"Cash for Clunkers" Not much time left!

[soletek]

Time on this is very short and I haven't seen this posted on Gassavers and it's very, very, important.
Please read to the bottom. I have a car club that keeps me up to date, but this was sent by Summit Racing. The talking points are most important. Please save the specialty car industry from destruction. Gassavers would have no place to get their resto parts if people crush the cars for a tiny cash payment. After market is a multibillion dollar industry -- taxed, employs many, is national and international, pays into social security, medicare, unemployment, etc. Their plan is very ill-advised, in my opinion.

--- On Wed, 12/31/08, Summit Racing <News@SummitRacing.com> wrote:

From: Summit Racing <News@SummitRacing.com>
Subject: Legislative Alert from Summit Racing
To: Soletek
Date: Wednesday, December 31, 2008, 9:50 AM

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Dear Fellow Enthusiast,

As a SEMA Member Company, we have received an Urgent Legislative Action Alert from the association. You may be interested in this legislative alert and the possible impact it will have on your hobby.

The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) is a non-profit trade association composed of more than 6,800 member companies involved in all aspects of the automotive industry, from manufacturers to car clubs and race teams.

The SEMA Action Network (SAN) protects your hobby from unfair or unnecessary legislation on national and local levels. Through distribution of information and the collective voice of automotive enthusiasts and businesses, the SEMA Action Network has successfully impacted legislation concerning scrappage laws, equipment standards, registration classifications, emissions regulations, and more.

The following information is directly from SEMA. If you would like to contact the lawmaker, follow the instructions in the alert.


Thank you for your time,
Your Friends at Summit Racing Equipment


Washington lawmakers are drafting a large economic stimulus package to help create jobs and rebuild infrastructure. They want to include a nationwide scrappage program which would give U.S. tax dollars to consumers who turn-in older cars to have them crushed, as a misguided attempt to spur new car sales. The lawmakers need to scrap this idea.

The stimulus package is being drafted right now. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wants to introduce the bill on January 6 and have it approved by Congress by January 20, so that President Obama can sign it into law after he is inaugurated.

Contact House Speaker Nancy Pelosi IMMEDIATELY To Oppose Cash for Clunkers!
Call: 202-225-0100
Click here to send an electronic message: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/ Talking Points
Feel free to use any of the statements below as a starting point for your message to Speaker Pelosi.
I am [calling/writing] to urge lawmakers not to include a ?Cash for Clunkers? provision in the economic stimulus bill. Owners who turn in vehicles for crushing would receive a "minimal" payment to purchase a new car. This is a misguided attempt to spur car sales and claim that the country?s air quality or fleet fuel mileage is being improved.


I work for [company name] located in [city and state]. My company is part of the specialty automotive industry, an industry which enables consumers to enhance their vehicle?s appearance, performance, comfort, convenience and safety. ?Cash for Clunkers? programs deny our small businesses the availability of older cars necessary to develop and market their products and services. The programs will hurt my company and our customers.


?Cash for Clunkers? programs threaten enthusiasts nationwide with the loss of valuable parts and parts-cars for repair, restoration, and customization projects. The programs also risk destroying classic, historic and special-interest vehicles, our American heritage.


Cars turned in for scrappage often barely run, or are rarely-driven second or third vehicles that have a minimal impact on overall fuel economy or emissions.


?Cash for Clunkers? programs will reduce the availability of affordable transportation and repair parts used by low-income drivers. It will also compete with the Salvation Army, the Purple Heart and other charities that rely on vehicle donations to raise money.


?Cash for Clunkers? ignores better policy options. If Congress wants to act, support for repair and upgrade is a better choice and a win-win for consumers, dealers, manufacturers and repair shops. Significant emissions and fuel economy improvements can be achieved in older vehicles through relatively simple and inexpensive means: repaired/replaced exhaust systems, tune-ups, etc.


We hope we can count on you to reject ?Cash for Clunkers.? Thank you for your consideration on this very important matter.
If you choose to send a message to Speaker Pelosi, please send a copy of your message to SEMA also:
E-mail: briand@sema.org
Fax: 202/783-6024

[theholycow]

I had to google it to learn more...
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/business/27view.html

Interesting. It would have a lot of effects besides the one in question...some good, some bad. The cost would definitely be a bad effect, and is enough to place me squarely against it.

It sounds like it would affect FE cars the most; they would be most likely to meet all the criteria, and lots of people are probably stuck with them and want to get rid of them (after having bought them at inflated prices despite not liking them).

[bowtieguy]

if stetch pelosi supports it, it MUST be scrutinized.

[suspendedhatch]

Isn't this one of those internet myths? I've seen this several times before, as early as 2000, although w/out "cash for clunkers" and Nancy Pelosi.

I wouldn't think that old Japanese cars would be at risk as much as the big old domestics. You know, the ones that don't have a hundredth digit on the odometer?

I know that there's a similar program for cars that fail smog. It's actually a great program. My aunt got rid of her piece of crap. My father in law can't wait for his car to fail.

[Jay2TheRescue]

For that matter, couldn't you make a car fail, if you wanted it to? Widening up the plug gap on a few cylinders should do it...

[dkjones96]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

For that matter, couldn't you make a car fail, if you wanted it to? Widening up the plug gap on a few cylinders should do it...

That right there is why this program, like all of the other social programs, will fail. They mean it for those that seriously can't afford to get a better vehicle but you'll have these others come in and sabotage their own ride so they can get the cash for something newer. Harris county is or was doing pretty much the same thing, if you failed emissions and it cost more than the car was worth to repair it to meet emissions standards they gave you a $3,000 voucher to buy something newer.

It's also like the social health care that Hawaii tried to have for children. Once they got the free program in for kids who aren't covered, the parents of kids that could afford it started dropping the coverage so they could latch on to the free program.

[Ford Man]

I'm not for the program, but it would be a nice way to get rid of a car that was no longer worth fixing and make a profit. Makes me wonder what I could get for my '88 Escort with 486K miles. I could probably come out pretty good on this deal considering I bought the car for $500. have driven it 15 years and 340K miles and could sell it for 20% more than current book value. I'd never let it go though unless something major happened to it. I think it is still valued at more than I gave for it on my property taxes. I'll soon be getting my property tax statement on it I'll have to look and see what they have it valued at when I get it.

[DRW]

In my area some junkyards will pay a few hundred for old cars, and they'll tow it away.

I think the NYTimes article is exaggerating quite a bit. If the gov't pays up to $3500 for old cars, like the article says, then that'll remove a huge source of cheap transportation for the poor working class. After all, what's the incentive to sell an old car for less than $3500 if the gov't will pay up? I did a quick search on Craigslist for cars priced from $1500 to $3500, and there's a lot of decent cars in that price range, and many are newer than ten years old. I hope they don't start a program that removes this valuable resource. Do they expect us to rely solely on public transportation?

[Nrggeek]

This is not a very good idea. I agree with Steve:

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.co...-for-clunkers/

If you want to reduce our dependence on (foreign) oil, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, stimulate sales of fuel efficient vehicles and raise funds for highway infrastructure - increase gas taxes!

A carbon tax system that includes gasoline sales would be even better.

Bill

[bowtieguy]

we must consider the poor and those w/out mass transit before raising the gas tax and/or creating a carbon tax.