MCCURDY AND THE OEMS TO BEG FOR MORE "CA$H FOR CLUNKER$" HANDOUTS

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

Ronald Reagan once said "The closest thing to eternal life on earth is a government program." And if Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers superlobbyist Dave McCurdy and the radical greens get their way, "Cash for Clunkers" will be the next immortal government giveaway.

According to the Automotive News, McCurdy and the dole-loving OEMS want to throw billons more borrowed bailout money after bad on welfare payments to new car buyers. The CARS Act's abject waste of $1,000,000,000.00 will only destroy 250,000 potential collector and spare parts vehicles. That's apparently not enough taxpayer-funded vandalism to suit the AAM's bailout-loving membership.

McCurdy chirped "I think it'll go very quickly, and Congress may have to revisit it in the fall . . . 250,000 vehicles isn't enough. We think there'll be additional phases of this . . . It'll probably evolve."

"Evolution" will undoubtedly mean putting even more V8s and at-risk milestone historic vehicles in the crosshairs of welfare/corporate greed and misguided, big-spending environmental policies.

As "Truth With Speedzzter" predicted, the initial CARS Act compromise was merely to get the "camel's nose into the tent."

Meanwhile, the Specialty Equipment Market Association's SEMA Action Network (SAN) is attempting to put its best spin on a lobbying disaster. The latest issues of "Driving Force" contains the following explanation of the AAM/greeniac/liberal Democrat/RINO rout:

SAN then focused its efforts on lessening the impact of the program on the hobbyist community.“SEMA and the SAN are disappointed that Congress ignored evidence that vehicle scrappage programs will not achieve claimed environmental benefits,” said Steve McDonald, SEMA’s Vice President of Government Affairs. “However, we are pleased that lawmakers agreed not to include the older cars and parts that help drive the passions of many in the automotive hobbyist community.”

Under the program, consumers who agree to scrap a trade-in car that gets 18 miles per gallon or less (15 mpg or less for heavy pick-ups and vans) will receive a voucher to buy a qualifying new car. The voucher will range from $3,500 to $4,500 based on the new car’s fuel efficiency. The program primarily targets SUVs and pickups since most passenger cars manufactured during the last 25 years get more than the 18 mpg combined city/highway requirement.

[As the EDMUNDS list posted below shows, however, this is simply not true. Virtually every V8 and RWD vehicle built after 1984 with a trade-in value of $4,500 or less is at risk]

The car buyer will receive a $3,500 voucher if they buy a new passenger car that was rated at 4 mpg higher than the older vehicle, or a new pickup truck/SUV that was at least 2 mpg higher than the old truck. They will receive a $4,500 voucher if the passenger car was at least 10 mpg higher and the truck/SUV was at least 5 mpg higher.

Lawmakers want the program to last one year but have only set aside $1 billion to fund car purchases made from July 1-Nov. 1, 2009. They will seek another $3 billion later this summer to fund the program into 2010.

“It took countless meetings with lawmakers and their staff in order to secure the 25-year exemption and recycling provisions,” said SEMA Director of Regulatory Affairs Stuart Gosswein. “While it proved impossible to kill the scrappage program, lawmakers were keenly aware of the SAN’s opposition to the program and wanted to remove any unintended consequences to the hobbyist community. Your voices were heard.”

Most certainly the next round of "Cash for Clunkers" welfare will go after a wider cross-section of historic and special interest vehicles. And paid shills like the AAM's Dave McCurdy will be leading the money-hungry Visigoths.

The apparently toothless SEMA lobby has its work cut out for it.

SEMA AND AUTOEXTREMIST ON "'OBAMACA$H' FOR CLUNKERS"

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

David Freiburger's buds over at Bangshift.com posted the Specialty Equipment Market Associations latest press release on the resurrection of the idiotic, tax-money-wasting "Cash for Clunkers" scam.

SEMA PRESS STATEMENT RE: CASH FOR CLUNKERS

WASHINGTON, DC (March 30, 2009) – The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) applauds efforts to help consumers, automakers and dealerships with a program to stimulate new car sales. We support the concept of government–issued vouchers toward the purchase of fuel-efficient new vehicles [SEMA, it would appear is a bit more "free" with all that money the ObamaFeds are borrowing from the Chinese] and allowing consumers to deduct the car interest payments on their taxes. [NOW "TRUTH WITH SPEEDZZTER" SUPPORTS THAT SECOND ONE]


However, SEMA continues to oppose tying these vouchers to vehicle scrappage programs, known as “cash for clunkers.” The programs accelerate the demise of older vehicles, which are then typically crushed into blocks of sheet metal. Scrappage programs focus on a car's age rather than how much it is driven or its actual emissions. SEMA has consistently warned against wasting taxpayer dollars on a program that may produce an artificial spike in sales, but does not reduce emissions or increase fuel efficiency.

Automakers and dealers need to sell cars in order to survive, but potential buyers have hit the brakes in these tough economic times. Scrappage programs actually would deny vouchers to the majority of people who may want to buy a new car but don’t have an eligible older car to trade. Instead, these programs will be misused by those who own two or three older cars and seek to take advantage of the taxpayer give-away. Many of these cars aren’t frequently driven, if at all, so destroying them will not clean the nation’s air or make us less dependent on foreign oil.


While supporters tout a similar German program as evidence of success, the European Federation for Transport and the Environment, (the pan-European federation of environmental groups), has urged Germany and other countries to abandon scrappage subsidies because they do more environmental harm than good by artificially accelerating the car life cycle.

Scrappage programs hurt thousands of independent repair shops, auto restorers, customizers and their customers across the country. This industry provides thousands of American jobs and generates millions of dollars in local, state and federal tax revenues. We encourage the President to help the entire auto industry with programs that focus the incentive where it counts – on the purchase of new vehicles and not destroying older cars.

Well said! "'ObamaCa$h' for Clunkers" would be an expensive boondoggle.

Scads of unscrupulous, hand-out-seeking freeloaders would revive all those rusty old Camaros on blocks in their yards and dead Monte Carlos propping up the porches of their doublewides to "scam" the program. Thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of seldom-driven, restorable milestone vehicles would be destroyed. Prices for buildable "classic" cars would skyrocket. Even more money borrowed from China would be "off-shored" to the Japanese invaders and other Asian automakers. Much of our American automotive heritage would be lost. Millions of regular "blue collar" auto enthusiasts and collectors would be "priced out" of many automotive hobbies.

Autoextremest Peter M. DeLorenzo has an "April Fools" take on the obvious lunacy of the "ObamaCa$h" for Clunkers" plan:

In a major change in policy, the Obama Administration has already revised its just-announced Cash for Clunkers Plan. Called the Cash for Anything Plan, it encourages Americans to turn in - well - anything, in exchange for cold, hard cash. Got an old blender lying around? That'll get you 25 bucks. How about an old washer or dryer? Fifty bucks. An old pair of slippers? Two bucks. One of Fido's chewed-up bones? Fifty cents. You name it - the U.S. Government's buying it. . . .

That makes about as much sense as "Cash for Clunkers."

CASH FOR CLUNKERS -- NOT SO DEAD?

[Get the latest "Truth With Speedzzter" here]

Even as the Specialty Equipment Market Association and its SEMA Action Network proclaims the moronic, government-funded collector-car-crushing "Cash for Clunkers" plan is dead, it's apparently arising from its legislative grave.

(Of course, it is the Easter season . . . .)

WASHINGTON, March 31 (Reuters) - A top U.S. congressional Democratic on Tuesday hailed a White House-backed bid to provide consumers a voucher toward buying new fuel-efficient vehicles in exchange for a poorer performing older model.

House of Representatives Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer said the proposal could help the ailing U.S. auto industry as well as reduce air pollution.


Hoyer is apparently jealous of Senator Richard Shelby's unofficial title as the most automotively-stupid federal legislator.

This insanity will drive up the deficit. It will inflate the price of used replacement parts that millions of hot rodders, tuners, grassroots racers, and restorers rely upon.

It will also lead to the scrappage of restorable and collectable vehicles and rare milestone vehicles.

It will crush the aftermarket and dry up supplies of "emissions exempt" core vehicles that are necessary for seldom-driven restoration and high-performance projects.

As SEMA SAN correctly observes:

“SEMA continues to believe that a Cash for Clunkers program would, for no proven gain, hurt thousands of independent repair shops, auto restorers, customizers and their customers across the country that depend on the used car market,” said SEMA Vice President of Government Affairs Steve McDonald. “Instead, we are working with the House and Senate and all stakeholders on sound economic solutions to the current recession that will help drive product sales for the entire auto industry, including the vast automotive aftermarket and its specialty equipment segment.”

Much like Justice Scalia opined in Lamb's Chapel v. Ctr. Moriches Union Free Sch. Dist. ((91-2024), 508 U.S. 384 (1993)) about the infamous "Lemon" test, "Cash For Clunkers" is "Like some ghoul in a late night horror movie that repeatedly sits up in its grave and shuffles abroad, after being repeatedly killed and buried . . . frightening the little children" and gearheads of all stripes.

Let's kill "Cash for Clunkers" dead, dead, dead this time around. Call or write your Senators and representative today.