EU to Carmakers: We Piss on Your Goddamn Bailout
Paraphrasing, of course. But the European Union is struggling these days, what with member states breaking ranks to save banks. And now just-auto [sub] reports that the bureaucrats in Brussels are in no mood to indulge European carmakers’ “demands” for a government bailout to help them do whatever it is Ford, GM and Chrysler will do with their share of $25b worth of low-cost federal loans. “European carmakers’ association ACEA had asked for a EUR40bn loan, equivalent to just two years of the research and development budget of its members. The EU responded this would equate to over one third of its annual budget. ‘This idea does not even merit discussion,’ a European Commission source told a German newspaper on Tuesday.” And yet here we are. The only other talking point: the ACEA would AT LEAST like some EU-wide “incentives” for car owners to scrap vehicles over eight years old, over three years, to speed fleet renewal. In other words, ban/tax the Hell out of old [CO2-spewing] cars to stimulate sales of new [CO2-sighing] cars. Sounds like a plan to me!
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Don't they already tax the hell out of cars in Europe anyway? I remember when in Portugal my co-workers complaining about taxes being nearly as much as the car itself. I thought they were kidding until they showed me.
Same tax problem in Italy. What I'm a little confused about is this push to get 5 year old cars off the road. Doesn't the constant turn over, crushing of the older cars and manufacturing new cars have a significant environmental cost as well? How about requiring automakers to make pollution control upgrades easier and more cost effective than throwing out an entire vehicle? Take my 9 year old car. The current engines are pretty similar to its engine. What has changed is the engine management system. So why throw out the entire car when the existing car can be updates (new catalytic converter, new emissions hoses, emission carbon canister, new sensors, etc) and then reflash the computer to update it to whatever advancements they've made in nine years? Of course that would be cost prohibitive today with the way cars are made but the obvious answer to me is to alter the design and parts warehouse process to enable it at a reasonable cost. I know this won't happen b/c the average consumer has a short attention span and thus gets bored with their vehicle and is often looking for an excuse to replace it. I also realize that the car makers don't want to help me economically continue to drive my old car when they would rather sell me a new one that will be equally difficult to maintain at a reasonable cost in another decade. I guess it is like expecting our presidential candidates to tell the whole truth (not half-truths) when they know that clever people can see through their lies using the internet to check their facts.
Germany already has a rigorous inspection system that basically keeps clunkers off the road. Visit there, and you'll see few, if any, clunkers on the roads.