Comments on: Tell Us Your Cash for Clunkers Story

By: Jessica

Jessica — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 06:24:52 +0000

I think it was a great program! I personally drive a lexus but a friend of mine has a car dealership. He let me blow some of the engines. It was wicked fun! We didn\’t even put the liquid glass in some of them, just let me rev the living tar out of them until they gave up. One old man turned in a 1978 ford truck. It had over 400,000 miles on it. He had it since brand new. He turned it in and then hung around. I didn\’t know he was the owner, I just picked this truck out and beat it around the back lot and field for about an hour, then parked it and put a brick on the gas pedal and popped the hood. We stood there and watching it rev its guts out until it blew. He watched me laughing at it and beating it. He was actually tearing up! LOL Oh well it was so much fun!

By: T Johns

T Johns — Sun, 30 May 2010 14:31:07 +0000

I thought the cash for clunkers program was a good idea that was not well thought out. I am a policeman in a large suburb of Chicago. We drive Ford Crown Vics. This is the last year for them and we are probably replacing them with either Impalas or the anticipated new Caprices.
During my patrols at night I checked out the vehicles being turned in for the program. The majority of the vehicles appeared to be at the foreign dealer lots. The local toyota dealer had several hunfred vehicles. I saw many vehicles that looked nearly new, with very low miles. I also saw rusted out hulks and vehicles that needed to be taken off the road.
I am irked that this program was extended to cover people that wanted to buy foreign car. While it may be true that many of these companies assemble their vehicles here in the US and by extension employ American workers, our Tax money is sent overseas. I’m also sad that perfectly good vehicles were crushed and not salvaged.
One side note: One night I heard the sound of squealing tires and could smell the smell of burning rubber. Thinking I had some drag racing vehicles in the area I went to the apparent source to investigate. I found the service guys from the local Honda dealer “killing cars”. They explained that they drained the eoil from the vehicles, cut off the catalytic converters and then drove the vehicles to a remote lot where the would add the “Liquid glass” to the engine and let it die there to await the tow to the junkyard. They said that they revved the engines up until they seized. That was there explanation for the motor sounds that I heard. But when I asked them about the rubber smell. They looked guilty and sheepish and pointed to tire tracks on the ground. They said that most of the time the vehicles die immediately when they bring them to the lot. They demonstrated on a Cadillac. It died within seconds of being injected with the silacate. They said that they had a vehicle which refused to die and showed it to me. It was a 2000 Jeep Cherokee with the inline six and over 250,000 miles. They said that they drained the oil and drove it to the lot. They added the silicate and the vehicle seemd to get more power. They added another container of the stuff and began to do donuts and burnouts with the Jeep. They showed me that it was quite a distance away from the other vehicles. They said that it finally died when they started doing burnouts in four wheel drive. They said that that was the third Jeep that they had that refused to die.
I am sad that Ford is getting rid of the Crown Vic. They are great as Police cars. The back seat has been one of the best for ease of getting people in and out of it. The replacement vehicles i.e. the Chevy and the new Taurus will not be as good.

By: Jennifer Bergerson

Jennifer Bergerson — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 22:06:48 +0000

Well here is my cash for clunker story.
On the back window on my 1995 Ford Ranger XLT with 257 000 miles it reads ” The us can keep their cash, I am happy with my CLUNKER!”

after all why fix something that ain’t broke. Chevy should have learned that when they scrapped The S10.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:58:53 +0000

And we MUST RELY on the government to stimulate the economy with a program that was actually written by Van Jones… “Hybrids for Hoopties” Hard of it? Probably not.

Why do people (just some of them) keep refering to this program as NEEDED? Did we really NEED the government to step in and spend more of OUR money? It’s not Government money, it’s YOUR money… Don’t you get it?

Get the government out of the way for innovation. Hey FORD, how many regulations could you do without from the federal government? And No, I’m not talking about safety regulations… I’m talking about the ones that limit your true potential. Do you like being steered by the feds and told what you have to produce? Why don’t you stand up for something and get off the “Climate” crap they pushing and develop some vehicles that people want.

Taken from your web site…
* Ford executive Sue Cischke cites need for continued cooperation between the automotive industry and the federal government in pursuit of greener transportation vision, noting the significant role of government in shaping the transportation fleet of the future

“The Significant role of government in SHAPING the transportation!!!???!!!” Say What?! Is that what Henry Ford was thinking when he started the company?? Don’t think so. Unless you plan on working in a socialist-progressive country and getting rid of capitalism. Since when do American’s think the government should SHAPE an industry?
And beware… the American people are on to this ideaology and they won’t stand for it. Good luck!

By: neil a

neil a — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:25:33 +0000

jesse I agree also the program should have specified domestics only the japanese got rich on tax payer money I would never turn my F150 in for anything

By: Rob Mullins

Rob Mullins — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 14:04:18 +0000

First of all i am one of those folks that have always believed that buying a slightly used car makes more sense then purchasing a new one. I have never owned or planned on owning a new car until C.F.C came along. I had a 91′ Dodge Caravan with 208,000 miles on it. The minivan had alot of problems but was still running. One of the major problems i had was trying to replace one of the radiator cooling motors/support bracket… i tryed to get a replacement at about five junk yards but was unable to find one . As a result the engine would overheat while idleing for a short time. My replacement for this clunker was a cool Escape which my family and i love and gets about 10 per gallon better gas mileage. In my mind the program was a great idea and did help get the economy back up and running.Shortly after i bought the Escape my brother was called back to the steelmill he works at because steel orders from the auto companies had started to deplete current stocks…

By: James Holden Jr

James Holden Jr — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:06:39 +0000

I own a 95 Ford Explorer XLT automatic 4×4 which had 167,00 miles on the original engine. Due to mistake I made trying to install fresh antifreeze, the block froze last Dec and I had to replace the engine. This original engine got 28 miles per gallon on the road until I replaced the $28.00 air filter which decreased my 28 MPG to 25MPG. Thanks to CASH FOR CLUNKERS, it took 8 months before I was able to located an engine for my vehicles and I am sure it is no ways as good as the original. Cash for Clunkers was for the well-to-do, not us (retired/social security) fixed-income poor people.

By: Joe Norman,Jr.

Joe Norman,Jr. — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:40:37 +0000

I have a 1996 Ford F150 XL 4.0 Liter 300 Engine with 310,124 miles bad on gas 15 miles to a gallon but good on engine oil and I wonder why have I have not gotten an notice from the Governor about CASH FOR CLUNKER AUTOMOBILES also I have an 1985 Chevelet S10 4X4 with a 3.8 Liter engine V-6 128,648 miles on it bad on gas 12 miles to a gallon and have an oil leak aswell also, I have a 1995 Ford Thunderbird LX 4.6 Liter V-8 with 114,794 miles on it not so bad on gas 18 miles to a gallon but engine oil perssure drop at time and the engine knock.

By: Mr Wilson

Mr Wilson — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 13:16:00 +0000

I was ready to pull the trigger on a new Ford Fusion Hybrid when I brought in my 1984 Chevrolet 3/4 ton 4WD pickup w/155000 miles. Turns out it was 6 months too old for the program. So I still have a gas guzzling, smog spewing (no catalytic converter), vehicle on the road getting 10mpg till I put it in 4WD then it gets 6! Great program. Thank you to the Antique Automobile Association for the 25 year rule, you can write me a check for the $4500 anytime. I think I make a couple laps in 4WD today just to mess with the Greenies.

By: lawrence gauthier

lawrence gauthier — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 10:04:42 +0000

I too could not take advantage of this program. I drive a 1986 ford tarus which is not realy
fit for the road. My tarus didn;t fit the requerments either as the mpg was to high. It killed me to see
all the good cars that were scraped any one of them were better than mine. it would have been nice
if the goverment had let prople like me who can;t afford a new car to buy one at a low price. I was
brought up that its wrong to toss good cars away. I also own a 1977 Lincon that gets 10 mpg. Its my
sunday car it only has 60.000 miles on it that also would not have been inclued in the program.
I never would have never would have traded to the crusher even if i had the money to
to do so. These large cars of the 50s/ 60s/ 70s are clasics. Ford cars and trucks run a long time,they
don;t desirve crushing. Does anybody stop to think if they had a good runing car geting 16 mpg when
you add in the payments and and higher insurance for a new car or truck how much money did they
really save in gas cost?