I was skeptical about the cash for clunkers program. Not because I’m a negative right-wing wacko, but because it seemed to be some hasty, knee-jerk response with little regard to long term consequences. There have been a lot of numbers tossed around about how much fuel the program will save and the beneficial environmental impact...except...what about the environmental impact of making new cars and scrapping the old ones? Not to mention the all the dependable, decent cars wasted so people who could probably afford a new one without the program can get one with a government subsidy.
What really convinced me of the folly of CFC turned out to be a short clip on the local news panning the “clunker” lot. See, there are lots of people—like me—who have to make do with older vehicles simply because there is no way we can afford a new one. And, frankly, I was envious of some of the “clunkers” on the lot, including a sweet little BMW--yes a BMW. While there were a few lumbering, beat-up Chevy Suburban-type rides, the majority of the “clunkers” were better than what I currently drive: a 1999 Ford Explorer which is on the certified clunker list. My Explorer has been a great vehicle that has given me nearly 170.000 fairly trouble-free miles...so far. According to my MPG i-Phone app it gets between 19-20 MPG. According to the government numbers it gets 16 MPG.
Then the local news had an interview with a junk yard owner that said that the CFC program was not a boon to his business because the engines are rendered useless –as specified by the program by running sodium silicate through the engine. That means all engine parts that could be used to give life to another vehicle—you know, one that belongs to a person without the means to buy a new one—are trashed. In addition, the program specifies that the drive train can only be used under certain conditions. Ok, so here are a bunch of mostly late 90s model cars that are likely dependable transportation being trashed....just to give people who could probably afford a new one anyway a better deal? Somehow dangling shiny new cars in front of people and offering a government incentive to buy when they might actually have a paid-off car hardly seems like a good thing. In these uncertain economic times it's crazy to add the burden of a car payment. Sort of smells like a different flavor of the sub-prime mortgage frenzy with all the car dealers scrambling to run tv ads urging people to "hurry in before it's too late!"
Besides the waste of decent cars that could be given to poor people driving around the wrecks held together with bailing wire and duct tape—you know ones that are really spewing exhaust—there’s the environmental impact. Vehicles are filled with all kinds of toxic stuff that must be safely disposed of. Plus, there are things like plastic parts that simply have to taken to the landfill. Add to that the transportation costs in fuel to move the clunkers the fuel to power the furnaces that melt them down...I mean how much “benefit” are we talking about except for the stockholders of auto companies---uh which would be the government in the case of those bailed out?
And finally to demonstrate vividly the despicable waste of this program have a look at a car that many people would be delighted to own--including me. For those of us that love Volvos (like the one I drove for 320k miles before I got my Explorer) this video will make you weep. It literally refuses to die when given its lethal injection. Maybe you can watch it to the end. To me it was waste and greed porn.