Cash For Clunkers widdled to 1984 cars and younger

Filed in National by on August 14, 2009

As I said last week the cash for clunkers program fell short of what it could have been.  As expected, the lobbyists got their way.  Nothing has changed in Washington, the powerful and special interests (almost one in the same) don’t want change and we all know who pays for the stagnation.

Apparently the classic car lobby didn’t want that 1983 Datsun traded in and smashed.  Why, because it is a classic car.  You and I both know that a classic 1983 Datsun is that muscle car we can’t wait to restore as we get up in years right?  Also, another lobbying group for specialty parts didn’t want those cars off the road either.

Those same owners, desperate to keep their jalopies afloat, are routinely gouged on the price of replacement parts. And the people who sell those parts are the ones who lobbied to have pre-1984 cars excluded. The Specialty Equipment Market Assn., which represents 7,000 car parts makers, thought the program would hurt the market for used and specialty parts.

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Comments (12)

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  1. andy1 says:

    Not sure you really want to use that title for this post:

    to widdle
    (chiefly British) To urinate
    (colloquial) To play guitar fast. This is generally in reference to electric guitar
    http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/widdle

    . . . perhaps you meant whittle 🙂

  2. liberalgeek says:

    DV is having an ESL day.

  3. anon says:

    DV is having an ESL day.

    Extra Strong Liquor?

  4. liberalgeek says:

    English as a Second Language

  5. You soil the name liberal pal. I’m a true liberal, as in permissive and tolerant of others, and I am also a SEMA member who wrote congress nasty letters three times opposing cash for clunkers (which is nothing more than a tranfer payment for the middle class at the expense of poor people who could not afford a new car even with the $4,500).

    18 miles per gallon and the new one has to only get 4 MPG better? Puleasse! My 35 year old Fiat 128 (yea, that’s not a classic 57 Chevy either) gets better mileage than that! Oh, and BTW, it will pass an emissions test even after I yanked all the emissions crap off it and threw it in the trash.

    Trading for that new truck only needs an improvement of 1 MPG. I bet you every Datsun sold in 1983 gets better mileage than that.

    Nothing worse than a guy who knows nothing about old cars trying to write about them.

    I bet you live in some urban area and have some lame utopian dream that we’ll all ride the train and sing “Cumbaya” together.

    I voted for Obama and support his efforts on many issues but “CARS” is a real turkey.

    PS: Maybe there’s a reason you are Delawares most underappreciated writer (and it’s not even a very large state!).

  6. jason330 says:

    Does the “cumbaya” train have an abortion kiosk?

  7. For a true liberal who is permissive and tolerant of others, you suck at being yourself. Oh wait, you also wrote “nasty” letters. Maybe you meant to include hypocrite in your self-description, preferably before you wrote permissive and tolerant of others?

    Since you didn’t find the effort worthwhile to link, I shall do it for you. We independent types tend to be tolerant of others, ya’ know?

    I won’t be challenging your technical knowledge, though.
    SEMA

  8. did my comment fall into spam??? C’mon, you’ll like it.

  9. what the fuc k are y ou talking about wiley?

    As I said last week the cash for clunkers program fell short of what it could have been.

    did I not write that? you may be a true liberal, but your comprehension is that of a conservative.

  10. Tom S says:

    Too bad the dealers aren’t getting paid from the govt. Any hope they’ll get interest like our Delaware Tax refunds?