Oh my doG, the enginosity!
The Cash For Clunkers program has a dark side:
The catch is that the dealer has to certify that the trade-in never hits the street again. And so, the mechanics at Jennings had to set aside their version of the Hippocratic oath and raise three otherwise drivable cars up on the lift and then put them to sleep.
For each, they drained the oil and poured in a solution of sodium silicate. Two quarts into the crankcase, bring it down the lift, close the hood, start it up, drive it out back, rev the engine at about 3,000 r.p.m., then wait for the end to come.
The first two, a ‘92 Caprice and a ‘99 Jeep, went quickly, quietly, painlessly almost. But the Lumina held out, struggling to run on a serum meant to destroy it. Panting rhythmically, as if gasping for air. Stopping. Coughing. No longer hitting on all cylinders, sounding more like a lawn mower, it whirred on for five long minutes.
Finally, the engine stopped turning…
“Put it to sleep”? More like “tortured it to death”. Yeah, I understand the engine has to be destroyed. Couldn’t they just put a bullet in the crankcase? Sorry about this, old car, but… BANG!
Cars don’t have feelings, do they? **Shudder** Maybe it depends if you’ve ever rebuilt an engine, carefully fitting the new pistons into the cylinders and torquing down the head. Or if you’re old enough to have seen the original Love Bug movie when you were a kid. I guess I don’t want to know where sausage comes from either, since reading that book about the pig named Wilbur. OK, you can tell me I’m being silly now.
This was a program designed by committee. While its net effect should be positive, it definitely has its downsides. The law doesn’t even seem to permit selling these engines to a junk yard, or any such re-use.
It does seem a shame, especially when we’re talking about relatively new cars.
Actually the whole point of the program is to recycle the old cars as much as possible. Unless I missed something the cars shouldn’t just end up in a landfill.
The only complaint I can register is that people who can’t afford a car are getting one. Much of these brand new vehicles are being put on loans. Just increasing our debt. When are we going to stop spending money we don’t have?
I suppose an “average” person could say: “I’m not going to worry about spending money I don’t have, after all, my “leaders” do just that (for example the cash for clunkers idiocy), and in spades.”
And how much fuel was burned by the method of “execution” described, how much pollution/greenhouse gas belched into our air, without a person or article of cargo being transported even an inch?
Phooey!
The CfC program has more than one goal, which is a good thing because it achieves any of them only modestly and some hardly at all. For instance, I’ve seen estimates of carbon footprint reduction that work out to ten times the free-market price (but which appeared to ignore the recycling of the decommissioned car, accounting for 75% of the energy usage.)
But lest we forget, carbon dioxide isn’t the only pollutant; the new cars produce far less unburned hydrocarbons, as little as one-twentieth as much. So it’s a significant step in reducing photochemical smog, because the oldest cars are the worst offenders there.
As a market stimulus it’s working very well, but I can’t help wondering what will happen when the subsidy ends. Hopefully the economics ripples will keep spreading. Pumping the stimulus into the lower end of the economy makes more sense than giving tax breaks to investment bankers.
One thing it is doing well is changing culture: most of the vehicles being traded in are light trucks (mislabled by Detroit as “SUVs”) in favor of cars. So it might be bringing an end to the idea that you need a 5,000 lb vehicle to get around, which is a very good thing. And every dollar we don’t spend on foreign oil, can be spent here.
For there to be any fuel and pollution savings, however, the engine does need to be destroyed. Even though, rationally, I know better, I am just silly enough to anthropomorphize a machine so the method of destruction makes me shudder. Maybe I should avoid being critical of animists.
CfC – Chlorofluorocarbons – anti-environment.
CfC – Cash for Clunkers – anti-environment?
I wholeheartedly support this (and folks have been talking about how a program like this would be faboo for years now) …
… but the packrat in me, influenced by Depression-era parents, still thinks it’s an awful waste.
Here, the plan for replacing oil-guzzlers seems to consist of letting those with electric hybrids charge and park their cars for free, which is a bit suspicious, considering that the only electric cars here belong to city officials (supposed to set an example, I suppse).
However, I’ve noticed (anecdotal evidence) that there aren’t as many old cars as there used to be. When I was a kid, I used to see ten to twenty-year-old cars around, but now cars seem to fall into two categories: brand spanking new or certified “classic” cars (the newest are late 70’s). Thank you Mr. Banker! Wait…oh, right, the economy is shit and part of the reason is that everybody and their grandma took out a loan to buy a friggin Hummer. Oops.
I think we would have welcomed a CfC program.