.00 per car in this program no matter what. I have seen no car worth $3500.00 in this program yet. The law as described on the web site is vague and contradictory. There is mass confusion on if the transmission can be sold and very few have arrived yet. (The “drive train” must be destroyed could include trans, drive shafts, differentials and axles in theory.)We only sell late model parts and this program will lower the cost of a few body parts but increase drive train costs many times more. When you increase the cost of used and limit rebuildable cores the price of rebuilt will climb too. In the end to be honest it will 1 - hurt the poor, 2 - do little to help a fictitious man made global warming problem, 3 - not be worth it to the company I work for and require additional funds for disposal, 4 - as if I trusted congress with my money now I have to trust car salesmen too, 5 - insure steel prices will be falling again, 6 - cause allot of college kids to get the graduation Honda early.
Barry Magnus, the general manager of DCH Paramus Honda, told us he was owed more than $80,000, and he wondered if would ever see it.
These are the folks were trusting to reform health care? God Save us.
Your comments made a lot of sense. What a mess. Something else to think about: These are the same people redesigning one sixth of the economy - the part that deals with health care...
We are so screwed.
No different for the people who take advantage of this program and those who play the lottery. They are all losers looking for a big win.
I play the lottery and I am not a loser and if I win big good for me....
Here's a good explanation of why paying people to break windows is a bad idea
The exact process (not even an analogy) is you go to your neighbor's driveway and smash his windshield with a crowbar. The government pays him for a new window (window makers are happy). Then the government raises your taxes to pay for it.
We are not in a good position to sustain billions in losses to our economy, it will make things that much worse down the line.
I want to know what happened to the billion dollars set aside for this boondoggle. 220000x$4500 is only 99 million. Where is that other 901 million?
Reminds me somewhat of Stalin. I wonder if they will do farm tractors next.
If they crush any 83-88 T-Birds, they **must** be punished. Those are SPARE PARTS!
A billion at 4500 each should cover 2.2 million cars - a giant number of new car sales for a month... More crime to cry about.
Not a math major Huh? Try again...
I think they're running sodium silicate in it. Grinds up the bearings and burns up the engine. It's a shame. I suppose there's still a lot of good parts in the engine, and it could possibly be rebuilt with new bearings, rings and other moving parts. Fuel injectors, manifolds, and lots of components are still valuable.
So wasteful to trash something of use to others who need parts for old cars. Perhaps that's the motive; the government wants to take cars away from the masses and get them into public transit.
“I play the lottery and I am not a loser and if I win big good for me....”
I did not mean by my statement to reflect that those who play the lottery are themselves losers. I meant that since they lose at the lottery they are losers in respect to losing money. Sorry if I wasn’t clear.
As someone who has owned his share of clunker, I’d say you are 100% correct.
And those who drive around in a clunker are not apt to go for the “cash for clunkers” deal on the face of it. These deals are fabricated and structured to take advantage of the moronic program that has no benefit to the taxpayer, just unconstitutional and imprudent costs.
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