Last Cars Reviews Blog: car politics

Clunker?

The official Cash for Clunkers website has released a list of cars that were traded in on the program, and some the vehicles on the list are downright shocking.

Most are not… there are at least 60,000 Ford Explorers on the list, most of them from the early to mid-90s, though a couple of 2008 models were turned in.

But check out these cars that were on the list, and keep in mind that the law requires the engines of these vehicles to be permanently disabled. Try not to weep:

1997 Aston Martin DB7 Volante (I found one for sale here for just $69,500. )
2006 Audi A4 Cabriolet Quattro (OK, so it’s not a supercar, but still…)
1992 BMW 850i (For sale here for $24K.)
1987 Buick GNX (Only 547 were ever built.)
2007-2008 Chrysler 300 AWD (There were 3 of these.)
1987 Excalibur Autos Phaeton (No joke, but still hard to believe.)
2000 Jaguar XK8 convertible (I would’ve gladly paid that guy 5 grand for his car rather than see it killed just to get $4,500 off a Hyundai.)
1985 Maserati Quattroporte (You just don’t junk a Maserati.)
2005 Mazda RX8 (Still worth about $15K)
1997 Rolls-Royce Continental R (Ever heard the words “Rolls-Royce” and “clunker” in the same sentence?)
2008 Scion xD (Wait a minute. This thing is rated at 29 mpg, for one thing. Secondly, it’s still worth about $16K. How’d this one slip through?)

You can see the full list here, but I’m warning you, it’s got everything. Corvette and Camaro fans may want to stay away.

Would you have taken any of these cars off owners’ hands before they were sent to the crusher?

-tgriffith

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Sen. Alexander plugs in his Prius

It’s not every day that one of our blog posts gets the attention of a U.S. Senator.

A post yesterday mentioned Sen. Lamar Alexander’s Auto Stock for Every Taxpayer Act, a plan to distribute GM and Chrysler stock free to American taxpayers. That post resulted in an invite to a conference call with the Senator this morning to discuss his plan (the full 16-minute phone call is below).

At the beginning of the call, Sen. Alexander got my attention by likening his plan to the Green Bay Packers, an NFL team owned by its fans. Under the Senator’s plan, the 120 million Americans who filed tax returns for 2008 would become owners of GM and Chrysler. Or as he put it:

120 million Americans who have a vested interested in their success.

While this proposed act is mostly a gimmicky political stunt, it’s a nice thought.

When I first heard about this plan, I was all for it, though admittedly only for the slight possibility that I might get some monetary gain. I have to assume the majority of Americans would be like me, since most of us were against saving GM and Chrysler in the first place. Give us free stock, and we’ll sell it as soon as we can to generate some free cash.

Of course a mass sell-off of stock might cause the value of the companies to plummet and could lead right back into bankruptcy court, only this time as a natural consequence of the free market rather than being forced into it by the government.

As a right-wing Republican, letting the free market decide GM and Chrysler’s fate is Sen. Alexander’s ultimate intent.

Getting back to the Senator’s football reference, here’s the difference between the Packers and GM/Chrysler: Packers stockholders are passionate and dang-near rabid supporters of their team. I’m not convinced American stockholders of GM and Chrysler would feel the same.

If you had free stock in GM and Chrysler, would you hang onto it or sell it as soon as it was worth money?

-tgriffith

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