This makes me so sad that I don't know what to say. A member of another car forum just shipped his first order of engine destroyer so that US car dealers can comply with the 'clunker law.' No more junkyard jewels for us, I guess. The Cash for Clunkers law: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-clunkers25-2009jul25,0,4520824.story
This makes me sick to my stomach! What a horrible waste! Just a few short years ago, I remember all of the letters to the editor in Hemmings and other old car publications about clunker laws and confiscation laws looming. I would read a few and then my eyes would glaze over, and I would go back to reading the ads. I never took it seriously. In fact, I used to just think it was a lot of paranoid, conspiratorial doom and gloom. Well, here we are in 2009, it is upon us.
Glad I still have 4 1961&2 Continentals with 430s and 2 72 Buicks with 455s. I will probably have to get all Charlton Hestony some day with em...whether or not I will be able afford to drive them in the future anyway. They will probably be outlawed!
So some dealers are gonna kiss butt and use this to get green buyers or folks that think they'll save a few thou. GM's Vauxhall division in the UK has already raised their prices since the UK announced their tax incentive for the 2009 models and right after the incentive was announced!!! We've got to get creative, and find out what our junkyards are doing. Most of our vintages aren't qualified anyway, so maybe this salt injection won't be used by the yards. It just seems so counter-productive to destroy rebuildable engines, when the emissions to smelt them, sort the iron from the aluminum pistons, all for what? If I was a dealer, I'd grab these engines and let hobbyists give them a broken engine for any government verification paperwork. Making a few extra dollars, and letting the bureaucrats check their little boxes.
Just remember WHO is in the White House and in Congress that allowed this shiite to happen, and VOTE THEM OUT!
call me a dummy---or sumthin What I'm not understanding is ; why is this pouring glass in the engines necessary to begin with??? If they're going to squish the cars and pack them off to a smelting plant.Wouldn't it make the process easier,to leave the glass out?.. In the movie The Untouchables,Sean Connery's character Malone gets shot with a full drum of ammo from a Tommygun.In the real life event,the guy with the knife then stabbed Malone 19 times,just to make sure,I guess... I'm getting the feeling,this glass in the engine crap is the overkill part somebody thought was going to be a good idea... ARE these cars getting recycled? Or are they going to landfills somewhere? Now,not only will the recyclers have to seperate iron from aluminum,but they'l have to figure out a way to seperate the glass as well...Stoopid or sumthin...
From what I understand about the bill, it's OK to recycle what you can on the car - except for the engine. One of the purposes was to ensure that the "gas guzzler" didn't get back on the road in some form or another. If you ask me, this is just a drop in a big bucket. Over time, the issue of low MPG vehicles will (mostly) solve itself as those cars get older and are retired from use. (Not every old vehicle gets restored.)
The salvage yards are allowed to sell the parts. Just not the engine itself. So, many of the attachments i.e. power steering pump, pullys etc. are allowed to be sold along with the transmissions and anything else they want to sell. Just not the engines. Or the whole car. Just parts.
thx for link PineBox I've owned two fieros in my short life...a 4 cyl. and 6 cyl. ... and I used to love driving that bigger engine up Storm King Mtn. in NY state. My ex and I were stationed in Newburgh, NY at the time and had no kids so we just roared all over the place between NY and PA. Lots of pretty country. But I digress (as usual). The fiero link had the best explanations of what is really going on with the clunkers. I enjoyed reading them. thanx for sharing.
Then what is happening to the engines? Why not just melt them down and turn them into dog food cans or those metal 2X4's,so we don't have to chop down trees to build houses? Why not ruin them by melting them down without the overkill? And you're right,attrition would eventually rid the world of the low mpg cars anyway.Expecially pick-up trucks and SUV's,which were NOT meant to last a long time.They were meant to be worked to death.And most of their present owners ARE doing that!..Work trucks always break down faster than commuter cars and family cruisers.
