Heads up! Cars program end Aug 24th ($forClunkers)
 

Just checked over on the CARS site, and it's been announced...it ends on Monday, August 24th at 8 PM (EASTERN TIME).
5 PM Pacific, 6 PM Mountain, 7 PM Central

Two new pdfs to download, the Press Release and the Wind Down Strategy.

If you're going to make a deal, you have Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. That's it.

Yup just saw the news. For those of you who haven't taken advantage of this great deal I suggest you change whatever your weekend plans were/are and head down to your dealers and get the Fit! :vtec:

Forget the weekend, tomorrow would be best. The weekend will be nuts.

Meanwhile, yesterday while waiting around at the dealers for my car to get checked, there were only a few people that came on the lot. One lady was interested in the Insight. There was ONLY ONE on the lot, that was being used as a demo. And the lady was interested in the CARS program but didn't bring any of her paperwork with her.

I hope she is able to get back with her paperwork before the program expires. I could tell she really liked that car.

But tomorrow it will be back to being a madhouse, I'll bet. People buying anything, just to get in on the deal.

Well I count Friday after work as the start of the weekend lol. But yes, it will be a madhouse. It was a madhouse the day I went into my dealership (first day they officially started the program) and I can imagine it's only going to be worse now. Get in there and make sure you have everything you need in order.

Also for anyone going to do the Cash for Clunkers...make sure you have your paperwork in order!! Since its sooo close to the end i'm sure dealers are going to be strict with that stuff. ( proof of registration the past year, insurance cards for the past year, etc).

" proof of registration the past year"

that's usually two years of registration (in order to cover 12 months)

for example , if you renewed your registration in Feb. you'd need this registration and last years too.

wow...what a great government program...i dont need this, or really want this, but hell, i gotta get whats comin to me!!!!!


sadly, i think you are correct.

thank goodness the third biggest waste of tax payer dollars in the last eight months........

Erm...

At what point do I mention you have more cars than you can drive at any one time? ;)

Hahah..whenever you like! :)

One of my colleagues is a true green environmentalist. She bought a Honda fit to replace her old mazda 323. We were discussing autos, and she told me that, in her words "Everytime someone starts a car, its an environmental disaster.' I proceeded to tell her that by owning multiple cars, I am doing my part for the environment, as only one can be driven by me at any given time. She wasn't sure what to make of that.

I seriously considered trading in my passport with the cars.gov program for a crv or something similar, as I wanted something more comfortable and more fuel efficient. The BMWs are too expensive to drive 30k mi a year, which is what i typically do. The problem is, lots of cool stuff where I live is in the back country, and you need a high clearance truck vehicle to get to it. I couldnt get the same utility with anything out there through the cars program (at least that was desirable to me), so I decided to keep the truck (rust free, 95k mi, in family for 14 years) and get a Fit. I chose what's better for my situation, as opposed to simply cashing in because it was there...

"I proceeded to tell her that by owning multiple cars, I am doing my part for the environment, as only one can be driven by me at any given time"

only true if there is a limited supply of cars.

Find out what kind of lawn mower she has. Or take a look at your own. If you have one.

Spending an hour behind a roaring lawn mower can spew nearly the same amount of oily pollution into the air as a 100-mile car trip, according to a Swedish study. Source: Environmental Science and Technology, the journal of the American Chemical Society.
Mowing Tips

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We may have moved on from our grandfather’s politics, but haven’t budged a bit from our collective definition of American success: Nice home, shiny car, big green lawn. According to NASA satellite images, the United States is blanketed in approximately 50 million acres of turf, with several hundred thousand acres of grass being added each year.


All that mowing, trimming and blowing contributes up to 10 percent of our nation’s air pollution every summer in the form of hydrocarbons (a major component of smog), particulate matter (which damages respiratory systems), carbon monoxide (a poisonous gas) and carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming). Gas-powered lawn mowers, blowers and trimmers are 10 to 30 times more polluting than combustion-engine automobiles and, well, we all know where the car industry is headed.

The perfect lawn doesn’t require a gas-powered mower | Grist
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The front lawn is an ecological disaster:

• 20 million acres are planted in residential lawns.
• $25 billion is spent for the lawn care industry.
• 30 to 60 per cent of all urban fresh water is used for watering lawns. More than half this amount is wasted, because of inappropriate timing or dosage. Nearly all the water used could be save by appropriate use of native landscaping that does not require any watering beyond natural rainfall.
• $5.25 billion is spent on fossil-fuel-derived fertilizer for U.S. lawns. The majority of this fertilizer is wasted because of improper timing or dosage and becomes a source of pollution to surface or ground water. Most of this expense and pollution could be eliminate by proper timing, proper dosage, or intelligent use of compost and other organic fertilizers.
• A typical power lawnmower pollutes as much in one hour as driving an automobile for 20 miles. This can be greatly reduced by using 4-stroke gas lawn mowers or electric mowers. Where feasible, it can be totally eliminated by using a hand-powered reel mower.
• 60 to 70 thousand severe accidents, some fatal, result from lawnmower use, as well as significant damage to human hearing.
• 580 million gallons of gasoline are used for lawnmowers. Much of this goes to pollute the air by evaporation, or to harm vegetation and surface or ground water by spillage.
• 67 million pounds of synthetic pesticides are used each year on lawns in the United States. Much of this is wasted, and ends up contaminating surface or ground water. Pesticide use can be drastically reduced through the intelligent use of Integrated Pest Management.
• $700 million is spent for the pesticides used on U.S. lawns. Much of this could be saved through intelligent use of Integrated Pest Management.

Environmental Impacts
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Yes, some states have a Clunker program for lawn mowers:
S.C. DHEC: Air Quality

Catalytic converters proposed:
EPA plans tougher smog rules for mowers

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As far as the BMWs, they don't sound very useful. They sound like leeches. The fuel economy isn't good. They pollute. They are expensive to maintain. You're probably paying insurance on them. You can't get to the back country in them. They aren't really good commuting cars. Why do you have them?

Is it a status thing? I know that people do enjoy the mechanics of various vehicles, how they handle, etc. But if someone told me I could have something I wouldn't use that I would still have to pay for, I wouldn't want it. I did hold on to my old VW for a year, paying insurance on a car that didn't run. But at the time, I wasn't sure if I was going to fix it or ditch it, and I didn't know what kind of car I would want if I did get rid of the VW. It was my only car, and for that year I walked, hobbled, whined to get to the store. I didn't want to fix it in the end, it was too much of an undependable leech.

I don't know what all you do, or what your situation is. I had a Honda Passport, but it was significantly different than yours:
http://tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:.../c70%2B82a.jpg

I fell over too much though. I'm not a good motorcycle rider.

If the Passport you have has any towing capacity, I might be tempted to get rid of the Beemers and opt for a trailer for scooters. Not for the back country, but for traveling/camping/weekend adventures. Or perhaps a small motor boat, if you have any lakes nearby.

Honda Scooters:
Scooters - Honda Powersports

Honda Marine:
Honda Marine Outboard Motors - Models Listing

YAY!, C4C is ending! Now maybe I can get a good deal on a fit!

No. Now you have to pay more for a 2010 model. ;)

Talk about a Clunker, check out this Ford Aerostar that caught on fire when the owner brought it in for the CARS program:

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/...unker_span.jpg

The owner did drive away in a new Prius. And I guess they don't have to worry about shutting that Ford engine down...

Here's the link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/22/bu...2clunkers.html

NOW that is just LUCKY!!! I'm sure they were happy to drive away in the new Prius!

i'll bet they were! Glad nobody was hurt. And that it didn't catch fire before getting to the lot.

Talk about in the nick of time!

I would be so embarrassed yet so happy/thankful/grateful/relieved all at the same time!

Just did the cash for clunkers at the start of Friday. Now I am just waiting on the car. 2 week or so and I will have it. I went in today and the one manager said they did about 20-30 CFC yesterday. And had done 5 today so far

Your car is in the pipeline, so to speak?