Cash for clunkers question..........

[Harry P.]

Well we've come a long way from banks being forced to make risky loans, haven't we?

Yeah, "forced" was clearly the wrong word. Should have said "encouraged" or "allowed." You got me there.

But the bottom line is still that the whole mess couldn't have happened without the government allowing it to happen.

[BigPoppa]

Stealing is stealing, no matter where you park it.

And on a side note, last week I parked my faithful little Saturn and picked up a 2001 Lincoln Towncar. Me and my kids (who barely fit anymore) got sick of that little box.

[Eshaver]

I dunno , I'm torn here .......... I probably would have gone to the guy and offered my bent tail gate in exchange for the salvageable one. Had he been a Dork about it , I wouldda ripped it off first chance I had ! Hey bein truthful folks ! Ed Shaver

[Dave]

OK here, let me go ahead and throw my two sense in about some of this. I think dealers/lenders etc were pretty cautious about giving loans during all this. I know two people who were turned downed by several places for a new auto loan. They had qualifying "Clunkers" but still could not get financed. I know them both pretty well as far as their hard working people with relatively secure jobs at this time. I know, I know, anyone can wake up tomorrow and be out of work, but these folks are in pretty solid with their respective employers...anyway.....I suspect some of the recent purchases will default, but I bet no more than if they had all been regular sales with out special incentives, it's just the nature of car sales, there will always be repo's.OK now everyone please go build, paint, glue, strip, groke something rather than than i my opinion, make wacky comments about things none of really understand completely!

[Modelmartin]

Yeah, "forced" was clearly the wrong word. Should have said "encouraged" or "allowed." You got me there.

But the bottom line is still that the whole mess couldn't have happened without the government allowing it to happen.

But who was lobbying for deregulation for years and spending hundreds of millions of dollars made off of your money(deposits and fees) to get their industry deregulated? You make it sound like the Government was an irresponsible parent who wasn't minding the kids when they went and robbed a liquor store! There is a bit of truth in that but it was more like 70 year old parents and 50 year old kids!!

I agree that the banking industry(and many others, too) should not have been deregulated. Historically, greed has always done in people no matter when, where and how and the greater the potential pile of loot the more audacious the scope and plan.

We sure went on a tangent on this one! As far as the tailgate goes, I would say ask first and respect the wishes of the owner of the clunker whether it is still in the owner's or dealer's hands. As someone said, it does not belong to the "Gummint".

[Lownslow]

Rob, did you know that when you traded your "clunker" in for that sweet cash break towards the new car that in the fine print you also signed an agreeement that the government has complete access to your personal computer? if that computer is a "shared" computer you also gave the government access to whomever else uses that computer. no delusions, that's for real.

Dave

you should switch to watercolor paint and blue tube glue for a while

[Shadow14]

There seems to be some misinformation as to what happens to these cars as I was at the junkyard today and they have an abundance of them out in the yard and many already had parts pulled off of them. The engines had day-glo green paint sprayed on them and there was a paper stating that a silica solution had been put in the engine to render it useless. Otherwise they were fair game for strip down so they are not going directly to be crushed.

So it is the same as any other tradein that the dealer would choose to dump. I dubt that you could consider them "govmint popity" either. However it would be prperty of the dealer therfore taking any pats off it would be stealing just as if it was any other tradein.

Rick W.