Cash for Clunkers - AU Version

[C_Fernance]

Julia Gillard announces a $2000 rebate on a new car for trading in your pre '95 fuel guzzler - which goes straight to the crusher.

http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/gi ... 5896387231

[drsigma]

That does suck ass but she wont get my GE! Plus mine will a bit greener once its on straight gas. :-)

[shuggy]

ok so in a space of ten years, my 1.6l fuel guzzler might put out an extra tonne of exhaust gas than the new car.. but thats not ok coz its not like it takes 5 tonne of pollution to make a car? ha

[woops]

The amount of emissions created with the production of a new car is massive compared to the pollution created from an older vehicle. I can see sigma's and galants becoming almost extinct because their value is small and people will buy them for a small amount and then get a new car with a discount off their new car. Maybe we will have to try and buy up all the models which come onto the market just to save them from the crushers.

[Cottees]

I just hope that places like U-Pull-It don't have to be closed down if more people sell their cars to this scheme than sell them to wreckers. I don't want to make it sound like our cars are worthless, but most people that have them would have them since they wouldn't be able to afford a new car. So even $2k off a new car would still not make it any more affordable. Then there is the other end of it. There is the rarer versions of our cars that are worth more than $2k. And there is many people here that put way more than $2k into their cars. It would be good to get crap smoke blowing rust buckets off the road, but I remember hearing or reading that other schemes like this would only accept road worthy cars.

[C_Fernance]

It's not like our cars are massive fuel guzzlers when running well anyway. I'm getting around 9-10 Litres per 100km. Even better on the freeway. I recently did a 250km round trip towing a trailer and used just over $30 of petrol. Thats better then a lot of newer cars - especially 4wds.

[tandanus]

Bad time to buy a new car - guaranteed the price just went up $2000
T.

[oldn64]

Keep in perspective this has come from a PM which was not elected, is trying to get enough votes to be elected and the scheme is VOLUNTRY. Plus to get teh $2000 you need to purchase an approved new car. Sorry but Abbott and Gillard have no clue, and if they could get their heads out of their arse long enough to look around they might actually do something for the country... EPIC FAIL!

Just quietly, how does this scheme cut emissions when she gets driven around in Statesman, and flys in a jet to home and back? How much damage are our cars doing.... get real.

GRRRRRR

Maybe the solution is for them to get paid the same wage as what the "average" is and then start to fix the country. might find that real issues get resolved.

Cheers

PS: Off soap box now.....

[metaldrift]

lol, 1999 model 4cyl ute I drove 240kms drank $90 of fuel, 65ltr.
I love there approved cars, toyota prius

[75wagon]

There are plus's and minus's for this policy.
Here is the biggest minus I can see, no one will want to sell old cars for less then $2000.

I can just imagine the line if this comes in
buyer: So are you negotiable on price?
seller: Well, it's like this, I will sell it to you for $2000 or I'll sell it to the scrapper for $2000. So if you don't pay $2000 then it looks like the scrapper is going to outbid you.

On the bright side if you want to sell your old car at least you will get $2000 for it

[DVSGAL]

I laughed so hard watching this on TV, why would people want to scrap a car for $2000, most people who drive these old cars are low income earners, which means they need to come up with another $15000 to buy a new car, like anyone has this kind of money sitting around. Plus, I thought thats why they have the LPG scheme, to convert from petrol to gas?? and now they want us to scrap the cars?? what a waste of money!

[shuggy]

this reminds me of when i drove my dads F250 7.3L Turbo Diesel to gerlaton (4 hours north). 850km round trip, 310 bucks fuel. needless to say i took the capri next time..

[toruhiwi]

Another Labor spending spree.......................

[81GL]

why would people want to scrap a car for $2000, most people who drive these old cars are low income earners, which means they need to come up with another $15000 to buy a new car

Exactly what i was thinking... this scheme (...or should that be scam?) is just a straight out laugh.
-Makes you wonder if they thought it through, or 15min before a press release they figured "that should make everyone love us again"

Hope labour has their bags packed, not that abbott is a winner, more like damage control

[A112H]

I think the whole swap over from Rudd to Gillard just signed the deal for Abbott. The fact that she was not elected means she is heading into an election with no idea what people think of her.
I do not see what Rudd did so wrong? If nothing else he oversaw us through the GFC and we came out of it miles ahead of most of Europe, the UK and the US. I think that alone should have secured his seat. Gillard is a sneaky little snake and can not be trusted ............ IMHO

Oh the car thing, lol. Yeah I would buy a shitter to trade and sell my car privately, dealers offer shit trade in prices. I can't see the whole thing working though, have they never heard of a second hand dealer?? Where is he gunna get his cars from if everything traded that is more than 15 years old is crushed?
As far as I can see this has more to do with saving Holden's from going down Mitsubishi's path than it does about being green Even Ford are importing the Taurus as their next gen Family car and binning the Falcon http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/taurus/
I don't think it will be too far away for the Commodore and GMH will bring in Impala's http://www.chevrolet.com/impala/

[shuggy]

there is just something about gillard that gives her the villain look out of a movie. like she is going to turn out society into a communism!

[TVM006]

This country has become a joke.

I am so ashamed...

[ddt]

i think u guys are right- there wouldn't be many people driving these 'clunkers' who would be in the market for a new car.

However, what could happen is somebody who wants a new car AND wants a $2k discount will go and buy the cheapest car they can find and send that to the crusher. That would probably be the biggest risk to the type of cars on this site. Sigmas especially seem to change hands very cheaply.

[woops]

I don't think we will have too much of a problem with that. One of the other news articles i saw said that you had to have to have owned the car for over 2 years so the only problem we would have is if people are looking to upgrade to a new car and have an old car that they are driving about. The thing i have noticed though driving through peak hour this morning in traffic is that most cars on the road are newer than 15 years so the total pollution generated would remain unchanged from the current levels as most older cars are driven short distances as run abouts. Hopefully the government has the policy where the clunkers aren't actually crushed and are instead able to be sold to the wreckers and have their vin number put on a register making them be unable to be reregistered and only used for parts something like the register for statutory write off vehicles.

Additionally in my opinion there will be few people who would be in a position to accept this 2000 dollar discount apart from say university graduates or apprentices who have become qualified and were driving about in old run about and can now afford to purchase a new vehicle. There might be the occasional elderly person who may be under the misguided perception that this is a viable option and have been saving for a long time to upgrade their car. Tradies in their utes would be stupid to do this as pretty much all utes are worth more than 2 grand.

I actually did a few calculations on my current fuel usage and kays driven and found my feul economy was about 8.5 KM/L or 11.7L/100km. Keep in mind I’ve got a stock GB 1.6 auto which needs a little tune so fuel economy isn't too great. Could chuck a manual in it to save more on fuel but i'd prefer to keep it stock. With my hour long 35km drive just to get to work each day if i went to a newer car getting say 13km/L or 7.5L/100km I would save about $1000 bucks a year. Then i take a look at the cost of even a newer second hand car and i would have to fork out the purchase price of say 4 grand for a pretty fuel economical 10 year old car. With depreciation that car would be prob only worth 2 grand in say 4 years, then there is the additional costs of maintenance which I fully believe it is much more expensive to maintain a modern car as more things tend to go wrong and cost of repairing these things is more expensive. Not to mention the increased complexity makes it much more difficult for the average home handyman to complete maintenance and repairs too. Additionally there is much less interchangeability of parts between the many models out there so supply of second hand parts isn't so available without chasing about the place.

If i stay with my galant i have a car i can complete all the maintenance on, can tune and repair with only basic tools and not require a diagnostic computer to tell me the throttle sensor isn't reading correctly and if I have any engine or gearbox problems I have the ability to either rebuild it or select another replacement engine from the large Mitsubishi range from the 70's to early 90's even if I wanted too. I was able to rebuild the entire front suspension bushes and tie rods including a brand new drag link for a total of about $600. The only problem I’ve ever had is trying to find a replacement rear drum.

Hmmm now lets see what my options are, drive a classic car that i love driving or drive a numb boring modern car to work. The financial viability just isn’t worth it for me. The only time I will start driving a more modern vehicle is to save my galant from the perils of peak hour traffic and the wanker luxury 4WD’s and typical bloody commodores and keep it for weekend drives when I start earning some more money. The government will never get my galant for the furthering of their apparent green public image.

[stealth]

put it this way if labor get in again im packing up the bussiness and moving to the states
these clowns dont know there arses from there elbow (bit like a few members here)
cheers stealth

[A112H]

^^ Can I come?

[GC75]

so your packing up stealths performance warehouse hahaha

[amgis_obrut]

put it this way if labor get in again im packing up the bussiness and moving to the states
these clowns dont know there arses from there elbow (bit like a few members here)
cheers stealth

OH NO so your gonna roll up your SPW banner ??

you could ask steve at rdp for a job you two would get along like Khnumhotep and Niankhkhnum

[karl_2ltgc]

Its an economic policy designed to boost car industry and jobs. Has nothin to do with environment.