whats up with people/auto dealers asking so much for used/salvage cars?

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by Chuck5000

Or, if you fix em yourself, sure, get a 30 year old car!

I still have my first and second cars...

First car 1929 Model A Ford bought in High School... pd $1000

Second car 1972 Plymouth Valiant bought for college... pd $800

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/res...aper_gayer.pdf

This expired program paid from $3500 to $4500 towards a new vehicle purchase.

A lot of decent vehicles headed for the scrap heap...

One of my friends had a very nice older Toyota... garage kept with high miles... Blue Book was $2800 and would have made someone a good car... they took the voucher and bought a new car.

Originally Posted by shooting4life

I speaking towards the federal program about 5 years ago that tave you 5k or so, not positive on the amount anymore, towards the purchase of a new car if you turned in a car that got bellow a certain mpg.

What would normally happen is these cars would be traded in to the dealer, then sold at auction to used car lots and ultimately in the hands of lower and middle class. Or it would be sold outright in a private sale to the lower or middle class individual. The government program mandated that these cars that were turned in be destroyed. So the supply of used cars going towards the lower and middle class was drastically decreased causing a sharp rise in prices. New cars cost the same. Rich and upper middle class people who could afford a new car during the worst depression of 80 years then got a check for the government towards the purchase of a new car.

Huh. So, it lasted about 6 months in 2009. I get now why the poster (forget who it was) said it was for rich folk who had cars lying around - you could only get the money if you bought or leased a brand new vehicle. That would definitely not have been me. Or any other people on a budget. Even $4500 might not be a bargain over time when you factor in the cost of owning a new car, taxes, registration, insurance, etc. What a dumb waste of money that program was.

I'm not sure the current CA vehicle retirement program is really worth the money either, but at least poor people can take advantage of that one.

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

I still have my first and second cars...

First car 1929 Model A Ford bought in High School... pd $1000

Second car 1972 Plymouth Valiant bought for college... pd $800

Oh, my friend had a Valiant. Loved that car. We went on a road trip in it from WA to El Paso, then a bus into Mexico back in 1975. Fun times.

[Tulemutt]

Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe

What a dumb waste of money that program was.
.

Except that the program was mostly conceived as one of many stimuli for the crashed economy. Whoever bought / leased new cars contributed to the auto industry.

[Ultrarunner]

Originally Posted by NoMoreSnowForMe

Oh, my friend had a Valiant. Loved that car. We went on a road trip in it from WA to El Paso, then a bus into Mexico back in 1975. Fun times.

I will probably always have it... worked it like a truck for 20 years after college... towed 1 yard cement trailers, took out the back seat for tools, added a material rack on the roof...

Hauled 80' of 6' redwood fence with it... boards, posts and concrete sacks...

Can't remember how many water heaters I carried lashed across the trunk with the door handles used as tie downs.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by Ultrarunner

I will probably always have it... worked it like a truck for 20 years after college... towed 1 yard cement trailers, took out the back seat for tools, added a material rack on the roof...

Hauled 80' of 6' redwood fence with it... boards, posts and concrete sacks...

Can't remember how many water heaters I carried lashed across the trunk with the door handles used as tie downs.

LOL, sounds like my old VW squareback. I used that thing like a truck. Don't see many of them on the road anymore. Saw one drive through town the other day. Brought back memories.