Where did this come from?

[DURHAM D]

Yesterday I had a meeting with a bunch of older women. One of them said she was helping her grandson financially because he needed to buy a new used car. The front end was shot in his old one.

She was complaining that there are no good used cars available at a reasonable price.

Then she said that the reason there are no decent used cars is because -

Obama ordered all the used cars to be crushed.

Some of the other women nodded their heads in agreement.

Where did this come from?

[underpants]

1. The junk car buy back

It was a boon for middle and upper families getting a car for their kids. First cars or going to college cars. As usual it hit the lower incomers harder

It actually achieved its goal regardless of what the media tries to tell you. It also opened up the person to person market. Craigslist etc. Riskier than even a roadside utility shed type dealership but some good deals are available.

[rzemanfl]

2. Right. I can't remember exactly what it was called. n/t

[Anon-C]

4. Cash for Clunkers.

[rzemanfl]

6. Thank you! My senior brain could not pull it up. n/t

[mercuryblues]

18. Cash for clunkers

It was a car buyback program. The clunkers had to have certain criteria to qualify for the buyback. Low gas mileage being the main focus. It qualified a buyer of a new car a higher trade in value. The cars had to be traded in at the dealership for a new car.

This was a program that ended over 10 years ago. The cars hitting the market now would be those cars bought new under the program.

Any thoughts on how massive flooding all over the US in the past 10 years have affected the resale market?

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/29/a-half-million-flooded-cars-and-trucks-could-be-scrapped.html

this article estimates that 500,000 cars may be scrapped because of Hurricane Harvey alone. Pushing the value of used cars up because of the low supply, high demand.

[Fla_Democrat]

3. Engine disablement and scrappage criteria

Engine disablement and scrappage criteria

To ensure that vehicles traded-in under "cash for clunkers" will not be resold by dealers, the program outlines a procedure for destructively disabling the engine (and thus also precluding the possibility that any mechanical engine components might be salvaged to be used in the repair of any other vehicles): the motor oil is drained and replaced with a sodium silicate solution, then the engine is started and run until the solution, becoming glass-like when heated, causes engine internals to abrade and ultimately seize.[25] In addition, the salvage or scrap facility which acquires the vehicle cannot sell the engine, cylinder heads or a "rolling chassis" from the scrap vehicle. The salvage or scrap facility can sell any other component (including the transmission and axles) from the scrap vehicle separately and may dismantle and warehouse the parts. The "hull" of the vehicle must be crushed within 180 days. Cut off or unbolted front-end assemblies may be saved and sold at a later date, as well as the "top and back" of pickup cabs.




Auto recyclers and dismantlers have criticized the program due to requirements that the engine is to be disabled to prevent re-use of the car. To auto recyclers, a car's engine is considered to be the most valuable part of a junked car. Some recyclers refused to participate in the program, as well, due to the limited profit potential of junking a vehicle brought in under CARS.[27]



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System#Engine_disablement_and_scrappage_criteria

[underpants]

5. Good info

Yeah the engine is a big part (most?) of the weight.

[DURHAM D]

7. Thank you.

I forgot about the Cash for Clunkers program.

[TwilightZone]

8. It wasn't all used cars and it wasn't "ordered" by Obama.

It was voluntary and intended to replace older, less fuel-efficient cars with newer, more fuel-efficient ones.

Here's info and an analysis from 2010 in the early days of the program:

https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2010/04/05/did-cash-clunkers-work-intended

[DURHAM D]

12. Thank you for the link. nt

[dalton99a]

17. +1

[dawg]

9. It comes from the fact that your friend and her grandson are both too broke ...

to afford a decent used car in the so-called "greatest" economy of all time.

(And she wants to blame the black guy.)

[marble falls]

14. bingo!

[Igel]

20. Yeah, people like to blame those outside their clan for anything they can.

At the same time, my observation is that cars are lasting longer and given the fact that there's been relative higher income for a number of years, reaching lower in the food chain, there's just more demand for the used cars that are on the market.

No need to invoke special pleading on either side when the usual market forces account for the data just fine.

[musette_sf]

23. Yep.

And a 10 year old car that cost $35K new isn't going to be a $2K car today.

(I'm happily driving my 18 year old Volvo, which I intend to curate for as long as possible. It's refreshingly nagware free.)

[klook]

28. Nice - 2 colorful terms here.

I like the idea of “curating” a car. I curated a Honda Accord wagon for 16 years before passing it along to my son, and he drove it for another couple of years before it finally gave up the ghost. I’m in the process of curating a several-years-old Subaru Outback now.


And “nagware free” unfortunately doesn’t describe the newer cars with the safety features that us oldsters increasingly could benefit from. I plan to get around more via public transportation and Lyft in my dotage.

[pstokely]

24. they may last longer

but they have some much tech in them they become obsolete sooner

[LenaBaby61]

27. Probably THIS 👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻👆🏻

[Recursion]

10. Cash for clunkers

It was a rather popular program in its day

[lark]

11. Total BS.

My husband buys old used cars, fixes them up and sells them. He gets cars for all our family and all of them are used and most of them end up being great cars. It's amazing how little you really have to pay if you are willing to spend the time in researching.

[badhair77]

13. We were trying to help our son buy a car back then and Cash for Clunkers

took a lot of used cars off the market so prices became more competitive. This summer he needed another car and good used ones are expensive in our area. So we sold him mine and I bought a new one. For us it’s a matter of sleeping peacefully and he’s not in a real clunker. We are fortunate to be able to do it but we’ve always lived well under our means and saved. At our age and with health issues we’re not in any shape to go rescue him. He returns the favor by helping us a lot.

[DURHAM D]

15. Glad you can help each other out.

Family is everything.

[badhair77]

16. Absolutely. We've been on his end and my in-laws helped us.

Once you cannot pay your bills, even though you were careful, and not because of something you’ve done, you go into super saver mode when better days come.

[Ms. Toad]

19. We've bought three very reasonably priced good used cars in the last 3-4 years. N/t

[wishstar]

21. The Cash for Clunkers program ended in August 2009

and its true that those gas guzzler trade-ins were demolished. However the program was very brief and ended in Obama's first year so no, he did not order all the used cars to be crushed, but those clunker trade-ins were crushed. The program not only took old gas guzzlers off the road but it revived our car industry that was struggling in the recession and dealers were having trouble selling new vehicles.

[lame54]

22. Cash for clunkers

[MagickMuffin]

25. Did you ask them that question?

I know it can be difficult asking these questions being around people that might be different from your point of view.

[Hoyt]

26. Same stupid white wingers who think Obama should have stopped 9/11.

[Initech]

29. Just show them the Volkswagen junkyard in Victorville.

Nothing but bought back cars as far as the eye can see.

[doc03]

30. The cash for clunkers was 10 years ago and the cars crushed were CLUNKERS ten years

ago, none of them would even be drive-able today. I forget all the criteria but they had to be gas guzzlers of a certain MPG range, so many years old and they had to move under their own power. I remember I would see them parked in the back of new car dealers
lots. Those cars looked like something you would see on blocks out behind a barn some place. The damn Trump people will blame Obama if we have a terrorist attack like 911 next week. It helped us get out of the Great Recession it gave people a little extra money to buy
a car that the manufacturers couldn't sell it helped save the auto industry and jobs. They raised hell about the Stimulus Plan
and Republicans in some states made them take signs down stating the work done was under the Recovery Act. He saved GM and to this day some Republicans won't buy a car from GM they call it Government Motors. I remember a local asphalt contractor I know had absolutely
zero contracts and he was able to keep his people working doing Stimulus Plan work. He is a Republican and Obama saved his sorry ass but he hates him. If it wasn't for Obama he would have gone bankrupt but he sold his business for $10 million a couple years later.