Cahs 4 Clunkers List - Some Amazing Vehicles Destroyed!
 

No 911 Porsches but:

Cash-for-Clunkers program looked in for fraud, per Iowa Senator | Mibz.com

(6) Porsche 928 including (2) S4

(4) Gen. IV Supras

(5,000+) Mercedes-Benz including (142) SL, (3) S600, a 1994 E500 (crying), a 1992 500E (more crying), 1995 C36 and 1999 C43

(3,500+) BMWs including an M3, M5, Z3, 850i and (3) 740il

Buick Grand National!

GMC Typhoon

Aston MArtin DB7, Bentley Continental R

WTF!

Yasin

These 2 guys need an azz kickin!

Well at least 97 Corvettes were taken off the roads.....

A DB7 is not a great car, but wow. Still hand made.

I like 928's, but these where probably not very good examples, and could of had huge maintence bills ahead of them far in excess of the sell value of the car even if it was fixed.

But an S4 should be worth more the C4C payout in parts...

are they supposed to be runners?
or can you just let one roll off a trailer for trade in?

Sickening.

Without a doubt.

You touched on it...this goes beyond value alone. It has reduced the parts supply for the old car hobbyist.
(edit) I'm sure the anti-car politicians were well aware of this.

Yep. That's six less 928 engines and parts cars out there to keep the rest of them going.'

The thought of them pouring liquid glass into six of these is heartbreaking....

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b343/m21sniper/4.jpg

liquid glass? don't they just scrap and recycle the metals?

EDIT, found it on the interwebz... man, them cars really die when they do that to em...

Worry not, Snipe...soon we'll all love our tiny electric cars...Oh-BAM-ah will see to that. Remember, in the end, Winston truly loved Big Brother...

Nope...dealers were required to pour some toxic crap in the crankcase, making the engine parts worthless...then off to the crusher.

Let's not overestimate what "cool" but elderly cars are worth, especially if they are in trashed-out condition.

For example, the OP listed a 1992 Mercedes 500E and added "crying". According to Edmunds, that thing has a trade-in value of appx $3,500 and a private party value of appx $4,500. What might it be worth in lousy shape, trashed paint, >200K miles, etc? You can easily see where a 1992 500E could be well worth "clunking" with no tears at all.

Similarly with the BMWs, Toyota Supras, even the Porsche 928s, etc.

The Bentley Continental R and Aston Martin DB7, those must have a story behind it because it is hard to imagine them worth <$4,500 while still registered and driveable. I'll speculate those are fraud cases (a totaled or non-runner car) or a combination of rich + fool.

What I see is that the reporter searched the entire database of 677,000 clunked cars looking for seemingly-desirable cars to write a story about, and that OP shows the best of what he found. Out of 677,000, it isn't much of a list. So one unloved and probably trashed-out 1985 Quattroporte got scrapped - so what?

It doesn't matter what they were worth. Those cars were treasure troves of parts. And now they're gone.

Destroyed by the Socialist in Chief. I curse Osama, i curse him to hell. I am therefore forced to curse you too for supporting and defending him and his whacked out policies Jyl. :(

Six 928s were scrapped in the program. 61,056 units of 928 were made. So, 0.0001 of all 928s made were scrapped in the program, and that makes the slightest difference? Laughable.

So was C4C.

We live in a consumer society w/ zillions of ultimately disposable vehicle sold every year. Every car on that list could be found in the junkyard before c4c ever was conceived. Every time I go to the self-serve junk yard in L.A., I'm amazed at the clean MB/BMW/Range Rovers/etc. in the yard. Once they're 10-12 years old, nobody wants them and they aren't worth anything. c4c barely made a dent in the supply of used parts for those cars. There is no market for used parts for those cars. If there was, I'd be rich because I can get clean body/interior/engine parts for most of them all day long for pennies. Believe me, the market is tiny and shrinking every day.

I'm a little surprised that some of those older models qualified for c4c trade-ins. I thought that there were some pretty specific guidelines on age and mpg ratings of trade-ins. It was not my favorite thing that the gov. ever did w/ tax $$ but on the other hand, I don't think that it removed any valuable colector cars from the road. If anything, it eliminated the 6 worst 928s in existence. Same w/ the MB 500Es, can't give those things away.

So how many 928 parts cars do you own, Sniper? You must be buying every one you can find, right? To save them from the crusher and all. And the OP must buy every MB 500E w/ high miles that he sees. Otherwise, you're just crying to hear yourself wimper.

Speeder - While your reply has some validity in the first paragraph, I am not sure what your reply insinuates or even means. I am not looking to buy a 500E. My post was to highlight that some very rare and desirable cars have been sadly discarded and crushed as part of the C4C program. You are obviously out of the automotive loop, as the W124 500E is a sought after car, no different than the //M cars which were also C4C victims.

Yasin

There are several guys that buy and part 928s out for resale to the community. We just lost 6 cars worth of parts. Yeah, i think that sucks.

No, they had to be an operating vehicle with license and registration shown for the prior year.

I spend a fair amount of time in U-pull wrecking yards. The Cash for Clunkers cars are all marked C4C in spray paint. The engines are tagged and often spray painted as well to make it REALLY obvious.

It is an absolute travesty what wound up scrapped. One example that really pops out in my mind was a very nice Northstar equipped Cadillac two-door that had been for sale in our neighborbood. Very nice car, glossy paint, good interior, etc. It had been for sale for $5,500. You guessed it, the ownerdumped it for a C4C...

The number of Jeep Cherokees, Ford Explorers (good riddance) and assorted asian SUV's taken off the road under this program was phenomenal. A real mecca for us U-pullers if that's a vehicle you needed parts from. Most of them are cycling the inventory through every 2 or 3 weeks, so it pays to go back. They don't stick around long. Go to the crusher real quick after that. The bad part is that I don't think I've seen a single C4C that was more of a whoop-dee than the Pathfinder I drive every day. Sad that mine is on the road and that much nicer examples were sacrificed under this program.

angela

I'm also pulling a lot of parts off C4C cars, and putting people BACK into clunkers when their loans come due and they can't pay. If this keeps up through the end of the year I can probably retire early (seriously).

Amazing that people that couldn't afford a new car decided to "clunk" their paid off cars for a high interest loan on a Suzuki or a Prius. If I follow this cycle, which I am, I'm starting to buy C4C repos to sell back. It's astounding what people will do to "fell" better about things. Jeep Grand Cherokees, LR Discoverys, Ford Expodtions, all selling now.

In the end it's all money to me. :(

To be more accurate, you could say that "maybe 20, at most 50 somewhat uncommon and sort of desirable - if in they were excellent condition which they very likely were not - cars have been sadly discarded and crushed as part of the C4C program".

I'd agree with that. And then I'd yawn widely.

Sorry, a 1992-ish Mercedes 500E is not "very rare and desirable", not when I can go online and find them advertised in "excellent" condition for as little as $9K. What's the value of the most clapped-out 1992 500E still registered? I just don't see why anyone is supposed to be "crying" over that.

It obviously wasn't worth $5,500. It probably wasn't worth $4,000. It could probably have been sitting in your driveway for $3,500.

One lesson in all this is: at the depths of a severe recession, most of our cars aren't worth squat. 99% of all cars are not investments, don't hold value, barely deserve being called "assets". That Cadillac owner probably thought his car was worth something, and got a rude awakening. Of course, I think the era when Cadillacs were anything special ended quite a long time ago.

Exactly. POS/high miles/salvaged/etc. 1992 500Es were being scrapped before c4c, or had gone down the used car food chain to the point where they were owned in the ghettos of America and treated as such. Same w/ most 928s, hell, most 911s are past the point where any serious car person would want to own them. As for the parts supply, the ratio of 928 parts cars to driven cars remains at an all-time high.

Just to give people an idea of the market for 20 year old German cars, here's a car that I looked at a couple hours ago that I might buy tomorrow. 1988 MB 300E, 160k miles. Fair cosmetic condition, (clearcoat failing on top surfaces), interior nice except for small dash cracks. A/C blows cold, nice aftermarket Alpine stereo w/ ipod adaptor. Good tires. All original books including maintenance book stamped up to ~100k miles @ dealer, most service receipts from new. Drives well but stalls when warm, probably a CIS-related issue that I can DIY.

No evidence of over-heating in past. Clean oil history per view inside VC thru oil cap. If car passes compression test w/ perfect score, (or damn close), I'll pick it up and fix/drive it.

Price? Drum roll........








$200 USD. :cool:

Now wait just a minute, now you're getting too close to home :-)

Do you understand the significance of the 500E? I very seriously doubt that you will find many in the ghetto. It's also very difficult to find a decent one for under $10k. There's one in Denver that's a steal right now that's very tempting. Who likes the idea of a rare 326 HP sedan that was hand-built by Porsche being scrapped?

It's sad with the rare and interesting cars because those parts could have been used to keep the nice cars running. There aren't exactly a lot of DB7, 500E, 928 S4, etc out there. Obviously for the owners they felt that it was the best financial decision, but my guess is it was largely due to laziness.

Just from looking at the parts side of it, I could see how CFC would annoy a 928 owner when they see that model on the list probably because they've paid enough for small parts before that were probably good on the CFC cars, which were wasted. The little stuff was what I've spent the most time and effort tracking down anyway.

500E for $8,500

1992 Mercedes 500e

I had no idea they were that rare.

Did not realize that this post was going to veer off the road with JYL and Speeder's replies, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Matt gets it http://forums.pelicanparts.com/support/smileys/clap.gif

Yasin

I understand exactly what a 500E was in 1992 but disagree about their significance in car history. MB now offers a much better V-8 in the regular E-class plus the AMG variants of every body style. New E550s are a dime a dozen in my neighborhood. Better engine, better chassis and still 100% disposable 15 years from now.

Still, to trade one in for c4c would be stupid unless it was a real POS. Either a salvage/flood/300k mile car or one that was hit so hard that it goes down the road sideways after being "fixed".

Well, count me as another fan of the 500E. That was the factory Hammer, IMO. For the record, if anyone wants to give one of those away (or a 300 SEL 6.3 or an E30 M3), I'll be happy to take it. I realize modern variants are invariably "better," but that's not entirely the point for some of us. At the same time, one does have to wonder in how bad condition were those cars in the OP that they were worth terminating in the C4C program?

The focus shouldn't be on the cars, rather the owners. Maybe there should have been 2 kinds of counseling booths stationed at each dealership:

Financial: can you really afford the new car you are buying?

Car Guy: dude, you can't trade in that XYZ, I don't care if it needs $6000 worth of work, it's a cool car and a piece of automotive history.

Clearly, we need more people telling other people how to live.

oh the humanity.

I'd take any of the cars mentioned, if only because they're better (and in some cases better and newer) than my other half's daily driver. Guess that's a byproduct of both of us going to school :\

The problem is not so much that the folks were able to turn them in as "cash for clunkers"...but rather the rules requiring their destruction. They could have just as easily required salvage titles and sold them for a few more bucks to the parts yards with intact engines.

I was tempted to turn in my '98 F-100 as it would have very painlessly brought me about $1000 more than I could sell it for...but 1) did not want to spend the money on any new car...and 2) thought it was stupid to destroy a good vehicle to appease the liberal "Gods" intent upon deciding what type of vehicles Americans own.

Yup. A 996 is by all objective measures a better car than a '72 911S. But how many Porsche guys agree with that? It's much easier to find a cheap 996 than a cheap '72 S. Sometimes the numbers don't tell the entire story.

C4C new cars are getting repoe'd like crazy. The entire program was one big sick, pathetic, socialist joke.