Nashco wrote:
Prime example of wasted state (taxpayer) money, IMO. This car could have been back on the road with a fresh smog-test pass with an exhaust system from another car at the junkyard and a new aftermarket catalytic converter, about $150 later and it's a perfectly functioning car. Instead of fixing it and driving it for another month or year or decade, it's now a ball of metal on its way to China. What a waste. Now Jerry has another "gross polluter" in his yard that his fellow taxpayers paid for, and if he decides this one isn't worth the hassle the cycle continues. Nothing against Jerry, like he said, the system lets it happen.
Bryce
I didn't can the car because of the cat. I canned it because it wasn't straight enough to be worth fixing. My exhaust system was shot from too many previous hacks cutting and welding badly. So my car needed a completely new system.
Finding an intact head pipe at the local Pick-Your-Part is near impossible. Why? Because it's illegal to sell a used cat in the state of CA so all the yards torch them off. They usually hack about a foot of precious head pipe along with it. I searched every you-pull-it yard for 50 miles around and not one good head pipe.
The head pipe on that car is expensive. You can find the rear sections readily but the price for the head pipe is prohibitive. Just recently, I was underneath another '89 Sentra yanking the oil pan for an engine I just rebuilt. The car had a fully intact head pipe but this is months after my car is gone. Too little too late.
Furthermore, I am unemployed for the moment so there was no money left to fix my Sentra, even if I wanted to. By turning it in to the state, I got enough money to buy a car, make it pass a smog test and pay for some groceries.
While you may believe this program is "wasted state (taxpayer) money," air pollution has a heavy social cost. It accounts for increased sick time, the ozone ages everything made of rubber (and lung tissue) prematurely, and plays hell with little kids respiratory systems especially. So paying me a grand to take that car off the road probably saved the taxpayers at least double that in Medi-Cal payouts and maintenance expenses alone.
Perhaps you objected to my cavalier attitude. I can understand that. However, I'm trying to inject a little levity into a bad situation. It made no sense to put more money into that Sentra. Believe me when I tell you the car was tired.
Also, if you read the post completely, I said a person must own the car for three years before being eligible for the program. What I didn't say is the entity doing the testing must determine the car could live at least three more years were it not for flunking the smog test. How they determine that I do not know. That car would need a bag full of cash to stay alive another three years but I qualified nonetheless.
Finally, unless your family and mine stop buying stuff from China, that's where the steel will go. It came from Japan so to me it's like going home. Perhaps the President's idea to curtail tax cuts to companies shipping jobs overseas will help the situation. By the way, the state didn't give China the steel for free. China paid for it along with the copper and the aluminum, both of which are still sky-high.
Finally finally, I reserve the right to decide whether or not to sink more money into a car or punt on it. Believe me when I tell you I keep a small flotilla of beaters for customers and friends in good service and passing smog tests. That means a whole lot of cars stay out of the boneyard and contributing to water pollution.
If someone offered you a grand for one of your cars that wasn't worth half that, you'd jump at the chance. I did. Now I have a car with much more potential. It will never look great but the interior is much nicer, it has an air conditioner and I can live with it until either my freelance stuff picks up or I land a job or both.
