This program was very successful at removing nearly all of the pre-1990 vehicles not only from the road, but also from the wrecking yards. I can't find squat around here!
What "program"? The only federal "program" was Cash for Clunkers, and it only applied to cars newer than 1984. Perhaps the fact that 1990 cars are now 21 years old might have something to do with it? By that age, the ones that haven't been wrecked already are in the hands of collectors and won't be showing up in wrecking yards anytime soon. Add to that the fact that the ones that do get parted out end up on ebay, not in wrecking yards.
Cash for clunkers also required that the vehicle had to have the engine made inoperable and the rest of the vehicle needed to be parted out in 90 days (this was eventually extended to 270 days, but around here they were flattened in a matter of days). Although there was a 25 year old limit, there were very few cars in scrap yards around here older than that anyway before the program started. Now, the largest yards have precious few mid-80's to early 90's cars.
Take a drive down to Mexico and shop till you drop! Bring it back as body parts. The import rules are stickier up here. Canada will let me bring it back as a running car, if its in my name, and over 15 years old, but the newest restrictions since last year, is that anything over 15 years old might only qualify as a Collector-plated car, not a daily driver. It depends on the whim of the contracted (not Government) inspector. Used to be the Customs Officer. Our car dealers can't sell anything older that 1995 as a running vehicle, except as a Classic since 2 years ago, in my Province. And anything from 1995 or earlier, in an accident, can be kept by the owner, after insurance settlement, for Parts only, not for restoration and repair. grrrr!
What kind of Dunderheads set and pass these policies? I can't stand over reaching government control!
When have you seen a Political party that didn't need lobbyists greasing the wheels. It started here when our Premier signed a deal with Schwarzeneger to begin changing our regs to California Emissions standards, only it was worse than that. Our SOB didn't mention that it included a side deal to supply California with clean Hydro from our river and wind generators. He ripped off $280 million from our State Hydro's piggybank in 2006 to bail out a US Chapter 11 windfarm corp. That was to setup our Oil and Gas Tarsands province to build a 16.5 Billion dollar grid, expropriating farmers and home owners and ranchers to build it - they don't have any clean energy - its all coal and naturaal gas in Alberta. Then our Premier (a socialist party) resigned last year, to go on to "other opportunities". 2 weeks later, our NeoCON Prime Minister announces that our Premier is appointed the Canadian Ambassador to Washington. A month later the interim Premier announces that he's 'investing' another $98 million into the same company, with a new name. And this February, the 16.5 billion dollar hydro grid is given FREE to ATCO and AltaLinq (a division of SNC-Lavalin, who bribed Gaddafi for contracts in Libya). Worse! The Alberta Government made it ILLEGAL to sue it for the Environment studies for this grid or any related project information! http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/02/08/AlbertaElectricity/ We're being screwed over. What you're seeing is that voters can't see the real plans for their countries beyond the next election, but the Parties have their own longterm plans, with collusion between states and provinces, regardless of Partisan arguments. It is like the Knights Templar or the Masons are running things and we're all being shoved into it!
