You are right my friend....The program only required the car to have the engine disabled but no where did it say that the entire car had to be crushed...That decision fell on the recycling auto salvage yard which bought the car from the dealer to strip it of it's parts or to sell the whole car intact minus the engine...

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Did they have to submit some kinda proof that they killed the engines? If someone walked in with an aston and said they wanted some stupid hybrid or something, i'd fill out some form saying i killed the car, and then drive it home. although maybe there's something to do with the vin so it can't be registered? who knows.

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The dealer has to show proof the engine was disabled, and the scrap yard/salvage yard has to show proof that it was crushed.
Yes, they can take parts off them BEFORE they are crushed, but in the end they have too. Government's been doing random visits to dealers and yards, looking for the cars and paperwork to make sure everything is done properly.
Or else it's a $15,000 fine PER CAR.

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hmm, $15,000 fine for a $200k car. sounds like the bargain of the century to me.

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This list made me sad......373 RX-7s?!?! I wonder how many had twin turbos....what a shame...

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I think any smart dealer would just pay the $4500 to the customer for any of these cars assuming they are worth far more than that.

Unfortunately, I am willing to bet that the vast majority of these cars were in a condition beyond repair. I know a guy who has three Rolls-Royce Silver Spurs that are just rotting away in businesses yard. Not everyone treats classic and future classic vehicles as the treasurers that they are.

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Something is not right. I mean if I head a 2006 audi even in bad conditions I would make at least $10k with no problem. Why would anyone trade the car for a miserable $3500. Something is hidden for sure..

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I understand some of the "pain" but I think a lot of you are living in fantasy land.

Almost all of these examples would be near worthless if...

1. They have had major paint or body work. Were salvaged title cars excluded from the program?

2. They have over 150K miles.

3. The don't have cold A/C. I live in the south and at times it seems you could sell a car with rod knock faster then one with no air. A/C repair on a German sedan could be thousands of dollars.

4. IF they do have rod knock, or grinding gears, again you're looking at probably over $4500 to fix any of the complicated cars on that list.

5. Have gutted, smelly, trashed, cut up, vandalized interiors. People who smoke heavily, let their dogs live in their cars or have the misfortune to die in their cars and sit in them for a long while will severely lower their resale value.

Bottom line is most of these cars are basket cases and I doubt you'd really want any of them if you saw them or would you be willing to invest the money in them it'd take to get them to a presentable decent level. For that other 1-2% of cars that doesn't fall under what I've said, well, WTH were they thinking?

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ya a 200k car sure isn't work 5k to fix the tranny... uh huh. I think alex is right, they probably paid out of pocket for good cars.

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I'm certain any idiot trading in their 100k-30k "clunker" was just given cash by the dealer and their car was sold.

This is a car dealer we are talking about. While it's true that you don't have to be an enthusiast to be a dealer they have to know at least something.

I'm normally against people being taken for suckers, but when you are such an uninformed sucker that you cash for clunker a car that is worth at least 6 digits you deserve it.

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Not hardly Tourian. I've lived in the South my whole life and rarely use my A/C. I prefer fresh air, riding around with my windows down. Matter of fact my compressor is literally coming apart and with about 1k to fix it, I'd rather let it be because I never use it. A/C is for sissies!

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@Ray - where do you live? I hope you don't consider West Virginia/Virginia the south. Because when I was in TX & SC you would die without A/C.

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You all don't know the condition of the cars that were turned in, assuming that the list doesn't contain typos. These cars in terrible condition are worthless. Stop being so dramatic.

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"ya a 200k car sure isn't work 5k to fix the tranny... uh huh. I think alex is right, they probably paid out of pocket for good cars."

That's my point. It isn't a 200K car if it needs a new trans, or motor. And I think it would cost more then 5K to fix an exotic needing major drivetrain work. You would not pay 200K for a broken on the side of the road Aston, nor would a dealer.

If a dealer pays the $4500 to keep the car from being destroyed, it wouldn't be on this list.

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And also, a '97 Aston is not worth 200K, more like $50K if in good condition according to nadaguides.com. What on that list do you think is worth 200k?

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According to what I read regarding C4C, the car you traded in had to have been insured and registered in your name for a year prior to you trading it in. Additionally, the car had to be in drivable condition.

http://www.cars.gov/faq#category-02

If a lot of these cars were in as bad a condition as some here are claiming, why would you still have it insured/registered and would most of them be in drivable condition?

I researched that because I was wondering what was keeping people from going out and buying a $500 junk car and trading it in for $4500.

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Smart Dealers would have cash traded the ones worth keeping. These had to be in really rough shape and have turned up at a lazy or stupid dealer. I would love to see pictures of some of these and just how rough they were. Just how horrible does your 2006 Acadia have to be for you to send it to be crushed? I smell government waste in here somewhere. Some government departments probably sent their fleet vehicles in under C4C instead of sending them to the auction. A disgusting waste of resources and tax payers money. They obviously could have got more than the $3500 at auction for a lot of those cop cars and such.

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I know what the rules say, but a car can still limp in on a few cylinders, not have all its gears and still be to slide in under the rules. Also someone might have been hanging on to a car for sentimental reasons hoping one day to get it fixed and finally decided to pull the trigger once this deal came around. Keeping liability and a plate on an old car is not that expensive compared to thousands of dollars of body or maechincal work.

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