Cash For Clunkers: The Other Side of the Story
DSCF7985, originally uploaded by Grudnick
Cash for clunkers has been a runaway success. This however doesn’t mean that everybody sees it that way. One interesting new addition to the YouTube lineup has been a series of clunker videos, featuring the deaths to these vehicles. They are almost done execution style, waiting to see just how long each vehicle will last before it finally gives up and heads to that big junkyard in the sky.
The way it works, is sodium silicate is poured into the hot engine of each vehicle and then it is run at around 2,000 rpm or so until its internals seize up, making it an official “clunker”. While I was never the type to break down in tears over the Titanic, Bambi, or Charlotte’s Web, I have to admit that some of these videos actually make me feel kind of bad for these unfortunate vehicles.
Here is one of a 95 Ford Explorer (I almost rooted for this little guy for a second there):
How about this Ford F-150 that just wouldn’t give up (it lasted 5-minutes, quite impressive):
Okay, give me a second to gather my composure… wipe my keyboard dry… and I’ll be right with you.
While the clunkers program has undoubtedly taken quite a few older, polluting vehicles off the streets, this is hardly the end to the SUV, as Wired so boldly claims. Probably one of the biggest reasons that the Ford Explorer is #1 in vehicles being turned into the program is that, well, it was not a very reliable vehicle.
A lot of folks have seen this as a chance to unload these disasters on wheels and pickup something, shall we say, a little more reliable. Many mechanics back in the day used to nickname the Explorer, the “Exploder”, as these vehicles rarely made it past the 100,000 mile marker without needing a heap of work done on them.
So, you can drop your party hats. The SUV is far from being gone. It maybe not the next best thing since sliced bread anymore, but there are still plenty of folks that still like those big vehicles. Trashing a few of the worst examples of an SUV is no indication of a wave of Smart Fortwo’s and Mini Cooper’s taking over the streets anytime in the near future.
August 12th, 2009 at 3:04 pm
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