Comments on: Canada Spend CA$92m To Cull Clunkers

By: joeaverage

joeaverage — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 18:24:26 +0000

Some scrap metal group prob gets paid by the gov’t to dispose of the cars and they pocket the scrap value thus double-dipping. The US gov’t did that in Italy when I was there with former private military personnel owned cars.

By: alex_rashev

alex_rashev — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:42:45 +0000

Last time I checked, shredded auto scrap was over $500 per ton. Add to that a couple hundred dollars a car that your average pick’n'pull junkyard gets out of used parts, per car, and you’ll see who the lobbyists were. The government pays $300 for the car, ships it over to the junkyard, probably pays even more for shipping and recycling, AND the junkyard gets their $700 for nearly free.

Way to sponsor an industry that’s already living through their gold rush era.

By: Facebook User

Facebook User — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:33:18 +0000

yasth:

Well for one it is $45 million plain cash as it is a three year program. Is this personal knwoledge from another source? The Detroit news article says 50,000 cars, not 50,000 cars per year.

The last junker that I sold back in 1997 was an RX-7 with a blown engine. I got $700 for it. I sold it to a guy at work who rebuilt the engine, but we arrived at that price because that was what the junk yard offered me. Now, the scrap steel value of most cars is over $300. I can’t imagine how anybody could be so stupid as to participate in this program. Another example of tax money well spent, eh.

By: yasth

yasth — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:24:27 +0000

Well for one it is $45 million plain cash as it is a three year program. So the difference is only $47 million, but the site FAQ seems to indicate that the discount on bicycle, car sharing or transit passes is primary, and possibly costs more.

Also it seems that they had money already, but no real plan to spend it. so odd.

By: eh_political

eh_political — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:18:08 +0000

The program was designed to fail. The current government just wants to appear to be doing something to shore up their environmental credentials. They are quite vulnerable in that area, out of step with a majority of Canadians.

The police do a reasonable job of getting many clunkers off the road by doing sweeps for them on holiday weekends and the like. Most poorly tuned clunkers have many more issues (think safety) that make it easy to confiscate them until they are brought up to a reasonable standard, plus there is the biannual smog check in populous parts of the province.

By: Redbarchetta

Redbarchetta — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:15:51 +0000

Hmm lets see I get $300 for my old running car and get to spend $20,000 on a new efficient car, that sounds like a lot of gas money to me. This has to be targetted to the really stupid because no one with half a brain would take this deal. Who thinks this stuff up?

By: Sajeev Mehta

Sajeev Mehta — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:49:07 +0000

You guys beat me to it: $300 (US or Canadian) for a junker is a rip off. An aluminum engine and catalytic converters are probably worth more than that on the open market.

Government, auto dealers, advertising…this program stinks.

By: Ralph SS

Ralph SS — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:43:40 +0000

RayH, ya beat me to it. Around here, this offer wouldn’t be any better than scrap and, in some cases, worse. So, theoretically, that “remaining 77m” would be augmented by scrap value back to the original amount and more.

Sounds like another great government program. Where do I sign?

By: toxicroach

toxicroach — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:43:07 +0000

If you are driving a car that you would consider selling for $300, you ain’t buying a new or near new car unless its the Tata Nano or something.

By: Steven Lang

Steven Lang — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:36:00 +0000

Sorry, but in Georgia the average junk car yields about $500.

These folks would be better off offering a $1000 rebate on a new / near new car that would be subsidized by the auto dealers, manufacturers, and finance companies. Even in this day and age, it wouldn’t be too hard and the manufacturers would be particularly inclined to do this at this point.

By: RayH

RayH — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:26:49 +0000

I think the average car brings in more than $300 at the scrapyards at the moment, at least in Ohio.
Compared to the Texas and California vouchers or cash, $300 seems like peanuts.

By: Dinu Uscatu

Dinu Uscatu — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:26:01 +0000

The remaining $77m will likely be used to administer the program – gotta love gov’t efficiency!

By: jar527

jar527 — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 13:23:19 +0000

I would assume the rest of the money would be used for advertising the program, storing the cars and ultimately transporting them to there final resting place. Although you can get much more than $300.00 for a car from a decent scrap yard.