When I junked my 1995 Escort in 2020, it was only on LKQ's website for a month.
Crushing 2,000 old cars, NO!
- Thread starter WobblyElvis
- Start date
Most of my friends who took advantage of those programs were sending in defective cars like vans with slipping transmission, blown head gasket (that pass inspection with a bottle of stop leak), crashed cars, etc. That probably took out most of the Taurus and Caravans with slipping transmissions in one shot.
I am sure that was plenty of them also, but I know of a lot of good ones that went too. Usually people with slipping transmissions and blown head gaskets don't keep those cars just sitting around - so it would really have had to be timely happenstance for those ones.
I think their "turnover rate" depends on how quickly they get more cars in to replace the ones that are already there. If the cars sit there for six months or a year or more, it's probably because they haven't got much fresh stock coming in.
During the pandemic it definately slowed down.
LKQ lists all there inventory online. These are the oldest two on the local lot here - 6 weeks?
I always found it interesting that they never ask checking out what car the parts are from. You would think they would want to track which cars get the most interest and keep those longer? Too sophisticated I guess.
True. Also what is considered not worth keeping vs what is a classic really depends on when.
A CRX back in the late 90s would be considered not worth keeping if it is really old, like 250k miles. Today people see a shell would still try to restore it because they were a mythical animal from before they were born. You have to look at back in the 08 whether a worn out Taurus SHO was worth saving, or was it really a future classic if they park it for 20 more years.
Also back then people would assume cars will get better and better, instead of just bigger and less reliable.
How many labor hours you put in vs how many they will get back? I am sure if you want no child left behind, a carpet sweep would cost a lot, and even if you find a golden child someone will still lowball you.
Not that it is impossible to happen, just that if they have a mechanism to hold for 2 weeks, classic car collectors would have found it and rescue it already, unless it is not profitable to do so (like trying to spend $2k to rescue a $3k car).
I junked a 91 Escort awhile ago. The guy in the parking lot of Pick N Pull really wants to buy it to flip. It drove, it bounce, AC doesn't work, it rust a bit, it is sorta fun like you can do BMX without worrying about the car get damaged kind of fun.
The guy got all excited and wanted to buy it for $400. I told them the powerplant is paying me $1000. He said they are crazy and I shouldn't trash a $400 just to make $600 more. They were only worth $400 because the valve seat can drop any moment, and the struts were shot, the AC doesn't work, and the CEL would go on if I didn't spend 5 hours chasing down all the broken spark plug wires and dirty MAF sensor. Heck even the power plant wouldn't want to buy it if I didn't spend that 5 hours.
Cash for clunker may not be the best policy, but between a lot of political priority, and recycling old cars for new cars, this is not the worst policy despite it not being the best. It is between a new Fusion in the world while crushing an old Taurus while keeping people employed, instead of paying them unemployment sitting at home, vs halting the production of a Fusion while keeping a worn out Taurus, and paying everyone to sit at home and the bank to not foreclose some homes, would have been worse.
You can say "if everyone do the right thing the world would be a better place", but there is never a time in history when "everyone do the right thing".
Well the man hours is up front in the system, and I assume they already have an inventory system. However your now relying between the customer and there low level employee to enter the data correctly, which is likely where it fails anyway.
They could have accomplished the same thing by simply giving a $4500 tax credit for any new car, like they did with EV's - and they would still have had the good used cars available to poor folks.
It deprived low cost transportation for a lot of low income people. It was flawed because your buddies got $4500 for there clapped out blown head gasket van, and my neighbors got about what they could have gotten on Craigslist for a working person to get to work, but they didn't want to bother with Craigslist. It picked one set of winners over another set. It was terrible policy because it raised used car prices for years. It was bad policy because the government was manipulating what was otherwise a perfectly functioning free market.
I agree to some degree. I think in the back of my mind that if they don't crush clunkers, the amount they pay for the same effect could be way more than $4500, likely $5500, because the flooded supply would lead to competitions.
It is always going to be a manipulation when there is interference. The government prioritize car manufacturers and auto workers over low income folks needed transportation in this situation. This pretty much is any tariff as well, mind you. We can wrap choosing winners and losers based on whatever we pick, and it is always not going to be fair. It could be packaged as patriotism, nationalism, economic protectionism, central planning economy, fraud, financial engineering, etc etc. I have given up trying to justify it one way vs another, every politician does this everywhere in the world.
Thats all true likely but not my point. 2008 was a deflationary banking bust - ie capital destruction. Destroying a perfectly functioning car is capital destruction. They added to our problem. It the exact opposite of the economic policy we needed.
If it cost more to do the other way that would have been good. They were trying to give money away. Remember shovel ready jobs - they couldn't find any ready.
In 2020 smarter people were in charge. They simply sent money to everyone's bank account and got 9.2% inflation, on cue, by design.
As for the social economic impact on the working poor, thats the cherry on top and it upsets me to no end, because I grew up working poor and I realize how continually shafted that group gets.
Back then, Nissan had a brand new Versa for under $10k, 4 digit price on a brand new car. That, with a cash for clunkers trade, would mean you could get a brand new car for $5000
Also, the Lotus Elise was listed as a new car eligible under the program
Interesting! I never noticed they list them all in chronological order. I usually search for the model names, and ignore the rest.
A funny story: I once pulled a fuel rail from a 3.1-liter Firebird V6 (the 3.1 F-body fuel rail differs from the earlier 2.8 and later 3.4 fuel rails, and also from the 3.1 FWD fuel rails). At the checkout counter, the guy looked at it over and over, and eventually asked, is this from that Firebird? Somehow, he knew! I was amazed.
Either that, or he was watching me the whole time on a camera or something.
Interesting aside. During the first day of Cash For Clunkers the needle of cars bought barely moved.
Then the floodgates opened. Many vehicles had their prices jacked up to right close to where the subsidy no longer mattered.
Some PT Cruisers were marketed for $18k to $20k when they were really worth around $12k to $14k. The cheapies like the Nissan Versa also had their prices jacked up as well.
I actually bought a couple of the vehicles that were later found to be ineligible. One was a 1985 Lincoln Town Car with only 41k miles in excellent condition that I bought for just $700 plus a $100'ish buy fee.
I think I also got a 1988 Isuzu Trooper with 5-speed and 4WD along with a few other unloved vehicles of that time. The economy was really bad back then. I started renting many of my cars instead of financing them because no one could even afford the down payments.
Then the floodgates opened. Many vehicles had their prices jacked up to right close to where the subsidy no longer mattered.
Some PT Cruisers were marketed for $18k to $20k when they were really worth around $12k to $14k. The cheapies like the Nissan Versa also had their prices jacked up as well.
I actually bought a couple of the vehicles that were later found to be ineligible. One was a 1985 Lincoln Town Car with only 41k miles in excellent condition that I bought for just $700 plus a $100'ish buy fee.
I think I also got a 1988 Isuzu Trooper with 5-speed and 4WD along with a few other unloved vehicles of that time. The economy was really bad back then. I started renting many of my cars instead of financing them because no one could even afford the down payments.
Fixed...
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$50 site donor 2026
GON is still twisted that he didn’t save that Buick Roadmaster
4wd
$50 site donor 2026
Was it about economics or ideology?
