This is a two part series, split into the UK and the USA. (Yup, they did this in the USA too) Make do and mend? Nah, scrap it and buy a new one. Full data on the UK scrappage scheme ua-cam.com/video/NLLNOUUqCUc/v-deo.html Full data on the USA scrappage scheme ua-cam.com/video/2ZMJ_oNtzzE/v-deo.html
Great video. CFC was a tragedy on many levels. One overlooked aspect is the complete loss of used parts. I tried to restore a nice F150 truck but was unable to buy used panels.
I'm a Cadillac guy and YES Im pissed they killed a ton of Lincoln Town Cars, Ford killed the Panther cars(Town Car, Grand Marquis, Crown Vic) only 2 years later in 2011, the last RWD body on frame classic American car. As much as I'll admit the 90s Cadillacs had their problems as a kid in 2009 I would have killed for a nice clean 90s/Early 2k's eldorado or seville as they where comfortable, quick( in a straight line) and had amazing exhaust note. The whole thing ruined the used car market deep into the 2010s and arguably it never really recovered and with all the used car prices sky now because of the 2 year old seasonal flu. Im still pretty dnam sure used car prices would be a bit better even now if 10+ years ago we hadn't just destroyed 400k running used cars so a bunch of people got a bit more on a trade in for new car that a lot of buyers where taking out subprime loans for that ended up being repo'd in the end anyway or left people so upside in their new car that they had to delay buying a new car even longer then they otherwise would have been able to. Terrible idea and all of the older car guys knew it was a bad idea back in 2009.
Communism at its finest these people who control our world eventually don't want anyone driving any vehicle except what is deemed allowed by the UN The who and other such organizations, they had to get rid of these cars so that there be less on the road because they were deemed unsafe (some of them may have had rust holes or things parts falling off and bad muffler's) but the rest of them could have been donated to those organizations that help the blind or help the deaf people or poor people can't afford a good car but can settle for one that is old maybe not in the best shape but runs well. Not only that but just as some other people have said about this American and UK program the Cash for clunkers and whatever else they called it, they had to take old cars off the road even if they were still nice and in good shape and ran well they had to basically the government that is, was lobbied by the car corporations who need to sell new cars all the time so they had to basically trick people into trading a nice cars and when those people asked about such cars and what would happen to him they weren't always told that none of the parts would be sold off they would just all be crushed and they would put some kind of saline in the engine that would ruin it so that nobody else could use it for their own vehicle, this was such a terrible idea and has ruined the used car market the only thing that's made it worse is the last 2 years with the mess that went on in 2020 which made used cars old or more modern ones much more valuable than a few years ago in 2019.
You're doing petrolheads (or gearheads as we're called in the US) of the world a service with these videos. Also, a few notes: -The reason why there's so few later Volvos, C-Class Mercs, and other oddities in the data is because unlike over in the UK, the requirements were very strict for CFC, the rules explicitly said the cars had to be 25 years or less old, or they had to have a weighted average of 18 or less MPG. -The Alfa Milano mentioned, is what you guys across the pond would know as the Alfa 75, which hurt my soul to see on the list. -There was a goddamn GMC Syclone in that list! -Your theory about a lot of the enthusiast cars being in bad shape seems to somewhat have been correct, as one of the dealers who scrapped a Maserati BiTurbo, did an interview later saying that the car, despite having less than 20k miles on the clock, was riddled with mechanical gremlins, and the owner had tried to sell it for months without a buyer before trading it in, as did the owner of the GMC Syclone. -According to a Jalopnik article from 2010, BOTH of the Roush F-150s, AND THE ASTON MARTIN were complete and utter lies. With one of them being a normal 89 F-150, and the other being a 1997 F-150, neither of which being Roush upgraded, and the "Aston Martin" just being a Mercury Grand Marquis. -The Duntov GT is a very sad, but another more than likely inaccurate one, as i would reckon there is probably single digit ones of those left. -I suspect the amount of computer inaccuracies and screw ups ended up being the result of Dealers not knowing how to work computers still, which is scary to think about, even in 2009. -As for the Maserati Quattroporte, that one apparently showed up in the data because it, and the BiTurbo had the same owner. -One very sad, and more than likely not a computer screw up is the large amount of Grey Market import Mercs and BMWs that were crushed, as those were probably cars bought by people in the military who had their cars exported home when they left the Army, Navy, etc. -There was a lot of Merkur Scorpios, which are already rare enough in the US as we only got the Scorpio for 2 model years before the Merkur brand was discontinued entirely. -The Infiniti Q45s are another sad one, as that was the first model they produced (as their response to the Lexus LS400, big Nissan V8 and all). And that's not even mentioning the fact that some of these cars were running, driving motors before being sent to the scrapper, and unlike the UK one were they were just put on a lot to decay for 15 years, these were all bare minimum had their engines destroyed before being sent to the crusher.
Sad way for legends to go regardless. Money is the only thing that prevents it from being restored to its former glory. I'm not okay with it at all. I'm building 2x 2gen eclipses.
The Buick GNX 4 of them what a shame low mileage ones sell now for 500 k $ what a shame to loose such a part of American history. They only made 547 of them . 😭
This is the first thing I've disagreed with you on...A Toyota Previa. I wasn't into them just thinking they're a minivan until we purchased one. They're such decent cars for what they are. The weirdness is what gets me the most, then their handling. They're very underpowered though. We took ours to Scotland to do the NC500 earlier this year.
Hot damn Geoff, that's nuts!! The data does very much suggest that a huge amount of these were people skewing from large town cars into large SUVs, which is how we saw the US market change over the 90s/00s (and then unduly influence car makers around the world into the stupidity of building unnecessarily large cars for every use).
got recommended the UK Scrappage scheme video before seeing this video, didn't even cross my mind that so many cool and desirable cars could be lost due to these schemes (luckily the US seems to be a bit more forgiving on this case, though still hurts). Who in their right minds would scrap an E30 M3? In 2009? That's insane, I hope that some of these cases, as other comments have said, are wrong models or entirely different cars, or people counter scamming with totalled/troublesome cars. But I don't think I'll sleep well today in any case, it's just too much. 2 Sunbeams have been lost, as per the UK video, my dad had to sell his Alpine to help pay for the house when I was a kid, so I didn't get to drive it, and have read they are very susceptible to rust, the chances I'll be able to drive one one day are very low.
Great comment, and yes I think with some of the really desirable stuff, there has to be a more complex story than the simple narrative!! Or at least we want to think so.
The real impact was how it impacted the used car market. Prices on especially trucks and suv's escalated enough to force less financially endowed drivers to buy cars of lower quality than they were accustomed to. Every dealership I talked to about it stated that they had to destroy cars that were nicer than what they had in the used lots.
He was talking about G20 and Ventura GMC vans those big camper vans that everybody used to have in the 80s and 90s and even into the 2000s, I was wondering why they're going for 2 and 3,000 now now I know why they crushed so many of them that when you find one on marketplace it's $3,000 even if it's Rusty and I have wanted to buy one ever since my dad got rid of his 86 model in 05 but I'm not paying the kind of prices people want for these anymore he used to pick them up for maybe 500 to 1500 or less depending on the mileage.
I was born in 95 and live in Los Angeles my whole life. This scam changed everything. When you say “they all died too” it’s very true. Not one of these cars you mentioned on the list are on the road today especially compared to 2005 comparison. Sooooooo sad so messed up and I cannot believe they thought making more trash would be good.
I had a clean 1985 MR2 with a bad engine. Couldn't find a source for rebuilt 4AGEs. Posted an ad in the MR2 forums, thought someone would want it to turn into a track car. No takers. Drove it knocking and sputtering to a scrapyard and the State of California gave me $1000 for it.
No one bought the Aztec because it became lemon law top contender within a couple months of it's release. Quality control at GM was very, very spotty and depended a lot on which line the vehicle came off of. The Aztec was full of electrical bugs, window leaks and other failures that had them back at dealer lots within 6 weeks of purchase. People that stuck with them sometimes ended up with a nice vehicle, but the reputation it earned hurt sales really bad so there aren't many out there anymore as there weren't that many to begin with.
Absolutely correct just like any person's first car there would have been kids coming up right now that maybe that was their first car and now it's going to be next to impossible for them to get a nice one because the government essentially gave their parents or grandparents very little amount of money for the car they had back in '09 and then shipped him off to China and then sold the press steel from the cars and trucks and vans back to the us as a former commenter on here headset sounds like a Ponzi scheme and we all got duped Europeans and Americans.
If you think that some of these exotic vehicles didn't get swapped out by some slick scrap yards or dealers to at least breakdown for the parts then your clueless. I left the business in 2008 right before the program and I kept in touch with the auction guys and yards so plenty of stories exist and I bet cars in storage. This nightmare cost the US Taxpayers like $150,000 per deal or more. A disaster program. Look into how many repossessions took place with the New Cars purchased after trading in the beaters.
@@GeoffBuysCars Thank you. You're doing petrolheads (or gearheads as we're called in the US) of the world a service with these videos. Also, a few notes: -The reason why there's so few later Volvos, C-Class Mercs, and other oddities in the data is because unlike over in the UK, the requirements were very strict for CFC, the rules explicitly said the cars had to be 25 years or less old, or they had to have a weighted average of 18 or less MPG. -The Alfa Milano mentioned, is what you guys across the pond would know as the Alfa 75, which hurt my soul to see on the list. -There was a goddamn GMC Syclone in that list! -Your theory about a lot of the enthusiast cars being in bad shape seems to somewhat have been correct, as one of the dealers who scrapped a Maserati BiTurbo, did an interview later saying that the car, despite having less than 20k miles on the clock, was riddled with mechanical gremlins, and the owner had tried to sell it for months without a buyer before trading it in, as did the owner of the GMC Syclone. -According to a Jalopnik article from 2010, BOTH of the Roush F-150s, AND THE ASTON MARTIN were complete and utter lies. With one of them being a normal 89 F-150, and the other being a 1997 F-150, neither of which being Roush upgraded, and the "Aston Martin" just being a Mercury Grand Marquis. -The Duntov GT is a very sad, but another more than likely inaccurate one, as i would reckon there is probably single digit ones of those left. -I suspect the amount of computer inaccuracies and screw ups ended up being the result of Dealers not knowing how to work computers still, which is scary to think about, even in 2009. -As for the Maserati Quattroporte, that one apparently showed up in the data because it, and the BiTurbo had the same owner. -One very sad, and more than likely not a computer screw up is the large amount of Grey Market import Mercs and BMWs that were crushed, as those were probably cars bought by people in the military who had their cars exported home when they left the Army, Navy, etc. -There was a lot of Merkur Scorpios, which are already rare enough in the US as we only got the Scorpio for 2 model years before the Merkur brand was discontinued entirely. -The Infiniti Q45s are another sad one, as that was the first model they produced (as their response to the Lexus LS400, big Nissan V8 and all). And that's not even mentioning the fact that some of these cars were running, driving motors before being sent to the scrapper, and unlike the UK one were they were just put on a lot to decay for 15 years, these were all bare minimum had their engines destroyed before being sent to the crusher.
@@destructionfun2 absolutely brilliant comment, and yes, like the Uk clearly the way cars are registered and recorded is flawed and full of issues and errors. I saw the maseratis listed and immediately pictured the scenario where it was a car full of gremlins, it just makes sense for what those cars were! I didn’t realise there was an average MPG stipulation and there is a tiny bit of this theory that makes sense... no one needs a family car that does 12mpg, but I can’t see the BMW’s needed to die, I bought an e34 525i on California once, 200k miles and zero artwork but it would have lasted forever and got decent MPG. It’s cars like that we should have kept... but I won’t mourn the loss of all those dodge caravans et al...!
Even if you say these cars aren't something you want to own, guess what every one of those Grandma Marquis still had Ford V8's that would bolt right into Mustangs. And losing all the less desirable cars only further drove up prices of desirable used cars and ruined engines and other parts that could have found their way into project cars and such, in a market like used cars everything is cyclical so yeah destroying the old ugly 90s cadillacs indirectly drove up the prices of the more desire Cadillac CTS's etc because it forced people who maybe just liked the older cadillacs to have to buy the newer ones that didn't get destroyed. And that would cause higher prices for people who where considering say a Cadillac CTS or say a 3 or 5 Series or a C or E class benz etc, which caused prices to be higher for people who where considering 5 series or 7 series, or E Class or S classes, etc.
How's club membership after you lost so many cars in 2009...? I'd like to try one to be fair, we never really god the big 'land yacht luxury cars' that the USA had.
@@GeoffBuysCars a true gem of the malaise era. Ed's Auto Reviews here on UA-cam did a great job explaining the thought process of car manufacturers during the time. They were big, slow, and cool as hell. But obviously there is no Lincoln Town Car Fan Club, I'm just messing with ya
@@chasenewberry6866 I am obsessed with Ed’s Auto Reviews, he gets a good solid mention at the end of the video. He’s def my favourite UA-cam. It’s not a man crush though. Much.
@@GeoffBuysCars Could you maybe stop with this nonsense? In the 1990 model year alone, they made 147,160 Lincoln Town Cars. Between 1992 and 1997, they made 668,505 Ford Crown Victoria I am not going to bother looking up the Mercury version. If you would like to own a panther platform car, you can probably find one for sale within 50 miles of any zip code you enter in the US. I am sure it would cost more to ship one then to buy it to begin with. You can get a "Grandma's garage" Sunday drive only cream puff for less then $8k. i would lean towards the Lincoln if you want the experiance, but the Mercury in fully loaded form is also like driving a pillow. The concept of good running cars being crushed is what makes Americans mad. Well, that and the fact taxpayers paid so much dang money for this program they didn't actually want. The idea crushing a perfectly good car and replacing it with a new one is somehow better for the environment is a illogical nonsense point to this day. reduce, reuse recycle they all blather on about, and then promote a program that destroys perfectly good vehicles.
Ford was pushing for it as they wanted the new car sales late in Trumps term. His administration basically ignored their request. MSM inflated this story as is typical. Rest assured, with the Democrats making ICE illegal on public roads(on the books in CA for 2032) that this program will return with an absolute vengeance very soon. GM and Chrysler have jumped into the empty pool headfirst with EV and will soon be screeching they need a bail out. Like Obama, current admin will allow it. Even if every American wanted an EV, the country is not ready to deal with them. They will use taxpayers own money to give money back to taxpayers to make EV "affordable". That's the true crime of this. Every car that gets turned in, the government just gives a taxpayer back some of their own money, then takes it back again threefold in administrative fees. Last go round, it was estimated every car turned in cost taxpayers $17k by the time everything was processed.
No. It was in the program the dealer had to drain the oil and pour a special solution(think it was water and baking soda) into the crankcase and then run the engine until it seized. Then, and good luck finding this as it got scrubbed from the internet years ago, the vehicles were put on a barge, sent to a chinese floating smelter/foundry barely into international waters where the vehicles were dumped in complete, tires, battery, oil, whatever. The "stuff" like plastic and tires burned off, the stuff that didn't was skimmed off the top and dumped overboard into the ocean. Then they made basic sheetmetal roll stock out of the rest and sold it back to us. Worst steel probably ever produced, the stuff obviously had contaminates in it from all the stuff that never should have gone in the first place. Like I said, good luck finding this info it was scrubbed maybe 2 years after the program ended. I heard about it on an NPR segment back then, but thats gone too.
There were a few like that Gnx that was taken out of the program and also I bought an E36 M3 some fool had taken out of the program it was never shown on the list as it was also taken out
Don't be surprised if you see a lot of BMWs and Mercs in that number, as these cars are easy to mechanically total due to their extremely high repair and maintenance costs once they're out of warranty (here in North America)
With the exception of the European (personally shedding a tear over the 190Es) and some of the rare US cars I’m beginning to think this, overall, did the America a great service.hot damn Geoff that’s nuts old boy…
If the government thinks it is a good idea, 99% of the time it is not. That is why I vote no on any ballot proposition that is not simple, straightforward, and of obvious benefit. Like, say a tax cut.
Would be interested to know the criteria because over here from memory the cars had to be running and driving to qualify. It would explain the rarer big engine cars being 'junked' if you was able to trade it in as incomplete I.e no engine, body work ect.
Definitely few of them especially the fool who scrapped an RX-7 a Supra the M3 and the Typhoon also the Gnx ain’t no way they don’t cry themselves to sleep every night knowing they could have been out of debt just selling one car
I was able to pick up an Oldsmobile regency 98 elite 1991 model for $800 recently, they only made 54,000(even with the car being such a boat it still gets about 27 to 30 mi to the gallon of them in 1991 which was the last generation which was I believe the 11th or 12th generation (they started making them just before world war II in 1941 and 1942 and didn't pick him up again until the end of the war) and I know it's a big boat but they're only 54,000 made because it was almost a $60,000 car in 1991 they ended the production of the Oldsmobile regency 98 elite and the touring model which is even rarer in 1996 and replaced it with the Aurora,, I have a sneaky suspicion that a lot of those 54,000 or so Oldsmobile 98 were crushed during the Cash for clunkers program because I don't remember seeing them as a child in the 90s and even as an adult I've only seen one or two and the one I own is the only one I've ever seen in person.
4th gen camaros aren't desirable... clean 93-97 z28's & SS's are going for very good money now and due to the MPG requirements most probably where Z28/SS V8 models.
Regardless of if you like the cars that got scrapped or not, it cost the taxpayer MONGO dollars per vehicle turned in for administrative fees and otherwise. Further, removing so many used cars from the market caused the used market to explode with inflation, prices doubled and tripled in the next two years. It took ten years for things to stabilize with used vs new prices. And it makes me chuckle anytime people talk about gas usage in the US at that time. Gas was $1/gallon in the 90's. 85 cents in many places. It climbed to $1.50 in the 2000's. This entire program was designed as an environmental program, and to manipulate the market to help out GM and Ford that took tax payer money to survive two years earlier. To your numbers, of course Ford had the highest numbers, they sold the most vehicles in the twenty years prior to this. And sorry to say, your biased tone towards the vehicles themselves really, really detracts from this video. This should be a factual report style video but instead you are cheering a financial disaster put into play by the world's richest people because you don't like Ford's panther platform(example). And they certainly didn't "all" get scrapped. 7k cars is a drop in the bucket for one model year much less the 30 years the panther platform existed across three brand badges. As for the police cars, when half the public is riding around in a 6000lb truck a 4500lb crossover with "scary" paint is not that scary. You get excited and lament the loss of some Mercedes and beemers. In the NA region, they mad modifications to them for import. they are not the same. Further, they were treated as ultra luxury, even when they did not desrves it, and so parts cost 10x or more then contemporary domestic cars. People scrapped a perfect beemer that needed an engine overhaul because the repair bill was 3x the value of the car. 90's BMW cars litter the landscape here because people can;t afford to repair them for the parts, but the people that like them don;t want to part with them. The Pontiac Aztec was a quality control disaster. they sold poorly because they got a reputation as lemon law top contender within months of their release. This is all why you should have left the bias at the door, you don;t know enough about the car scene in the US to make good commentary about it.
How can you get a better discount than that on a car as inexpensive as the i10? There's literally very little money left for the seller to earn at all...
I wonder if americans got 850 or was most of them already called v70? Because weirdly enough i dont remember seeing many 850's in american volvo videos ..
Good chunk of vehicles they destroyed where nice and vehicles like the Crown Vic where bulletproof then the videos showed these cars where perfectly fine before they destroyed them
@@LastOnSunday That car isn't in the data... I think there are cases where the dealer would say 'yes we will take that in as a clunker' and then say 'oi Dave, write this one down as a clunker for the customer but put it in the back showroom with a big price on it, we won't tell the government'
@@GeoffBuysCars the Aston Martin but mainly the many cars firebird, Fleetwood Cadillac, and mustang that we’re older models that we’re in really great shape
I love ugly cars. You don't have to care for them cosmetically. Just drive and change the oil. The ugliest cars, I think, are the Camaro and Firebird. I want a Pontiac Aztek SO bad to live in. It's got everything I need and want in a vehicle.
cash for clunkers was completely stupid some of the cars were actual garbage Im surprised they ended up in the scrapyard instead of the landfill while some of them were nice ars that didn't deserve to be scrapped
This is a two part series, split into the UK and the USA.
(Yup, they did this in the USA too)
Make do and mend? Nah, scrap it and buy a new one.
Full data on the UK scrappage scheme
ua-cam.com/video/NLLNOUUqCUc/v-deo.html
Full data on the USA scrappage scheme
ua-cam.com/video/2ZMJ_oNtzzE/v-deo.html
Great video. CFC was a tragedy on many levels. One overlooked aspect is the complete loss of used parts. I tried to restore a nice F150 truck but was unable to buy used panels.
RIP to all the Cherokees
They're still around. They own casinos now.
it kills me..
Hot damn Geoff that’s nuts! R.I.P to the four GNX’s that didn’t make it… cool cars, didn’t deserve to die that way. 😔
Valuable cars. Half a million down the drain.
Hope the owners cry themselves to sleep every night knowing they could have had half a million IF THEY JUST KEPT THE DAMN CAR
I'm a Cadillac guy and YES Im pissed they killed a ton of Lincoln Town Cars, Ford killed the Panther cars(Town Car, Grand Marquis, Crown Vic) only 2 years later in 2011, the last RWD body on frame classic American car. As much as I'll admit the 90s Cadillacs had their problems as a kid in 2009 I would have killed for a nice clean 90s/Early 2k's eldorado or seville as they where comfortable, quick( in a straight line) and had amazing exhaust note. The whole thing ruined the used car market deep into the 2010s and arguably it never really recovered and with all the used car prices sky now because of the 2 year old seasonal flu. Im still pretty dnam sure used car prices would be a bit better even now if 10+ years ago we hadn't just destroyed 400k running used cars so a bunch of people got a bit more on a trade in for new car that a lot of buyers where taking out subprime loans for that ended up being repo'd in the end anyway or left people so upside in their new car that they had to delay buying a new car even longer then they otherwise would have been able to. Terrible idea and all of the older car guys knew it was a bad idea back in 2009.
I will hold on to my 1996 Fleetwood Brougham until they pry my cold, dead hands from the steering wheel!
Communism at its finest these people who control our world eventually don't want anyone driving any vehicle except what is deemed allowed by the UN The who and other such organizations, they had to get rid of these cars so that there be less on the road because they were deemed unsafe (some of them may have had rust holes or things parts falling off and bad muffler's) but the rest of them could have been donated to those organizations that help the blind or help the deaf people or poor people can't afford a good car but can settle for one that is old maybe not in the best shape but runs well. Not only that but just as some other people have said about this American and UK program the Cash for clunkers and whatever else they called it, they had to take old cars off the road even if they were still nice and in good shape and ran well they had to basically the government that is, was lobbied by the car corporations who need to sell new cars all the time so they had to basically trick people into trading a nice cars and when those people asked about such cars and what would happen to him they weren't always told that none of the parts would be sold off they would just all be crushed and they would put some kind of saline in the engine that would ruin it so that nobody else could use it for their own vehicle, this was such a terrible idea and has ruined the used car market the only thing that's made it worse is the last 2 years with the mess that went on in 2020 which made used cars old or more modern ones much more valuable than a few years ago in 2019.
You're doing petrolheads (or gearheads as we're called in the US) of the world a service with these videos.
Also, a few notes:
-The reason why there's so few later Volvos, C-Class Mercs, and other oddities in the data is because unlike over in the UK, the requirements were very strict for CFC, the rules explicitly said the cars had to be 25 years or less old, or they had to have a weighted average of 18 or less MPG.
-The Alfa Milano mentioned, is what you guys across the pond would know as the Alfa 75, which hurt my soul to see on the list.
-There was a goddamn GMC Syclone in that list!
-Your theory about a lot of the enthusiast cars being in bad shape seems to somewhat have been correct, as one of the dealers who scrapped a Maserati BiTurbo, did an interview later saying that the car, despite having less than 20k miles on the clock, was riddled with mechanical gremlins, and the owner had tried to sell it for months without a buyer before trading it in, as did the owner of the GMC Syclone.
-According to a Jalopnik article from 2010, BOTH of the Roush F-150s, AND THE ASTON MARTIN were complete and utter lies. With one of them being a normal 89 F-150, and the other being a 1997 F-150, neither of which being Roush upgraded, and the "Aston Martin" just being a Mercury Grand Marquis.
-The Duntov GT is a very sad, but another more than likely inaccurate one, as i would reckon there is probably single digit ones of those left.
-I suspect the amount of computer inaccuracies and screw ups ended up being the result of Dealers not knowing how to work computers still, which is scary to think about, even in 2009.
-As for the Maserati Quattroporte, that one apparently showed up in the data because it, and the BiTurbo had the same owner.
-One very sad, and more than likely not a computer screw up is the large amount of Grey Market import Mercs and BMWs that were crushed, as those were probably cars bought by people in the military who had their cars exported home when they left the Army, Navy, etc.
-There was a lot of Merkur Scorpios, which are already rare enough in the US as we only got the Scorpio for 2 model years before the Merkur brand was discontinued entirely.
-The Infiniti Q45s are another sad one, as that was the first model they produced (as their response to the Lexus LS400, big Nissan V8 and all).
And that's not even mentioning the fact that some of these cars were running, driving motors before being sent to the scrapper, and unlike the UK one were they were just put on a lot to decay for 15 years, these were all bare minimum had their engines destroyed before being sent to the crusher.
Thanks for the extra info
I have a typhoon number 2001 and I saw a video where there was also a typhoon on the clunker lot. just over 4000 made and under 2000 syclones.
You talk about about screw ups and they all seem to be on the pleasant side of the fairy tale.
Then also there was a twin turbo manual RX-7 and a probably twin turbo Supra and too many 300ZX’s
I hope that all of the rarer cars were either rusted to hell, or full of mechanical or electrical issues
If not I am sad
Sad way for legends to go regardless. Money is the only thing that prevents it from being restored to its former glory. I'm not okay with it at all.
I'm building 2x 2gen eclipses.
Older cars from the 80s and 90s are better than modern car
It depends
the loss of most of these cars makes me very sad.
The Buick GNX 4 of them what a shame low mileage ones sell now for 500 k $ what a shame to loose such a part of American history. They only made 547 of them . 😭
This is the first thing I've disagreed with you on...A Toyota Previa. I wasn't into them just thinking they're a minivan until we purchased one. They're such decent cars for what they are. The weirdness is what gets me the most, then their handling. They're very underpowered though. We took ours to Scotland to do the NC500 earlier this year.
I actually like the shape of the Previa, the early ones, wouldn't mind trying one for a review.
Very interesting how Toyota is really popular in the US and her relatively speaking, not many were scrapped.
I've since learnt that cars scrapped had to have combined mPG of less than 25 or something.
Hot damn Geoff, that's nuts!! The data does very much suggest that a huge amount of these were people skewing from large town cars into large SUVs, which is how we saw the US market change over the 90s/00s (and then unduly influence car makers around the world into the stupidity of building unnecessarily large cars for every use).
Hot damn Geoff thats Nuts
The 3800 series 1 GM engine was good.
I'm surprised there were no Bentley or Rolls-Royce in the list. Where I live in the states, I see more than a few rusting away as lawn ornaments.
got recommended the UK Scrappage scheme video before seeing this video, didn't even cross my mind that so many cool and desirable cars could be lost due to these schemes (luckily the US seems to be a bit more forgiving on this case, though still hurts). Who in their right minds would scrap an E30 M3? In 2009? That's insane, I hope that some of these cases, as other comments have said, are wrong models or entirely different cars, or people counter scamming with totalled/troublesome cars. But I don't think I'll sleep well today in any case, it's just too much. 2 Sunbeams have been lost, as per the UK video, my dad had to sell his Alpine to help pay for the house when I was a kid, so I didn't get to drive it, and have read they are very susceptible to rust, the chances I'll be able to drive one one day are very low.
Great comment, and yes I think with some of the really desirable stuff, there has to be a more complex story than the simple narrative!! Or at least we want to think so.
The real impact was how it impacted the used car market. Prices on especially trucks and suv's escalated enough to force less financially endowed drivers to buy cars of lower quality than they were accustomed to. Every dealership I talked to about it stated that they had to destroy cars that were nicer than what they had in the used lots.
He was talking about G20 and Ventura GMC vans those big camper vans that everybody used to have in the 80s and 90s and even into the 2000s, I was wondering why they're going for 2 and 3,000 now now I know why they crushed so many of them that when you find one on marketplace it's $3,000 even if it's Rusty and I have wanted to buy one ever since my dad got rid of his 86 model in 05 but I'm not paying the kind of prices people want for these anymore he used to pick them up for maybe 500 to 1500 or less depending on the mileage.
I was born in 95 and live in Los Angeles my whole life. This scam changed everything. When you say “they all died too” it’s very true. Not one of these cars you mentioned on the list are on the road today especially compared to 2005 comparison. Sooooooo sad so messed up and I cannot believe they thought making more trash would be good.
I had a clean 1985 MR2 with a bad engine. Couldn't find a source for rebuilt 4AGEs. Posted an ad in the MR2 forums, thought someone would want it to turn into a track car. No takers. Drove it knocking and sputtering to a scrapyard and the State of California gave me $1000 for it.
Hot damn Geoff, that's nuts! Glad I'm not the only one who thinks the Pontiac Aztec was well ahead of its time. The yanks made a lot of crap.
Really cool looking cars, especially in the spec I've shown, yellow with the black plastic mouldings.
No one bought the Aztec because it became lemon law top contender within a couple months of it's release. Quality control at GM was very, very spotty and depended a lot on which line the vehicle came off of. The Aztec was full of electrical bugs, window leaks and other failures that had them back at dealer lots within 6 weeks of purchase.
People that stuck with them sometimes ended up with a nice vehicle, but the reputation it earned hurt sales really bad so there aren't many out there anymore as there weren't that many to begin with.
Doesnt matter if they were 90's shitboxes, THEY SHOULDNT HAD BEEN SCRAPED
Absolutely correct just like any person's first car there would have been kids coming up right now that maybe that was their first car and now it's going to be next to impossible for them to get a nice one because the government essentially gave their parents or grandparents very little amount of money for the car they had back in '09 and then shipped him off to China and then sold the press steel from the cars and trucks and vans back to the us as a former commenter on here headset sounds like a Ponzi scheme and we all got duped Europeans and Americans.
ASC didn’t only make the GNX, they did convertible conversions of cars that weren’t offered as convertibles and a few modified Ford’s
Would that have been down as a Buick then? I’ll double check that. Guess there’s no way of knowing what those 4 cars are but let me comeback to you...
They also made the Mclaren Capri coupe
@@LastOnSunday I like those a lot...
If you think that some of these exotic vehicles didn't get swapped out by some slick scrap yards or dealers to at least breakdown for the parts then your clueless. I left the business in 2008 right before the program and I kept in touch with the auction guys and yards so plenty of stories exist and I bet cars in storage. This nightmare cost the US Taxpayers like $150,000 per deal or more. A disaster program. Look into how many repossessions took place with the New Cars purchased after trading in the beaters.
Hot Damn Geoff! Would you be interested in doing the Italian or French ones next?
Yup, I’ll find the data, and then do a massive conclusion for a worldwide video...
@@GeoffBuysCars Thank you. You're doing petrolheads (or gearheads as we're called in the US) of the world a service with these videos.
Also, a few notes:
-The reason why there's so few later Volvos, C-Class Mercs, and other oddities in the data is because unlike over in the UK, the requirements were very strict for CFC, the rules explicitly said the cars had to be 25 years or less old, or they had to have a weighted average of 18 or less MPG.
-The Alfa Milano mentioned, is what you guys across the pond would know as the Alfa 75, which hurt my soul to see on the list.
-There was a goddamn GMC Syclone in that list!
-Your theory about a lot of the enthusiast cars being in bad shape seems to somewhat have been correct, as one of the dealers who scrapped a Maserati BiTurbo, did an interview later saying that the car, despite having less than 20k miles on the clock, was riddled with mechanical gremlins, and the owner had tried to sell it for months without a buyer before trading it in, as did the owner of the GMC Syclone.
-According to a Jalopnik article from 2010, BOTH of the Roush F-150s, AND THE ASTON MARTIN were complete and utter lies. With one of them being a normal 89 F-150, and the other being a 1997 F-150, neither of which being Roush upgraded, and the "Aston Martin" just being a Mercury Grand Marquis.
-The Duntov GT is a very sad, but another more than likely inaccurate one, as i would reckon there is probably single digit ones of those left.
-I suspect the amount of computer inaccuracies and screw ups ended up being the result of Dealers not knowing how to work computers still, which is scary to think about, even in 2009.
-As for the Maserati Quattroporte, that one apparently showed up in the data because it, and the BiTurbo had the same owner.
-One very sad, and more than likely not a computer screw up is the large amount of Grey Market import Mercs and BMWs that were crushed, as those were probably cars bought by people in the military who had their cars exported home when they left the Army, Navy, etc.
-There was a lot of Merkur Scorpios, which are already rare enough in the US as we only got the Scorpio for 2 model years before the Merkur brand was discontinued entirely.
-The Infiniti Q45s are another sad one, as that was the first model they produced (as their response to the Lexus LS400, big Nissan V8 and all).
And that's not even mentioning the fact that some of these cars were running, driving motors before being sent to the scrapper, and unlike the UK one were they were just put on a lot to decay for 15 years, these were all bare minimum had their engines destroyed before being sent to the crusher.
@@destructionfun2 absolutely brilliant comment, and yes, like the Uk clearly the way cars are registered and recorded is flawed and full of issues and errors. I saw the maseratis listed and immediately pictured the scenario where it was a car full of gremlins, it just makes sense for what those cars were!
I didn’t realise there was an average MPG stipulation and there is a tiny bit of this theory that makes sense... no one needs a family car that does 12mpg, but I can’t see the BMW’s needed to die, I bought an e34 525i on California once, 200k miles and zero artwork but it would have lasted forever and got decent MPG. It’s cars like that we should have kept... but I won’t mourn the loss of all those dodge caravans et al...!
@@destructionfun2 Can you post this comment on the main video thread? (not as a reply to me). I think it deserves the attention.
@@GeoffBuysCars done!
Even if you say these cars aren't something you want to own, guess what every one of those Grandma Marquis still had Ford V8's that would bolt right into Mustangs. And losing all the less desirable cars only further drove up prices of desirable used cars and ruined engines and other parts that could have found their way into project cars and such, in a market like used cars everything is cyclical so yeah destroying the old ugly 90s cadillacs indirectly drove up the prices of the more desire Cadillac CTS's etc because it forced people who maybe just liked the older cadillacs to have to buy the newer ones that didn't get destroyed. And that would cause higher prices for people who where considering say a Cadillac CTS or say a 3 or 5 Series or a C or E class benz etc, which caused prices to be higher for people who where considering 5 series or 7 series, or E Class or S classes, etc.
Exactly
Hot dang Geoff, that's nuts! That's a lot of cars. Take care, Poo
Lincoln Town Car Fan Club President here, how dare you
How's club membership after you lost so many cars in 2009...? I'd like to try one to be fair, we never really god the big 'land yacht luxury cars' that the USA had.
@@GeoffBuysCars a true gem of the malaise era. Ed's Auto Reviews here on UA-cam did a great job explaining the thought process of car manufacturers during the time. They were big, slow, and cool as hell. But obviously there is no Lincoln Town Car Fan Club, I'm just messing with ya
@@chasenewberry6866 I am obsessed with Ed’s Auto Reviews, he gets a good solid mention at the end of the video. He’s def my favourite UA-cam. It’s not a man crush though. Much.
@@chasenewberry6866 and I can garuantee there’s a Town Car Fan Club. There’s a club for everything 😂😂
@@GeoffBuysCars Could you maybe stop with this nonsense?
In the 1990 model year alone, they made 147,160 Lincoln Town Cars.
Between 1992 and 1997, they made 668,505 Ford Crown Victoria
I am not going to bother looking up the Mercury version.
If you would like to own a panther platform car, you can probably find one for sale within 50 miles of any zip code you enter in the US. I am sure it would cost more to ship one then to buy it to begin with. You can get a "Grandma's garage" Sunday drive only cream puff for less then $8k. i would lean towards the Lincoln if you want the experiance, but the Mercury in fully loaded form is also like driving a pillow.
The concept of good running cars being crushed is what makes Americans mad. Well, that and the fact taxpayers paid so much dang money for this program they didn't actually want. The idea crushing a perfectly good car and replacing it with a new one is somehow better for the environment is a illogical nonsense point to this day. reduce, reuse recycle they all blather on about, and then promote a program that destroys perfectly good vehicles.
They tried to do this again in the Trump admin and it was very quickly struck down thank god.
Ford was pushing for it as they wanted the new car sales late in Trumps term. His administration basically ignored their request. MSM inflated this story as is typical.
Rest assured, with the Democrats making ICE illegal on public roads(on the books in CA for 2032) that this program will return with an absolute vengeance very soon. GM and Chrysler have jumped into the empty pool headfirst with EV and will soon be screeching they need a bail out. Like Obama, current admin will allow it. Even if every American wanted an EV, the country is not ready to deal with them. They will use taxpayers own money to give money back to taxpayers to make EV "affordable". That's the true crime of this. Every car that gets turned in, the government just gives a taxpayer back some of their own money, then takes it back again threefold in administrative fees. Last go round, it was estimated every car turned in cost taxpayers $17k by the time everything was processed.
I wander if some of those cars were saved from going to the scrap yard and getting scraped?
No. It was in the program the dealer had to drain the oil and pour a special solution(think it was water and baking soda) into the crankcase and then run the engine until it seized.
Then, and good luck finding this as it got scrubbed from the internet years ago, the vehicles were put on a barge, sent to a chinese floating smelter/foundry barely into international waters where the vehicles were dumped in complete, tires, battery, oil, whatever. The "stuff" like plastic and tires burned off, the stuff that didn't was skimmed off the top and dumped overboard into the ocean. Then they made basic sheetmetal roll stock out of the rest and sold it back to us.
Worst steel probably ever produced, the stuff obviously had contaminates in it from all the stuff that never should have gone in the first place.
Like I said, good luck finding this info it was scrubbed maybe 2 years after the program ended. I heard about it on an NPR segment back then, but thats gone too.
There was a small set of cars I believe that got smuggled out to South America and their engines replaced
There were a few like that Gnx that was taken out of the program and also I bought an E36 M3 some fool had taken out of the program it was never shown on the list as it was also taken out
Hot damn jeff that’s nuts
Don't be surprised if you see a lot of BMWs and Mercs in that number, as these cars are easy to mechanically total due to their extremely high repair and maintenance costs once they're out of warranty (here in North America)
HOT DAMN GEOFF THATS NUTS!
Hot Damn Geoff thats Nuts!, what a Faux Pas, talking about Pontiac Firebirds and showing a Chevy IROC-z Camero.
Those cars are SO ugly! I love my hybrid! There is more to life than a car. My hybrid gets me to all of my Comicon conventions in the country.
With the exception of the European (personally shedding a tear over the 190Es) and some of the rare US cars I’m beginning to think this, overall, did the America a great service.hot damn Geoff that’s nuts old boy…
Cash for clunker from 13 years ago cause the price on old sub to worth $10,000 today.
Exactly. It skewed the market entirely.
It seems a lot of the cars he likes honestly suck and are seen as 90’s crap boxes that ended up in a junkyard anyway.
Hot damn, Geoff! Thats nuts!
Dot Ham Geoffrey, Nats Thuts!
😂🎉🎉
A lot of the newer cars in C4C were insurance scams or already written off lol
Yes I thought there was something iffy about those Roush trucks.
I enjoyed the "jagwaaar" pronunciation
I'm glad the oldest car was from 1984 because that was around the point that most cars became terrible anyway
If the government thinks it is a good idea, 99% of the time it is not. That is why I vote no on any ballot proposition that is not simple, straightforward, and of obvious benefit. Like, say a tax cut.
The Astin Martin trade in was definitely a ticked off wife LOL
Just like the UK scrappage scheme video, this one is kind of too painful to watch in one go... such senseless waste 😥
Would be interested to know the criteria because over here from memory the cars had to be running and driving to qualify. It would explain the rarer big engine cars being 'junked' if you was able to trade it in as incomplete I.e no engine, body work ect.
I wonder how many owners not regretting scrapping their old vehicles.
You mean boomer mobiles.
Definitely few of them especially the fool who scrapped an RX-7 a Supra the M3 and the Typhoon also the Gnx ain’t no way they don’t cry themselves to sleep every night knowing they could have been out of debt just selling one car
Such a dumb program now you can’t find many good 80s and 90s cars for cheap
I was able to pick up an Oldsmobile regency 98 elite 1991 model for $800 recently, they only made 54,000(even with the car being such a boat it still gets about 27 to 30 mi to the gallon of them in 1991 which was the last generation which was I believe the 11th or 12th generation (they started making them just before world war II in 1941 and 1942 and didn't pick him up again until the end of the war) and I know it's a big boat but they're only 54,000 made because it was almost a $60,000 car in 1991 they ended the production of the Oldsmobile regency 98 elite and the touring model which is even rarer in 1996 and replaced it with the Aurora,, I have a sneaky suspicion that a lot of those 54,000 or so Oldsmobile 98 were crushed during the Cash for clunkers program because I don't remember seeing them as a child in the 90s and even as an adult I've only seen one or two and the one I own is the only one I've ever seen in person.
4th gen camaros aren't desirable... clean 93-97 z28's & SS's are going for very good money now and due to the MPG requirements most probably where Z28/SS V8 models.
Hot damn Geoff thats nuts
Hot Dam Geoff , that’s nuts
Oldest car a dealer took in locally, 1978 f 150, because it had an 80s drive train
As well as 4 1st get prius
I love the new Mustang Hybrids. Long live Mustangs!
Regardless of if you like the cars that got scrapped or not, it cost the taxpayer MONGO dollars per vehicle turned in for administrative fees and otherwise.
Further, removing so many used cars from the market caused the used market to explode with inflation, prices doubled and tripled in the next two years. It took ten years for things to stabilize with used vs new prices.
And it makes me chuckle anytime people talk about gas usage in the US at that time. Gas was $1/gallon in the 90's. 85 cents in many places. It climbed to $1.50 in the 2000's. This entire program was designed as an environmental program, and to manipulate the market to help out GM and Ford that took tax payer money to survive two years earlier.
To your numbers, of course Ford had the highest numbers, they sold the most vehicles in the twenty years prior to this.
And sorry to say, your biased tone towards the vehicles themselves really, really detracts from this video. This should be a factual report style video but instead you are cheering a financial disaster put into play by the world's richest people because you don't like Ford's panther platform(example).
And they certainly didn't "all" get scrapped. 7k cars is a drop in the bucket for one model year much less the 30 years the panther platform existed across three brand badges.
As for the police cars, when half the public is riding around in a 6000lb truck a 4500lb crossover with "scary" paint is not that scary.
You get excited and lament the loss of some Mercedes and beemers. In the NA region, they mad modifications to them for import. they are not the same. Further, they were treated as ultra luxury, even when they did not desrves it, and so parts cost 10x or more then contemporary domestic cars. People scrapped a perfect beemer that needed an engine overhaul because the repair bill was 3x the value of the car. 90's BMW cars litter the landscape here because people can;t afford to repair them for the parts, but the people that like them don;t want to part with them.
The Pontiac Aztec was a quality control disaster. they sold poorly because they got a reputation as lemon law top contender within months of their release.
This is all why you should have left the bias at the door, you don;t know enough about the car scene in the US to make good commentary about it.
I love the Pontiac Aztek and my hybrid. The ugliest were the Firebird and Camaro.
352 FC RX7's? I get the apex seals weren't the greatest and they packed power, but yikes!
you look shockingly similiar to geowizard
Dam the Aztec vibe is so trueeeee wtf. !!!!!!!!!
How can you get a better discount than that on a car as inexpensive as the i10? There's literally very little money left for the seller to earn at all...
I wonder if americans got 850 or was most of them already called v70? Because weirdly enough i dont remember seeing many 850's in american volvo videos ..
Rip to 9nd generation f series
HOT DAMN GEOFF THATS NUTS BUT MOST OF THOSE WERE UGLY.
Grand Marquis not cool, but was a damn fine car
Good chunk of vehicles they destroyed where nice and vehicles like the Crown Vic where bulletproof then the videos showed these cars where perfectly fine before they destroyed them
Thank you for this video
glances over entire brands but has to go through all shitty 3 series trims
Hot dam Geoff…bats huts
Bats huts. Homes for marsupials. Are they marsupials?! *consults google* Balls. They're mammals. Oh well.
Not the fleetwood😢
Hot damm Geoff, that's nuts!
Which one hurt the most?
I would love to know the story behind the 1997 Bentley Continental R that got the owner a $4500 credit towards his new car.
@@LastOnSunday That car isn't in the data... I think there are cases where the dealer would say
'yes we will take that in as a clunker'
and then say
'oi Dave, write this one down as a clunker for the customer but put it in the back showroom with a big price on it, we won't tell the government'
@@GeoffBuysCars the Aston Martin but mainly the many cars firebird, Fleetwood Cadillac, and mustang that we’re older models that we’re in really great shape
RIP to the Safaris and Astro vans. Thanks Obama for being such a conartist
I love ugly cars. You don't have to care for them cosmetically. Just drive and change the oil. The ugliest cars, I think, are the Camaro and Firebird. I want a Pontiac Aztek SO bad to live in. It's got everything I need and want in a vehicle.
Same thing with covid shots for humans
Hot damn!
GMX! Wow!
Old cars are better full stop
SN95 thats a bit okay 😂
19:19 hahahaha
Hyperstupidity
No one was buying European cars after the cash for clunkers. European cars suck. If you want a cat that's gonna last forever, get a Japanese car.
And yet those same Japanese rotboxes are the first to break on real roads while German made cars take it over and over
One temp hire that fing funny lol.. Business is good a???
?
RIP to my 03 maxima and 99 grand Cherokee limited 5.9L 😢
cash for clunkers was completely stupid some of the cars were actual garbage Im surprised they ended up in the scrapyard instead of the landfill while some of them were nice ars that didn't deserve to be scrapped