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April 5, 2008
What’s Weak This Week: Canada Jumps on the Vehicle-Scrappage Gravy Train
By Jen Dunnaway
Editor
Not Canada! Come on, Canada? They’re supposed to be our civilizing influence to the north, that kind neighbor who politely knocks on our door with a smile when we’re partying too loud at 3 am. But now, they’re getting into the scuzzy business of senseless vehicle scrappage, all in the misguided name of environmental salvation. John Baird, the bureaucrat Canada’s put in charge of the environment, is expected to propose a $90 million windfall in federal handouts for scappage outfits with names like Bye Bye Beaters and Car Heaven, who are smacking their chops in anticipation of growing in power and ramping up their efforts to destroy our automotive heritage. Further outrage after the jump…
There are a number of problems here. First of all, vehicle scrappage does very little to save the earth. The average car produces an obscene amount pollution during its manufacture and its disposal—by some estimates, at least much as it does during a whole lifetime of driving—so wrecking serviceable cars for the sake of cranking out new ones is wasteful and counterproductive. Second, older cars tend to be some of the best-maintained cars on the road (why do you think they’ve been around so long?) and aren’t generally the emissions-belching monsters that people make them out to be (there’s a term for that: it’s "scapegoating"). Third, vehicle scrappage is politically motivated and is very lucrative for certain special interests. Why incentivize car owners to dispose of their perfectly good, running vehicles just for the sake of simply producing more? Tellingly, the program will offer rebates on a new car for anyone willing to relinquish their faithful beater to the crusher. It amounts to a free economic-stimulus package for dealerships and automakers, one that’s paid for by taxpayers–and by old cars. Canada, don’t do it! If you fall, who’s supposed to be our bastion of civilization?
More at CTV.
Comments
ERIC
Apr 7, 2008 at 9:48 pm
LOL thats hilarious A DODGE SPIRIT could never touch a 50,000 BIMMER.
I know for a fact you could not touch my roommates DINAN 330XI not even a contest!
elcamino-dude
Apr 6, 2008 at 3:53 am
I live in Canada and have been hearing about this now, the Canadian Government and insurance companies have been trying to get old cars off the road since the day they became known as ‘old cars’, any classic vehicle damaged the insurance companies try2 write off and the government is tryin what they can ot get classics off the roads..
all I can say, is that its going to take a lot more than $90 million to get me and all the other car enthusiats to get our cars off the road and to the crusher
Stewart
Apr 5, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I blame Terrance and Phillip…
Austin
Apr 5, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Makes me sad. Most of the Escorts that I see in the yard are not basket cases, most of them would be easily repairable rather than crushed. I’m about to buy an AMC Eagle that was bought from the junk yard. It is running, driving mostly straight with a fair interior with a title. Yep, that one was definitely one of those “truly beat” ones that was going to get crushed.
retroman
Apr 5, 2008 at 6:48 pm
People are so hard on K cars. Sheesh. The K car is what saved Chrysler from extinction, plus they’re easy to mod and make great sleepers. Alot of the guys over at turbododge.com are pushing 400-500+whp from they’re K cars on a stock block. These things can take like 40lbs of boost before breaking. K cars were so good even Carrol Shelby put his name on some of them. I own a Spirit R/T and when she’s back on the road, she’ll be stomping $50,000 BMWs, Audis, and Mercedes. What’s my price for moderately refurbishing the former fastest sedan in the world? Less than 10 grand including the price of the car. Don’t believe me, heres all the proof you need.
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=Spirit+R%2FT+vs+Audi&search_type=
http://thedodgegarage.com/video/kcar_vs_supra_long.zip
http://dodgez.com/movies/4SFED4_500whp.wmv
http://www.turbododge.com/forums/f8/f34/160429-spirit-acclaim-lebaron-aa-body-thread.html
Be sure to check all the pages on that thread. There are some sick burnouts in there.
Eric
Apr 5, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Screw it my car is the only one worth keeping on the road LOL.
Soup78
Apr 5, 2008 at 4:22 pm
If these are K cars being crushed, I don’t give an F. Many people don’t give an F for the K. I would be angry if Canada was tossing decent cars.
John Gelnett
Apr 5, 2008 at 2:04 pm
The thing I hate about seeing all that is how many replacement parts could have been salvaged from those cars and trucks before they were crushed. There probably was some good restoration projects in there!
I can see crushing total basket cases but it looked like there was some decent cars in there.
GTwildfire
Apr 5, 2008 at 3:26 am
I’m not so sure I agree about the commentary. First of all, scrapping old cars reduces the number of them on the road, making the remaining ones that are in good shape more and more valuable.
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Another problem with this view is that it deals in absolutes, at least seemingly. There’s no mention of alternate circumstances that real life dictates. i.e. something like “although I understand that of course some cars get worn out eventually…” This reads more like something from Greenpeace or PETA, except it’s about cars.
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Hey, I’m passionate about cars otherwise I wouldn’t be here, but scrapping the old or otherwise toasted ones does yield resources that would otherwise involve mining or extraction of other resources. There’s quite a bit of that going on anymore. I’d rather see some recycling going on.
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Another thing is that the devil is in the details. How much is the rebate? Does it exceed the market value of a used car? If so, well then the money is coming from somewhere, and if it’s a fat rebate don’t expect that program to last very long. More likely it’s a fairly meager one, meaning the truly beat are taken off the roads.
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All-in-all, I don’t see much to be outrages with the info given. I can show you square miles off the Pennsylvania turnpike with rusting hulks littering the hillside in an otherwise picturesque landscape. I’d like to see them all scrapped and improve the view…