I <3 CARS
August 14, 2009 - by Molly Mann
So, President Obama's "cash for clunkers" idea is a huge success. The program (its official name is Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save [CARS], but no one calls it that) has helped drive auto sales up to an annual rate of 11.2 million vehicles from 9.7 million, and has improved the average gas mileage of cars on the road by 9.6 miles per gallon.
The concept is this: the government offers consumers between $3,500 and $4,500 to trade in their gas-guzzling "clunkers" for newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles. The money comes in the form of a credit on the new car payments. The dealers take the old vehicles and replace their engine oils with a sodium silicate solution so that they can never run again and send them to the scrapyard. Junkers have 180 days to sell any parts before shredding the cars.
Programs of this kind were first instituted by individual states in the early 1990s, and several European countries have tried similar car-swapping plans. They work on two fronts: first, by stimulating consumers to go out and by new cars, and second, by getting them to buy cars that will be better for the environment.
I have my concerns about the negative environmental impact of junking all of these old cars. First of all, according to R.L. Polk & Co., which collects automotive data, Americans junked 14 million cars last year and that number is sure to climb. I mean, trash is trash. Do we really need to be encouraged to throw more stuff away in favor of yet another upgrade?
In this case, the answer might be yes. The top three sellers during the cash for clunkers program have been the Ford Focus, Toyota Corolla, and Honda Civic; these are three of the most fuel-efficient cars on the road. Once again, environmentalists must make a deal with the devil; we have to take the benefits of lower emissions over the ill of landfill waste, and trust that the government will see that the disposal of the clunkers is environmentally sound.
After all, it's far easier to trade in a few million cars than to upgrade to a cleaner planet.
Posted by Tom on August 22, 2009 at 04:54 PM EDT #
Posted by Mark Roddey on August 23, 2009 at 05:23 PM EDT #