ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Most you have probably heard about Obama's brainy effort in trying to get people out of old cars in to new more environmentally freindly ones. Bit like our scrappage scheme. HOWEVER Has anyone seen the actual process?

The dealer has to SEIZE the engine to permanently disable it and then the whole car gets crushed.

OK, if the car was a piece of crap then yeah thats fine. But when some are classics (or future classics) or in immaculate condition where the value exceeds the $4500 payout, the dealer gives a further discount of the (over inflated) retail price, so perfectly good and desirable cars worth over $10,000 are being scrapped for no other reason that just get a discount off a bland Jap box.

The irony is this does no help to the enivironment; perfectly good cars that could be dissassembled and components recycled to keep other cars on the road running correctly, are being needlessly broken and crushed. And even more ironically, its not really helping the US car industry as its mainly Euro and Japanese manufacturers that getting the increased sales.

The process of destroying the engine brings tears to the average petrol head; and when they blow, they often spew coolant and oil onto the ground, which will pollute the watercourse (if we did that in the UK as a business we'd be sued big time by the water authority).

Here's some You tube footage: Jag XJ8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoWbiGJbF6I

Range Rover classic. Engines out of these are still in plentiful demand for off-roaders/kitcars, yet they kill a perfectly good one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXlEQ...eature=related

Volvo, ok Volvos are bit pants, but how the hell can this be classifed as a polluting clunker when compared to an SUV?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waj2K...eature=related

BMW 735i: Yup this one is a bit scabby, but FFS its a 735! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3qXv...eature=related part2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rKYjJXI3GA

Merc 560SEC (W126) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKUdD...eature=related and another: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jstfz...eature=related


And sometime they catch fire: Oops http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOsWM...eature=related

I do like the fact that some despite having no oil run for ages and some carry on running even after ejecting a rod out the block!....see 1.30 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9FYlcbSAHs

I wonder how long an Impreza engine and its fabled big ends would last?

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

Much the same as here: perfectly good cars, crushed, so fewer decent cars for first-time buyers, and fewer on the second hand market.
Plus most new cars sold were either made in Europe, the Far East or Japan.

What did that do for OUR motor industry, such as it is, and why did Lying Labour choose to support car DEALERS and not any UK manufacturing?

I know, I know, it was all done to appease the great God ClimateChange again

Jaybird-UK

Yes of course, the conservatives are going to give everyone a 5ltr V8 vehicle, drop petrol to 6p a litre and make road tax just 10p a year.

Plus under a conservative government we all get an unicorn.

Im looking forward to 5 years of utopia

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

yourself.

I fail to understand why anyone should think that because someone loathes Lying Labour, they must support the Tories?

I actually hate and mistrust BOTH.

Leslie

Since I am a petrolhead when it comes to building cars and engines, the thought of deliberate destruction like that does upset me. It offends my mechanical sympathies. When we were out in the States on duty we used to hire an old banger from the Rent a Wreck man. It used to take a 5 man crew and the two crew chiefs all over the place, and in Las Vegas we even ran one for a week and when we decided it was reliable enough we drove to the Grand Canyon on one weekend and to LA and San Diego on another. Just the job for $10 a day less military discount!, and some of them even had fuzzy dashboards!

Great shame to deliberately destroy an engine, and yes the narrow Scooby big ends always used to worry me a bit!

Les

Snazy

Gutting to see them go like that.

Xx-IAN-xX

.
.
Well the jag deserved to get crushed, cmon what sort of moron would drive a jag

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Shut it you That Jag was in a better state of repair than mine

Xx-IAN-xX

legb4rsk

I think the car car scrapage scheme was just a ruse to boost new car sales.
Surely it is better to keep an old car running for a few more years than building a new car from scratch.

Ian

iTrader: (10)

whats the stuff they are futting into the engine to kill it?

Ian

iTrader: (10)

it does bring a tear to your eye, only in america!

Leslie

My old Mk2 3.4 did a great job of towing the trailer. Lot better than the Mk1 Lotus Cortina anyway!

There are times when I wish I still had either of those cars!

Les

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

I just really do not see the point of doing that. I'm sure its be proven many times that it is far better to run an old car into the ground, than it is to scrap a perfectly good vehicle just to buy something new, regardless of any mpg saving. The environment cost of making a new car is so high that this scheme, and others like it, are pure madness

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I agree it goes against the grain, that said, was in the States recently and some of the sh1te that was dragging itself round had to be seen to be beleived.

Leslie

I think that is a very good point.

There was a time when we always used to try to make our possessions last as long as possible and we were quite good at maintaining them too. That stemmed from the times of austerity after WW2. Most people did their own servicing and repairing because they were used to it and cash was comparatively scarce.

I think we are approaching a similar time until the recession goes away and the economy recovers, that could take a lot longer than we might expect.

Les

urban

iTrader: (1)

Mostly with darkies behind the wheel

Luminous

iTrader: (3)

Yes, I can agree with you there. Lots of people are having issues with not having enough skills. I'm really lucky as the garage who services my car has loads of bits and bobs lying around, and they know how to put them together properly to create a new bit.

One of my friend just got a bill from the BMW garage for £6k, all as she put in 5l of petrol instead of diesel. Total rip-off, they did not even replace the engine. The bill was for labour for replacing this bit and that bit, including a new diesel tank....

Leslie

Can't believe a bill like that!

Les

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

The ethnicity of the owers wasnt something I studied intensely, but I cant say I noticied that heaps were any more likely to be driven by Black people, if anythign I noticied some very impressive SUV's and classic Caddys were driven by Black people, also I chatted to a Black guy who had a mental all chrome Suzuki GSXR with an extended swingarm and the widest rear tyre I have ever seen, litterally it was like a ball !

What amazed me was the state of some of them, rarely see thick exhaust smoke over here (not from petrols anyway) but there were loads chuffing away over there, bodywork so damaged it was dangerous, missing lights, horrendous noises, grinding brakes etc.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Unless it rednecks; they just do it for fun: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYaU1...eature=related

It's their equivelent of a flamer kit (would be handy if some feejit is driving too close behind though ).

Klaatu

It's all about looking like being a good, environmental, citizen. We have to look after our (Dying faster than us) children. It's all about fluffy feel good cropola!

It is complete bullcrap! A well kept vehicle can run for many years, decades even. My current car has just clicked over 100k kms, and I did 30k's worth of that.

CrisPDuk

That's absolutely disgraceful

But waste, pollution and corruption are perfectly acceptable so long as their done in the name of enviromentalism


As an aside, it amazes me how many 'modern' cars I see smoking and rattling their asses off, especially people carriers

There's one just up the road from me, driven by a lentil-chomping communist fcukwit who has often voiced her disapproval of the way my neighbours and I are killing the planet with our filthy old cars and bikes

ScoobyWon't

Set her on fire and see if she complains if the smoke coming off her is killing the planet

ScoobyWon't

Scoobynet. Proving that the BNP may not have won the election, but their values still live on.

Anders_WR1

iTrader: (8)

That's sad to watch