The Cash for Clunkers Death List

http://www.cars.gov/files/official-information/trade-in-vehicles.pdf

http://jalopnik.com/5365954/ten-most-exotic-cars-destroyed-by-cash-for-clunkers/gallery/

There's something to piss off everybody on these lists. Right now, I want to find the idiots who traded in the future collectables and exotics and cockpunch them. As a rotorhead, I'm obviosly mad at all the ones that had been traded in. 373 RX-7s and an RX-8 died for your Focuses- I hope you enjoy them, shiny happy people.

At least I clunkerd a car I was ready to scrap out anyway.

Somebody clunkered an 1997 Aston Martin Volante?!?

shiny happy persons

They scrapped a Grand National. And a DB7 Volante. I refuse to look at the rest of that list

I don't buy it. If this list is accurate, it means there was a long line of morons for each transaction that involved a car potentially worth more than $4,500.

Any of the cars that were taken in under the program could have been purchases by an employee of the dealership or put out on the lot without putting them through as a "clunker" and getting the Fed money (a paperwork intensive process that consumed a lot of hours).

No dealership in their right mind would clunker a car they could get more for on the open market. For one, the program was an absolute mess at every stage - from signing up to getting paid. Sending a car to auction would be way easier (and more profitable) and would guarantee payment faster than going through CARS. It would also avoid the post-sale issues of disabling the cars and getting rid of them.

After working at a dealership and now working in the industry, I highly doubt anybody "clunkered" an RX8. I would have been the first to the finance office with an offer of 4,500 cash, and voila - the car's mine.

I absolutely do not understand some of the vehicles on that list. The 2006 rousch F150? Um... those things were like 50 grand. I wonder if someone didn't take a wrecked one or something and strip all the roush parts off it and turn it in.

I wish we could see pictures of the actual vehicles that were traded in.

I think the jalopnik list was more of a hypothetical thing.

ecstar, LP

Foose F150 Regular Cab 2WD 2008 1

Foose F150 Regular Cab 4WD 2008 1

TVR Engineering Ltd

TVR 280i Convertible 1985 1

Rolls-Royce

Continental R 1997 1

Roush Performance

Stage 3 F-150 4WD 2006 1

Stage 3 F-150 Supercab 4WD 2006 1

And boys... the 5th line has a unicorn on it... A GNX.

Both an e30 M3 and e34 M5 are listed.

Ok, to save everyone else the trouble of reading the whole thing:

off the list that are either head scratching or heart breaking: 91 M3, 91 M5, 98 Z3, 2001 S4 Avant, 2003 MDX AWD, 1996 Buick Funeral Hearse, 2006 Rendezvous AWD, 2003 Escalade AWD, 2004 Chevy Avalanche AWD, a total of 131 84-95 corvettes, 2008 Sebring AWD, 2005 Ford Expedition AWD, 1 2000 Ford Lightning, 23 94 - 95 Lightings, 3 2007 Acadia AWD, 2 2003 GMC Sierra Denalis, 5 2003 Yukon Denalis, 2003 Infiniti FX35, 2004 Jaguar X type, 2004 Lexus IS 300, 2003 Lincoln Navigator, 2006 Lincoln Zephyr, 2005 Mazda RX-8, 1993 Mazda RX-7 (ouch), 99 Mercedes C43 AMG, 47 Merkurs, 20 3000 GT spyders (aren't those super rare?), 89 Z32 300ZX's, a 2006 350Z roadster (CMON SALVAGE TITLE ONES ARE GOING FOR 5K), 4 04-05 Titans, 1992 Typhoon, 13 Porsches (928's and 944's), TWO 2006 Rousch stage 3 F150's, 2008 Scion Xd, 113 Subaru SVX's, 1985 TVR 280i, 2 2008 Foose F150's, 1997 Toyota Supra, And can someone tell me how the hell the 1998 Neon qualified for CFC?

I wonder if a lot of those cars were either had bad accident damage or severe mechanical problems that weren't worth fixing but didn't make them completely un-drivable.

I've seen a lot of rx7s and a handful of grand nationals that I wouldn't pay anywhere near $4,500 for, so no loss there.

Also, I know a few "car killers" that have reduced more than one car to basically scrap in less than a year. One of them buys a car and does nothing but put gas in it until it dies. Then he buys another. These are usually sub $1k cars, but I can't even imagine the terrible things he'd do to a brand new car. There are lots of people like this. I see tons of 2-5 year old cars that are just beat to death on the road around here.

skruffy wrote: I wonder if a lot of those cars were either had bad accident damage or severe mechanical problems that weren't worth fixing but didn't make them completely un-drivable.

One of the 1992 Camaros would fall squarely into that category.

Unbelievable. Why are there so many 07-08 models on that list an 07-08 anything has gotta be worth more than 4500 and a ton of MK4 Supras on there, they sell for more than that even in N/A form. This list is sad and mind boggling.

My buddy at the car lot informed me that they had several cars roll in via the clunker program that were simply not ran through the clunker program. They just got the $4500 or $3500 showing as the trade in value and the cars reappeared on the lot at $6000 to $15,700. Customer walked off thinking their car was "clunkered".

Bruce

925 e30's were crushed, including 1 e30 M3. 131 C4 & C5 Corvettes, 1611 Mustangs, a '93 rx7 turbo, and a token rx8.

John Brown wrote: And boys... the 5th line has a unicorn on it... A GNX.

There's no F-ing way a GNX actually got clunkered. Those things have been prized as collector cars since they got released.

I'm just not buying it.

I could see a lot traded in as "clunkers" and not actually having the paperwork done. Cheap way for a dealer to make a little extra cash by giving the idiot his 4500 rebate and then turning around and selling the car for a lot more.. without any of the massive amount of paperwork needed to be done.

On the subject of serial car killers.. I have a cousin who kills cars about every 6 months. This included a Volvo 240GT and a BMW e38

andrave wrote: And can someone tell me how the hell the 1998 Neon qualified for CFC?

If it has a bad O2 sensor or something like that, it kills the fuel mileage. The '97 that I bought over the summer got less then 20 mpg when I first drove it. I did a basic tune up and almost doubled the mpg.

IIRC, the Neons got around 28-30 mpg brand new or close to those numbers, figure in 10 years of not so regular maintenance and there ya go.

Doesn't matter what MPG the cars actually got there hotrodlarry. They had to get 18MPG or less combined as determined by fueleconomy.gov when new.

and didn't theyhave to be like 10 years old or something too?

no; they could not be over a certain age.

Again, what 1998 Neon got EPA MPG rated low enough to be eligible for the program?

I know that I ran my gf's 96 neon into the calculator on ford's website and it said not eligible.

Hmm... I dunno then.

I doubt someone really turned in a GNX, i could see a 84-85 grand national though, they look the same as the good ones but they arent that impressive, still rare though. One of the audi allroads is actually at the junkyard down the street from where i live, there is nothing visibly wrong with it, but i guess it could have had some mechanical issues. Im glad that only 2 alfa milanos got turned in, although there were alot of 164s.

If I am understanding how they polled this, they did it by decoding VIN numbers of the vehicles submitted. I will bet the Neon was denied but I bet the McLarens and the GNX are as real as sin as well as the Roush and Foose F150s.