Cash for Clunkers Question

[Snaggletoof]

In my part of the country there are literally thousands of old cars, vintage 60s, 70s, that are up a dirt path leading back into a hollow, sitting on concrete blocks next to someone living in an old school bus. For a couple hundred dollars in tires, replacing the hoses, and maybe another hundred in a battery and starter, these vehicles could conceivably shake, rattle, and roll for 10-15 miles into someone's car dealership.

$4500 would absolutely dwarf the repair cost of getting these dinosaurs to town -- remember they only have to drive 15 miles.

Remember, part of the legislation was to disable these vehicles and "get them off the road." What a noble objective for beautifying someone's "back 40" homestead.

My question: Would these vehicles qualify?

By the way, as an added footnote, the headlines in the local paper read: "Clunkers fill local car dealerships."

[David1980]

Can't be older than 25 years. Must have had insurance on it for the last year (two states that don't require insurance are exceptions.)

[Jesse]

Two of the requirements that might prohibit cash for clunker on one of these back-road vehicles are your vehicle must be less than 25 years old on the trade-in date and Trade-in vehicles must be registered and insured continuously for the full year preceding the trade-in.

If they are up on concrete blocks they may not be registered or insured for the preceding year.

[Black Bart]

Interesting question.

In my part of the country there are literally thousands of old cars, vintage 60s, 70s, that are up a dirt path leading back into a hollow, sitting on concrete blocks next to someone living in an old school bus. For a couple hundred dollars in tires, replacing the hoses, and maybe another hundred in a battery and starter, these vehicles could conceivably shake, rattle, and roll for 10-15 miles into someone's car dealership.

$4500 would absolutely dwarf the repair cost of getting these dinosaurs to town -- remember they only have to drive 15 miles.

Remember, part of the legislation was to disable these vehicles and "get them off the road." What a noble objective for beautifying someone's "back 40" homestead.

My question: Would these vehicles qualify?

By the way, as an added footnote, the headlines in the local paper read: "Clunkers fill local car dealerships."

Guess Jesse's right about the insurance and registration, but I'll bet many used car dealers and junkyard owners are giving this some serious (and maybe illicit) thought. A part-time jack-leg insurance agent might write 'em a backdated receipt -- don't know how they'd handle a car registration, but they usually have lots of old car titles that might be manipulated. The fly in the soup would be paying $15-20K for a new car. Where does that come from?

As a matter of fact, new car prices are the fly in my particular bowl of soup. I've got a ten-year old pickup with a bad transmission and I want the $4,500 but...I drive it only 500 miles per year hauling lumber/junk, so I can either fix it for about $1,000 or pay on a $10K note (aprrox bal after rebate) for something I don't need that much. It's just not worth it to me.

Here's an interesting link of how they're getting rid of them -- chemical salesmen are doing a land office business.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124934376942503053.html

[erchess]

Also

you have to trade the clunker in on a new vehicle which might be hard to do for the people in question. Remember that the goal of the credit is to get more new cars sold.

[Jesse]

As with any program, chances are high there may be fraud involved, but I wonder if information matching is one of the problems contributing to the slow process of verifying the owners registration & insurance and the releasing of funds to dealers.

[David1980]

As stupid as I think the cash for clunkers thing is, I would wager 10 times more fraud will occur from the FTHBC.