Cash for Clunkers idea

I was talking today with a young friend. He will be 16 soon and aspires to get a truck, but he's going to have to buy an older one to fix up. He's just heartbroken to see the old cars and trucks that are being destroyed in the Cash for Clunkers deal.

In addition, his Dad is a car salesman. He worked for GM dealers for 22 years - the one he worked for longest closed a couple of years ago, he moved to a different dealer, then to another when that closed. Then that one closed and he is now selling Hondas, which he hates. He had hopes of opening a used car lot with his son, who is very gifted mechanically, but now with the economy and with seeing so many cars being destroyed, he doesn't think that will be a viable business for years. He's having to destroy cars that he knows people would love to trade UP to! But he is not allowed to contact buyers who have been looking for used cars and sell those "clunkers" that are better than what his buyers now have.

OK enough background! Here's the IDEA that the son and I thought of while chatting:

Set a cut off mileage for the clunkers traded in and let those vehicles move into the used car lots for an amended Cash for Clunkers for USED CARS. Then let people with even crappier cars trade up. This would still improve the overall miles per gallon, get the really old, really inefficient cars off the roads, and improve the reliability of transportation for those at the bottom end of the economy.

The son is contacting his friends and getting them to write it as a suggestion at WhiteHouse.gov. If you think it is a good idea, please do so, too!

SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Sun Aug-02-09 10:08 AM
Original message

A better Clunker Plan

No trade-in newer than 2000.. Must have at least 100K miles on it. Car traded for must get at least 25mpg...can be new OR used.


If the idea is to get old clunkers off the road, this would be more effective. there are millions of people driving around in 1980-90's vehicles that have not had a tune-up in decades, get oil changes when they run out of oil, and are held together with baling wire & paperclips.

poor people drive these cars , and would trade up, if they could afford it. they cannot afford payments for a new one, but they might be able to afford a used car, and would welcome the chance.

Crushing about 220,000 ($1 billions worth at $4,500 each) or even three times that will have a neglible effect on the used car fleet.