Thanks for investing our money wisely

The rollpan, tucked rear valence, the Typhoon fender flares and side skirts smaller euro-style mirrors and lowered stance..... If that's NOT a Typhoon, someone made a damn good clone.

I tell you what though, if I worked at a dealer, I would probably have some fun with a camera and a glass marker convincing everyone on the internet that someone just clunked the rarest old car I could find on the lot .

I'm posting a CL ad calling for auditions for my indie film "Cash for Chunkers." Some scenes may be offensive to dairy workers.

Nevermind, I just googled it. It's been done.

Keith wrote: Other than the Typhoon badge, can you tell that's what it really is? After all, the "M" badge is one of the biggest sellers in the BMW parts department.

It's got the right roll pan, body kit, etc. If it's not a real typhoon, it's an expensive fake.

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/08/18/breaking-gm-ups-production-due-to-cash-for-clunkers-1-350-unio/

There's 1350 folks who kinda like this program.

ignorant wrote: http://www.autoblog.com/2009/08/18/breaking-gm-ups-production-due-to-cash-for-clunkers-1-350-unio/ There's 1350 folks who kinda like this program.

On the whole, I think most people on this board will agree that the program is well thought out, with no loopholes, and mostly just getting rid of Exploders and such. (this is of course ignoring where is the money coming from...)

But seriously, a Typhoon? This thing is Blasphemy.

A Typhoon.

If you look closely at the bottom of the left rear fender, in this pic you can see the ground effects flare.

I believe it's a real Typhoon. Or a damn accurate clone.

I can't find the link now but a couple days ago I read an online news article about someone using cash for clunkers and turned in a Maserati Biturbo. I know these aren't that loved and not high value but sheesh, he could have got more selling it outright.

We talked about that. On average, very few tears are being shed for the loss of a Biturbo. And if you'll pay $4500 for one, I'll get one to sell to you :)

maroon92 wrote: now someone can buy the body real cheap, and swap in an LS to replace that crappy LT...

That is no LT, it's an L-98; as in 2 bolt main, teeny AL heads and an intake designed for a 305. Not the worst thing that could happen, but there will be no body swap. This CAN NOT become a "race car shell"

Add another pretty nice looking LT1 caprice, and an audi allroad 2.7 turbo (a $10k+ car on craigslist) to the list of cars that were turned in by idiots. In some cases you can argue its a sound financial decision, etc, but i cant imagine being so lazy that id take $4500 for a $10k car just becasue i was too lazy to sell it.

Keith wrote: We talked about that. On average, very few tears are being shed for the loss of a Biturbo. And if you'll pay $4500 for one, I'll get one to sell to you :)

Hell yeah...

There was one in Chucktown that this "mechanic" at a Midas wanted to sell. If that damned thing didn't sit around for a year. $2500.. Hell no.

Travis_K wrote: Add another pretty nice looking LT1 caprice, and an audi allroad 2.7 turbo (a $10k+ car on craigslist) to the list of cars that were turned in by idiots. In some cases you can argue its a sound financial decision, etc, but i cant imagine being so lazy that id take $4500 for a $10k car just becasue i was too lazy to sell it.

I'd expect anyone with enough greed to buy a dealer's license would have turned around and resold it for $10K, too. It could very well be that the dealer is just using this as an excuse to offer a lower than normal trade in value - there's nothing really to stop them from saying, "Sure, we'll give you $4500 for it, it's the cash for clunkers rate" and then deciding they'd rather resell it than send in the paperwork.

Ths audi had already been killed, it was in the holding area for a junkyard when i saw it. I looked earlier and i couldnt find one for sale for less than $8k, most of them were more like $15k.

daytonaer wrote:

maroon92 wrote: now someone can buy the body real cheap, and swap in an LS to replace that crappy LT...

That is no LT, it's an L-98; as in 2 bolt main, teeny AL heads and an intake designed for a 305. Not the worst thing that could happen, but there will be no body swap. This CAN NOT become a "race car shell"

See my post above. There are loopholes.

16vCorey wrote: See my post above. There are loopholes.

Well, the guys who were selected to be approved junkyards are not really the type "in general" where you can get around the rules.

I don't mean to argue with you, but the larger pic-n-pull yards will not let the cars leave the yard except as crushed cubes, and they don't let you take large portions like the frame or unit body pieces. This is just my experience with dealing with these bigger outfits, they don't care.

It is easy to say "I'll just purchase half today, half tomorrow and here is your $50 tip," but actually trying to do it is another. I have tried to get shell's and cars from a large chain junkyard, not happening.

I just got back from a large yard today and there were many many CARS car's. Most were junk (rusted out explorers, pickups without much life left) but there were a few oddballs. There were a hand-full of newer turbo volvo's (4 and 5 cyl) and countless Cadillacs with the northstar. IMO, the most likely to be recycled part of a big caddy, trashed.

wlkelley3 wrote: I can't find the link now but a couple days ago I read an online news article about someone using cash for clunkers and turned in a Maserati Biturbo. I know these aren't that loved and not high value but sheesh, he could have got more selling it outright.

When I was looking for a Locost donor, I passed on a couple of $900 Biturbos.

I wonder how many C4 Corvettes have been totaled out in the last year? The last month?

I can't believe how up in arms people are getting over this.

1. There have probably been 300 MILLION vehicles sold in the US in the last 25 years. Even expanding the CFC to $3B that's only 750K units or 0.0025% of vehicles heading to the crusher. That's such a completely insignificant figure compared to the good the scheme is doing for the economy it makes the loss of what in the whole are complete piles of crap.

2. Everyone is harping on about some P.O.S. C4 vette (and I love C4's, especially the earlier body style) that's getting crushed. They made 369,257 C4 vettes, a few probably ratty examples getting crushed is meaningless today and will carry on being meaningless is 20, 30 , 40 years when they are collectable. I doubt anyone is sending a mint low mileage ZR1 to CFC

3. As has been pointed out many times, there is nothing more expensive than a cheap Maserati Bi Turbo

4. The Typhoon, yeah they only made 4,967 of them so ONE getting crushed is 2x10-4% going to the crusher oohh nooooooooooo what a tragedy as it was obviously a mint example.

5. Late model Luxo vehicles getting crushed that the owners are getting raped by dealers on for $4,500 CFC money. a) As many people like to bitch here, many modern cars once out of warranty can be really really expensive to fix. If the Audi Allroad mentioned above had a tranny or engine issues then to 99.99% of the public getting $4,500 for it is probably a great deal.
   b) As has been pointed out, if there are genuine ringers getting traded in I'm sure the dealer can write CFC on the windshield, leave it there for a few days then not send in the paper work, pull the car from the line and sell it on.

Personally I think it's a great scheme, I just wish it was fully funded. In Europe their equivalent for CFC is on track to generate 2 million extra sales this year and has been a massive help to the industry and jobs over there. Over here CFC is without a doubt a success, I just wish it were bigger. At the end of the day the number of worthy vehicles getting crushed is utterly insignificant compared to the good it's doing the dealers, the industry and the economy.

In thinking about some of those oddball cars in the CFC trade ins... I have to wonder if the owners had no clue what they had and were trying to sell them locally with luck?

I am pretty certain that Typhoon (no matter what shape the engine was in) of the T-Type GN would have fetched more than 4500 on ebay

uh exactly how is it doing the economy any good to put everyone into more debt and for the government to basically just printing up new money to fund the program?

Sure the program is getting some older beat up cars off the road but people are also sending up cars that are worth way more and are rare and hard to find parts for. Also the program is basically eliminating the cars that the working poor basically rely on for transportation. These are people that can't afford to take on a car payment. And before you say there is always public transportation, there isn't. Some places have none, like where I live, and others run on very limited schedules and routes that would not work for them.

Oh and on the T type it had a NEW engine and trans so yeah it could have gotten that easy.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: Personally I think it's a great scheme, I just wish it was fully funded. In Europe their equivalent for CFC is on track to generate 2 million extra sales this year and has been a massive help to the industry and jobs over there. Over here CFC is without a doubt a success, I just wish it were bigger. At the end of the day the number of worthy vehicles getting crushed is utterly insignificant compared to the good it's doing the dealers, the industry and the economy.

That depends very much as to where in Europe you're looking . Y'know, we've got more than one country over here and only three of them have an equivalent of the C4C program.

Actually, it's not all rosy - the program is a boon for larger affiliated dealerships, but the small workshop and used car dealerships are hurting because people are rather throwing away cars than having them repaired and then have to buy something new when a cheaper used car would've done the job nicely.

It also massively distorts the market in cheaper cars because every shed that just about moves under its own power is suddenly worth money and cheap decent runabouts with years of life left in them also get crushed over here.

BoxheadTim wrote: It also massively distorts the market in cheaper cars because every shed that just about moves under its own power is suddenly worth money and cheap decent runabouts with years of life left in them also get crushed over here.

...just like it's doing here. Shortsighted berkleying idiots.

rebelgtp wrote: uh exactly how is it doing the economy any good to put everyone into more debt and for the government to basically just printing up new money to fund the program?

The government is getting money back from the banks from the TARP loans so this isn't printing new money. People aren't necessarily taking on more debt than they would have. People are taking advantage of it from a number of reasons. Some just to get a good deal, others to get into a new car who otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford one. Others to get rid of an old worthless POS. There are a thousand reasons that people are using it and the upshot is it's help car sales, helping people stay in jobs and in some cases helping get people back to work. How is that a bad thing

rebelgtp wrote: Sure the program is getting some older beat up cars off the road but people are also sending up cars that are worth way more and are rare and hard to find parts for. Also the program is basically eliminating the cars that the working poor basically rely on for transportation. These are people that can't afford to take on a car payment. And before you say there is always public transportation, there isn't. Some places have none, like where I live, and others run on very limited schedules and routes that would not work for them.

So 0.0025% of cars on the road are going to get crushed, yup that's really going to dry up the supply of cheap cars for the working poor?!?!? Also people aren't trading in old cheap to run more fuel efficient cars. There are still millions of cheap old cars out there. 30 seconds on craigs list, cars.com or autotrader will show there is no shortage of cheap cars out there.

rebelgtp wrote: Oh and on the T type it had a NEW engine and trans so yeah it could have gotten that easy.

So what? One person trades in a car you like with a new engine and trans and that makes the whole thing a bad idea. Who knows what his or her reasons were for trading it in, they did and were probably happy to get $4500 for it or they wouldn't have done so.

You don't like it, I do. My only issue is they're not puttin gup $20b to fund it.

Adrian_Thompson wrote: You don't like it, I do. My only issue is they're not puttin gup $20b to fund it.

Where do you think that money comes from? The money fairy? The money tree planted on the whitehouse lawn? It comes from the people that can't take "advantage" of this assinine plane to start with because we bought products we NEED and didn't blow our wad on useless crap and racked up too much CC debt. We didn't buy the trendy $60k SUV that gets 12mpg. We bought smart, and use it until it's dead.

This is yet another waste of MY money to give to retards that have no clue where it came from and EXPECT more to follow. First we bail out their mortgage. Now we give them new cars. Stupid me, going to work every day, living a frugal life to get ahead.