Government 4500 cash for clunkers.. what to get

[ebacherville]

GUESS WHAT.. EDIT --- I WAS WRONG it is 18mpg ... dads going to be bummed again..

Wrong info ..>>>>>>>>>>>
I found a error in the cars.gov site , and a very big one, the site says 18mpg or less to participate, the LAW actually states 22mpg or less for "passenger cars" and 18mpg for class 1 trucks.

I guess thats government work for ya..

Anyways this will make my dad very happy, his junker Dayton he drives, actually my old car, gets 21mpg average, he was bummed when he thought he didn't qualify at 18mpg.. now he can get his hybrid or high MPG car.

I emailed the cars.gov people and the NTHSA (or whatever it is) about the error.. well see how quick they are to correct it.. ay one want to make a wager on there speed to correct it

[cfg83]

ebacherville -

Good news for your Dad! Kudos on reading the fine print.

CarloSW2

[ebacherville]

Dang i was wrong it looks like.. the 22mpg rating for passanger cars is the definition of the new car minimum.. that sucks..

[ebacherville]

Any one in the scrap business??? Any idea what a the value of a 1999 ford windstar van with great interior power everything, good tinted glass except windshield and good drive train with 130k on it, rusted uni body (rockers) but good sheet metal otherwise , oh and BRAND NEW TIRES.. I'm trying to see what my junker trade is worth for this program.. if i can get $750 scrap value for it through the dealer the Honda fit may be doable. Its a very nice van for the most part.. full of great parts for resale

[ebacherville]

on another forum i follow we are talking about this program and a person that works at a scrap yard was letting us know the process for the clunkers.. and approximate value of scraped cars for this program.. she said for example a 1996 nissan Altima in decent condition, would only fetch about $150 for this program.. since they cant sell the motors ect.. so half of what they would normally fetch at scrap..

I'm so going to swap out the brand new tires and the new battery I put on 2 months ago, for bald junked tires and a crappy old battery. I'm tempted to strip to to a bare shell with just the drivers seat and sell the rest of the parts on ebay.. heck the alternator is only a year old.. it will run without that.. for a while The composite headlights will fetch 50 a piece on ebay no problem.. radio is coming out too.

Wonder how much you could get for the 2nd and 3rd row seating in that thing.. shipping would be a pain in the butt..

These scrap yards are going to make a killing selling off these parts.

[bhazard]

I hate to burst your bubbles guys but Im PRETTY sure the new car has to be USA-built. That rules out most cars not from the big 3.

[SuperTrooper]

Originally Posted by bhazard

I hate to burst your bubbles guys but Im PRETTY sure the new car has to be USA-built. That rules out most cars not from the big 3.

If you follow the link on the first page you will see that it is good for any brand of new car that qualifies.

[theunchosen]

The USA claus in the bill got shot to hell. . .for good reason.

If you mean like a junk yard(scrap is not quite the same here lol) and it runs you can probably do alot better than 750. For instance the windhsield manual slides out of a 95 geo two door go for 50 bucks each. . .

I very much doubt an individual can strip down the entire car by yourself(you don't have a network of auto repair shops calling asking for parts), but if you can line up the buyers for the individual parts you can almost always make some really good money.

If the electric windows work, engine, trans, AC and basic other functions work it would fetch a pretty hefty price at the junk yard.

[ebacherville]

Originally Posted by bhazard

I hate to burst your bubbles guys but Im PRETTY sure the new car has to be USA-built. That rules out most cars not from the big 3.

Doing that would have made the bill illegal according to trade laws, its good for any vehicle foreign or domestic..

If it were only american made cars , I would not participate.. they arn't worth it even at 4500 off the price.

If that were the case you have very little to choose from, the chevy aveo is made in Korea, the ford fusion is made in mexico..

However
The focus is made in michigan... and the cobalt is made in the USA..

Not to mention the cars may be made here but most of the parts are all imported. Its a world economy now a days, hondas are made in the USA and chevy made in Korea and Canada, ford in mexico..

[ebacherville]

Well we went and drove everything under the sun.. that was under 15k.. guess what we picked... I was so shocked when we decided on the final car.. and it wasnt even a hard choice it was a no brainer..

Youll never guess what we picked ..