[rightseat]

Apparently there is now some 3 or 4 thousand dollar tax payer bailout/credit/bullshit to car buyers who trade-in their older low gas mileage cars if the old cars are CRUSHED.

There are seriously poor people that can't even think about buying a new car that might need an inexpensive, old, used car that will get them around for a while.

yup, s'called 'Cash for Clunkers'

basically, they'd allow me up to $4500 for my well used gas hoggin stuff totin toy haulin '94 460 V8 F-250....almost exactly what the truck would bring for a private sale. of course, I'd have to trade it in on a much more expensiver new vee-hickle. (a minor detail conveniently left out of the program PR)

I'd much rather see the truck go to a new home and new ppl who'd employ it to haul ponies or sheet rock or firewood, than turn it in to the Feds and have a good hard working hard drinkin ford tooken off'n the road, crushed and made into effin' Chevy Volts or some such nonsense.

 

[Jens]

.....my well used gas hoggin stuff totin toy haulin '94 460 V8 F-250........

I'd much rather see the truck go to a new home and new ppl who'd employ it to haul ponies or sheet rock or firewood, than turn it in to the Feds and have a good hard working hard drinkin ford tooken off'n the road, crushed and made into effin' Chevy Volts or some such nonsense.

I have a 1982 carbureted 460 cid E-350 ambulance (still has full ambulance interior in beautiful condition). I put Bilsteins on it and it towed my rally car and trailer great at 90 mph!

It sits most of the time, but every few years I need it to carry something big. Sitting with liability insurance suspended and antique registration it costs me about $60 or $70 per year to sit there waiting to be used. It is much cheaper and easier than renting a truck every few years for something.

Hell, at this point I'd keep it just to piss off the "greenies".

 

[dmoser]

whoever thought this one us must be in a position to profit big time from the whole thing in the crapper

The ones who will profit from the GM and (to a lesser degree) Chrysler failures are the bondholders. They'll take a beating on their bonds in bankruptcy, but most of them have purchased Credit Default Swaps, unregulated insurance derivatives, against losing money on the bonds. Unlike most everyone else, the bondholders will MAKE money on the bankruptcy.

Oh, by the way, odds are very good that those CDS's were written by AIG or one of the other very large financial institutions that are in trouble for other defivative collapses. Since AIG et al don't have reserves to back them up, guess where the money comes from. TARP funds.

Dick