REPORT: Not all clunkers in Germany being junked; some are "stolen" from the junkyard
There's no arguing that the various Cash for Clunkers-style programs all around the world are intended first and foremost to spur lagging automobile sales. Environmental concerns have taken a back seat to helping automakers and dealerships move some more metal. Still, at least we know that the barely-running pollution-spewing machines are headed to the great junkyard in the sky, right?
Not so fast. At least in Germany, there are a number of Clunkers that didn't meet their intended demise due in equal parts nefarious criminals and legislation that didn't explicitly require the trade-ins to be properly disposed of. Here in the States, Clunkers are killed via an injection of sodium silicate after the oil has been drained out. In Germany, the dealership is required only to drop the car off at a junkyard.
According to Ronald Schulze, an expert with the Association of Criminal Investigators, as many as 50,000 old cars and trucks have been snatched from the clutches of the crusher and exported outside Germany where they may continue to emit pollutants for quite some time. Some even end up back in Germany after being exported to other European countries. Another case of unintended consequences?
[Source: NY Times via Treehugger]
Photo by dno1967. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
guyledouche 2:16PM (8/12/2009)
Germany - DOH!!!
I cant beleive that we actually had better planning and foresight than Germany. Go us!
I still cant say I agree with this whole thing. Isnt this bubble just going to dry up and then make the next 3-4 years even worse for the Dealers and MFG's? Now that all of the people who were thinking about buying a new car already did in a 3-8 week period, there will be much less people providing a constant flow of business. I guess time will tell, but I hope all of the dealerships who are making out on this are smart enough to really save whatever profit they are making right now. I have a feeling they will need it shortly to stay alive.
AHHH the joys of central planning
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PopSmith 4:49PM (8/12/2009)
One of the only problems I have with "Cash for Clunkers" is I don't know what they consider a "clunker". It seems to be based purely off gas mileage and if someone wants to trade it in the dealers seem to have no way of "saving" some gems that get traded in.
If someone could enlighten me that would be fabulous.
Injecting liquid glass to destroy a car's engine just because someone considers it a clunker isn't a good idea in my opinion.
While obliterating the entire car does prevent thieves from scraping a car for money or a conman from "restoring" a car only to have it pollute and run poorly, it also seems to cause an unnecessary demise for the few "gems" that people may trade in because they don't know what they are worth or they simply need the extra money to purchase a new car.
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bwzd7p2 7:48AM (8/13/2009)
The short answer is that the program requirements are only that it gets 18MPG or less and be manufactured no more than 25 years before the date of the trade. But the maximum is $4,500. So if it's truly a gem, it'd be worth much more than that and the dealer would offer more, so it wouldn't be crushed. If it's not worth any more than that, it's not really a gem anyway, now is it?
VW JUNKY 8:48AM (8/13/2009)
Well there are "Gems" to some out there getting taken out. To me a pristine 88 toyota 4 runner or similar truck/suv in orgional condition would be a Gem in my eyes. The person that trades it in won't know it's worth, the dealer won't give them more due to blue book value and he is trying to sell a new car. SO there will be some cars that maybe not worth the $4500 to most people but to me and other car crazy's out there it is sad to see some of them getting scrapped. Now I wonder if you can catch one of these at the junk yard before they smashed and buy it for $1 and put a new crate motor in that would be awesome!
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Ray 2:56PM (8/13/2009)
The dealer has the option of filling out the paper work to the federal government or not.
They could say, "yes sir we will give you $4,500 for your vehicle trade in" and if the vehicle is worth more on the open market and sells well they do not fill out the paper work and just resell the car for $5,500.
Very resourceful those German thieves.
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Mead Carlson 8:27PM (9/08/2009)
The reason that the gov't wants the cars destroyed is to force people out of their cars and onto public transit. Eliminating a bunch of thoroughly good cars takes them off the market and puts an auto out of reach of some people. Not many of these cars were really clunkers because the guy with the 500.00 car can't afford a new one even with 4500.00 for his old one. Eight out of the top ten cars bought under this program were Japanese, really helping our domestic auto industry. remember the real reason is to eliminate the bigger cars trucks and SUV's',
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