Cars & Bikes, Driving & Riding

[Morkle]

So finally got my wife's CX-5 back. After all said and done, Mazda and the Dealership we worked with did come through, of that $8900 quote, we only paid $2275. So, Mazda still sucks, but much more manageable.

[iamjs]

https://www.thedrive.com/news/heres-the ... r-clunkers

Thirteen years ago, Cash For Clunkers offered a unique premise. Help save a floundering domestic auto industry, inject badly needed capital into an economy ravaged by a massive recession, and replace aging guzzlers on American roads with more efficient cars. The federal scrappage scheme targeted inefficient vehicles for destruction following some basic criteria: cars younger than 25 years, with a combined miles-per-gallon figure of 18 or less, and in drivable condition. Beyond that, the cash owners received had to be put towards a new car that would be registered and insured for one continuous year after purchase.

In the end, a total of 677,081 used cars were pulled off the road. For years, rumors circulated of people trading in 1980s and 1990s exotics, luxury cars, and all manner of other future classics, but the full picture of what was lost remained cloudy. Until now—we've dug up a little-known, long-lost complete report on every car CFC destroyed. With talk of a new buyback program to push people from internal combustion to electric vehicles echoing through Washington D.C., it's the perfect time to revisit what happened the last time we cashed in our clunkers.

We found the report on a Wayback Machine archive of CARS.gov, the website of the Car Allowance Rebate System, aka Cash For Clunkers. The site has now been offline for more than five years, but the complete record of every one of the nearly 700,000 vehicles destroyed survives. While there was plenty of wailing and gnashing of teeth about CFC claiming a few exotics, that coverage wasn't based on an audited list to eliminate incorrect entries, duplicates, and other errors.

[mac5155]

That program really drove the price of demolition derby cars through the roof, especially the 98-2002 crown Victoria

[Shyster]

I recently read that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department still has over 400 Crown Vics in service. They bought and stockpiled like 600 of them for the last year of production (2011), and cars don't really rust in SoCal.

[mac5155]

I recall buying an early 80s Chrysler fifth Avenue for about $200 my senior year in high school. I had a buddy whose dad demo derbied and he welded good so we got it going. This buddy still does demo to this day and said the cars are usually $1500-2000 just a shell. No longer a fun random cheap hobby.

[tifosi77]

I recently read that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department still has over 400 Crown Vics in service. They bought and stockpiled like 600 of them for the last year of production (2011), and cars don't really rust in SoCal.

Those cars are already, what, 10+ years out of production? Instead of an actual spares pipeline they probably just scavenge parts from the surplus stock. lol

LAPD still has an improbable number of Crown Vic squad cars, too. Both departments have largely switched to Explorer SUVs, though.

[Shyster]

I wonder how sophisticated a motor shop those departments have. I recall reading in Car and Driver years ago a profile on a NYC cab company that ran the Crown Vic. It had its own shop for rebuilding engines and transmissions, and if anything went wrong they'd just swap in a new powertrain and get it back on the street. They had shelves of rebuilt engines and transmissions ready to go.

The Crown Vic used the modular V8 and the Ford AOD transmission, which were used in everything from Mustangs to F-150 trucks. I would imagine spare parts are extremely plentiful. Parts like suspension bits and the like might be harder to come by, but I bet they're still relatively easy to get, given that the Ford Panther platform was in production for like 30 years and didn't change all that much underneath.

[dodint]

The brother of a friend of mine works in U-Haul's version of that facility.

[tifosi77]

One of my uncles worked for a company in Altoona that pretty much did that (Beasley Motors, or something) as a quasi-OEM kind of deal. I'm not sure how much leeway large government agencies like that have in contracting for those services, though. That's why I was curious if they handled stuff sort of in-house.

[iamjs]

I forgot to mention the main reason why I posted that article.

Does anybody remember what dates were within the guidelines? I thought they cut it off at 1980 or 81, but I could be wrong.

[mac5155]

A quick Google search says 25 years old or newer so in 2009 thatd be 1984+ and they had to get a combined average 18mpg or less.

[AuthorTony]

I seem to have lost one of the keyfobs for my Subaru. I'm sure getting a replacement from a dealer would be stupid expensive, but what are the best alternatives? Can I trust that a fob from some weird website like generickeyscheap dot com are actually going to work?

[Kane]

Can try a locksmith that does auto work.

[RonnieFranchise]

Got a Genesis G80 for a rental (good stuff on the National aisle in Houston today) and it is the quietest ICE vehicle I’ve ever driven. You can gear the wind and road noise but the engine barely at all.

[mac5155]

My BIL just bought a Genesis also a few months ago and he loves it. Not sure the model but it's high end. Currently in the shop as his daughter backed into it and busted a headlight and fender

[Kane]

Oof.

[Kane]

A car salesmen tried to upsell me one of those Genesis cars when I was trying to buy my Elantra. Dude was clueless. I was 19yo, had no credit (had to take a shitty dealer loan with an absurd rate) and made like $13.50 an hour. I'm not buying a $60k+ car my guy.

[DigitalGypsy66]

I've heard that the Genesis has a real invisible touch when driving.

[Kane]

[DigitalGypsy66]

ty, ty.

TIL that Chevrolet made an electric S-10. About 600 were produced in 1997 and 1998, but only 60 or so were sold and the rest crushed.

They used a lead acid battery and had a range of 25-30 miles. It was based on the EV-1, the OG Chevy electric car. Evidently, the magnet chargers often overheated causing both the charger and the car to burn down. No bueno.

This guy bought one and attempts to get it to drive using marine batteries. Lots of marine batteries.

[dodint]

There was an early '80s electric Ford Escort that turned up at a salvage yard recently. Was one of these:

[NTP66]

This is the second electric Escort reference I've seen in the last week.

[dodint]

I saw it on Reddit. Have you heard of it?

[NTP66]

I saw it on Reddit. Have you heard of it?

lol, that's where I saw it, and had no idea it even existed until then. Pretty cool considering the time period.

[DigitalGypsy66]

It's almost like if they continued work on these electric vehicles 40 years ago, we'd be further along in the process. The video I linked above showed what a Tesla battery cell's size compared to the lead batteries that came with the S-10. Not only was it a fraction of the size, it gets better performance and even longer range. Imagine how far along these would be had big oil and our useless Congress not killed development.