Feds driving up the cost of used cars and used car parts

Feds screw poor people by making used cars more expensive

Wow in addition to robbing us and giving the loot to used car salesmen the Feds are driving up the cost of used cars and driving up the cost of repairing cars! Destroying the cars will drive up cost of used cars and used car parts.


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Disposal of clunkers

To make sure clunkers don't get back on the road, auto dealers are required to kill the engines.

Within a week of a car dealer being paid by the government, mechanics are to drain the oil and pour in a solution of sodium silicate, which fatally damages the engine.

"They'll run the engine about five minutes until it seizes," said John Simonson, general manager of Thorobred Chevrolet.

Then salvage yards will tow the junker away.

"Dealers are supposed to hold (clunkers) under their control until they dispose of them," Simonson said.

Salvage yards will retrieve some parts from the cars, but not the once-profitable, now-dead engines.

- Luci Scott

'Clunkers' has car dealers ringing in sales

'Clunkers' stimulating sales, lots happily fretting about supplies

by Luci Scott - Aug. 7, 2009 10:00 AM

The Arizona Republic

The woman was at Earnhardt Ford-Mazda at Ray Road and Interstate 10 in Chandler, giving a fond farewell to her beloved trade-in, a 1985 Delta 88.

"She had a tear in her eye letting it go," recalled John Nissen, the dealership's general manager.

"She was caressing it as the salesman was taking it away."

Nostalgia aside, financially it was worthless. But she got $4,500 for it toward the purchase of a Ford Fusion, a hot seller under the wildly popular "cash for clunkers" program.

Dealers in Chandler and Tempe were singing the praises of the stimulus program.

"Our sales staff has been here until 1 o'clock in the morning every night since (last) Thursday," said Wally Henkel, general manager of Big Two Toyota-Scion of Chandler.

His sales volume is essentially back up to his high levels when the dealership opened in 2007, but the staff is smaller because of layoffs during the slump.

"It's pushing everybody pretty hard," he said. But he's not complaining, saying he had sold more than 100 cars in the first week of the program.

Shoppers at Big Two Toyota have been snapping up the Scion, Corolla and Camry.

Others have been buying SUVs.

"Some of them are buying larger vehicles, but they'll get better gas mileage than cars 18, 20 years old," Henkel said.

"We've definitely seen a noticeable increase in floor traffic," said Jim Mays, new-car sales manager of Chapman Chevrolet at Baseline and McClintock in Tempe. Shoppers there are buying Malibus, Cobalts and the Colorado, a mid-size pickup.

Mays said many of his customers are well educated in the stimulus program and coming in with the necessary documents showing registration and insurance.

"There's a sense of urgency now," he said. "People are coming in prepared to make a decision."

Cars have been flying off the lots so fast that dealers are worried about a decrease in inventory.

"I'm very, very low on inventory right now," Nissen said.

"My lot is so empty, I've got to turn the lights off at night for fear the planes are going to think it's an airport and start landing," he joked.

Not only does the program help the auto industry, consumers and the environment, it is giving a boost to city and state coffers through increased sales-tax revenue.

Before the economy went sour, two dealerships - Big Two Toyota-Scion of Chandler and Big Two Toyota-Mitsubishi in Mesa - were contributing $1 million in sales tax to the city and state, Henkel said.

"That's been off 50 percent. . . . Imagine what with all the dealerships in the metro area, (Cash for Clunkers) will provide some greatly increased funds (governments) probably weren't expecting."

John Simonson, general manager of Thorobred Chevrolet in Chandler, sees a benefit beyond the financial.

"They're getting some extremely unsafe vehicles off the road," he said.

He has received trade-ins that have no tread on the tires, allowing the cord to show through. And brakes are a problem on some of the clunkers.

"They're just an accident waiting to happen," Simonson said, "not only for the person driving the car but somebody they could run into."

Banks are benefiting as well, by granting a lot more credit, Nissen noted.

"It's good all the way around," Nissen said. "Out of all of Obama's stimulus initiatives, this by far has been the most successful.

"This beats giving (billions) to AIG. At least you can pinpoint where this money went," he said. "They put the money in the hands of consumers rather than an advisory board for a lending institution. "

 

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