Cash for Clunkers Bill passed.

P71 wrote: In reply to foxtrapper: The news article said a final version of the bill passed both houses and it was just awaiting the President's signature. That sounds pretty much passed to me?

The reporter didn't bother to check facts. Or perhaps you're misremembering. The two houses have not reconciled their two different versions. So there is no final version, nothing has been written for presidential signature, and nothing submitted for signature.

In fact, yesterday yet another version was submitted in the Senate.

It's Yahoo news, so the reporter has a better than half chance of being wrong.

So it only passed the House? Guess that means I have a week to buy a car!

neon4891 wrote: What are the requierments of this vehicle, besides being able to carry 5 tall people? And I think it only counts towards new vehicles.

For me: fun to drive with 5 tall people. For wife: can't be a minivan. She hates them

Can't be expensive to maintain

Since it as to be new: Sub $20K

that is it.

Only new vehicles...makes sense, but greatly limits me. I am used to not having car notes, and will never have another.

neon4891 wrote: What are the requierments of this vehicle, besides being able to carry 5 tall people? And I think it only counts towards new vehicles.

For me: fun to drive with 5 tall people. For wife: can't be a minivan. She hates them

Can't be expensive to maintain

Since it as to be new: Sub $20K

that is it.

Only new vehicles...makes sense, but greatly limits me. I am used to not having car notes, and will never have another.

neon4891 wrote: What are the requierments of this vehicle, besides being able to carry 5 tall people? And I think it only counts towards new vehicles.

For me: fun to drive with 5 tall people. For wife: can't be a minivan. She hates them

Can't be expensive to maintain

Since it as to be new: Sub $20K

that is it.

Only new vehicles...makes sense, but greatly limits me. I am used to not having car notes, and will never have another.

So does this mean all the ghetto cruisers in my neighborhood are going to be replaced with Prius's (Prii?) with 20" wheels? I'll just sit back and wait for the repo's to roll in after all the people who could only afford gas guzzling beaters decide they need a new car. This time next year the auctions will be flush with cars.

P71 wrote: Re-plate it before the President signs the bill! I'm shopping for an 85-90 Crown Vic to use as trade in fodder now ;)

That's just it... I have an '86 LTD Country Squire that would NOT qualify. It's EPA combined rating is 19 MPG. It gets about 15 in its currently crappy state of tune.

I hope if this bill gets passed, the cutoff is changed to 19; then I'd definitely think about getting something new.

If you are curious about a car- here's a link to what should be official- http://www.fueleconomy.gov/

And for that LTD- you may want to recheck- they are posting both old and new calculations here- http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/calculatorSelectYear.jsp

In reply to alfadriver:

Oh I double checked alright,

Old combined MPG: 21, New combined MPG : 19

So did my procrastination pay off? I've got way too many cars, and have been planning to sell my '89 Volvo 740 turbo for the last few months. I just haven't gotten around to it. I figure I'd be lucky to get $1000 for it, even with ~ $300 of spares. I've had it for years and kept it registered and insured this whole time. I hadn't heard about the clunkers program until this thread. After doing some reading, I'm not a fan of the program from a big picture point of view. Still, though, if the program's enacted, maybe I should take advantage of it. The Volvo's kind of a neat old car and I wouldn't like to see it shredded, but I'm not THAT sentimental about it.

I don't really want a new car, though. The reason I was going to sell the Volvo is because I have too many cars. Maybe I can trade in the Volvo for something that gets over 28mpg (Volvo's rating is 18) and that has demand and relatively little initial depreciation (Mini? Smart?) and turn around and resell it immediately. I haven't fully thought this through, but I'm ballparking that if I did it right, I could net ~3K$ after taxes, dealer prep, discounted resell and everything. I'd pay cash, so no interest cost. I'd have to pay insurance, but most of that would kind of be offset by no longer having to pay for the Volvo's insurance. Oh yeah, I could also keep the spares and ebay 'em. There's definitely some risk involved, but am I missing something here, or is this a feasible idea? In any event I'll continue to procrastinate while I think this through and watch what happens to the bill and the program.

Can you get multiple vouchers to use on the same new car if you turn in multiple clunkers?

I'm having visions of buying 5 or 6 clunkers at say... $200 apiece, limping them to life, and turning them all in for a total voucher of $27,000 and picking up something fun. I mean, hey, they'd want to pay to get 6 smoke belching piles off the street so i can drive a shiny new thing, right?

Ah crap.... just saw that you have to own and register them for a year. reading pwnz me.

my coworker has an 88 LTD for sale for $500

too bad there's no new car i want to buy.

So let me pose this to you...Mom and dad could use a new car...but I have an old f-150 that I have limped along for the past 3 years. Can I trade it in for them? Or would I have to be the title holder (loan holder)? Really not to sure about that...(probably not, but I really dont need another car right now...I still have 4)

oooh. I wish this was in Canada. I have a 92 mpv and my wife wants a new car.

I was at the junkyard today and according to a flyer on wall the cash for clunkers will somehow prevent the drivetrains from cars junked under the program from being reused. So will this end up hitting twice on old cars?

aussiesmg wrote: This watered down version should see a lot of the 90's junk off the roads, it might actually be a good thing, but if just one GNX is crushed I take back these comments

It looks like they watered it down just enough to miss the GNX, C4 Corvette, and 5.0 Mustang.

thedude wrote: I was at the junkyard today and according to a flyer on wall the cash for clunkers will somehow prevent the drivetrains from cars junked under the program from being reused. So will this end up hitting twice on old cars?

Yes, the entire car, drivetrain included, has to be destroyed (at least that language was in the bill a couple of weeks ago).

Bob

This is the only time I wish my wife's 99 CR-V got worse mileage.

I could really use that credit, but we'd be going from 26 hwy to 32-35hwy.

Schmidlap wrote: Yes, the entire car, drivetrain included, has to be destroyed (at least that language was in the bill a couple of weeks ago).

Latest version appears to allow stripping non-drivetrain parts for resale. But, the engine, transmission, and body are required to be crushed.

I realized that my truck would be eligible for this program but I would want to replace it with another truck which doesnt seem like it would work from the epa figures I found. You guys know of any new trucks that get high enough gas mileage for this?