Australia gets a 'Cash For Clunkers' program!

[mafia_boy]

Source.

THE Federal Government will give $2000 to anyone who updates their old car, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has announced.
From January next year anyone who trades in a car manufactured before 1995 for one that meets emissions standards will receive a $2000 rebate from the Government.

"Australians own a lot of old motor cars, and those old cars guzzle a lot of petrol and they spew out a lot of pollution," Ms Gillard said in the marginal Labor-held electorate of Forde, south of Brisbane.

"I want to help Australians to update thir motor vehicles," she said, noting that the old cars would be turned into scrap metal.

The rebate will be on offer for 200,000 new vehicles, costing the Government $394 million over the forward estimates which it will fund by redirecting funds.

Ms Gillard also announced new mandatory fuel efficiency standards for all new cars from 2015.

See, I'm not too sure about this program as we are quite different to our fellow Americans. Although 1 in 5 cars are over 15yrs old, a great percentage of these are actually JDM grey imports (R32 & R33 Skylines, S13 & early S14 Silvias, JZA70 & early JZA80 Supras, JZZ20 & JZZ30 Soarers, Evo's 1 through 3, early FTO's, even DC2R Integra's!) so to scrap a lot of these cars would defeat the purpose of the import scheme in my eyes. However, there are a lot of Commodores & Falcons (VN to VR Commy's & EA to EF Falcons) that are absolute bombs that should've been taken off the road years ago, and add to that the amount Magna's & Camry's that are floating around that should be killed off with fire at most opportunities.

Also, we might end up with completely stupid people who will trade in a perfectly running Maserati as what happened in the US because they were in the age bracket for being a 'clunker' and I feel that this will also happen over here, not to mention people who might deliberately seize an engine to get an advantage with this scheme.

What do you guys think?? Let us know.

 

[Paulie]

I think that because I live on the country-side, it seems like a good 70% or more of cars on the road are bombs, I hope a LOT of old fourbies die with this.

 

[lpb-nissan-gt-r]

Took your time the uk one has ended.

 

[Tornado]

Is the Australian automobile industry in that much arrears that they need to pass another round of this pure idiocy under the guise of environmental protection?

 

[JCE]

God I hope little to none of the awsomeness gets clunkered. This upsets me.

 

[mafia_boy]

I think that because I live on the country-side, it seems like a good 70% or more of cars on the road are bombs, I hope a LOT of old fourbies die with this.

I doubt it Paulie, you and I know the people who own those 4x4's are almost diehard redneck "ARE YOOOU AN AUS-TRAAAAAAY-LIAN?" type of people that would rather give their first born kid than their beloved bush bashing pig hunting 4x4.

Took your time the uk one has ended.

Blame our government, not us and it's these kneejerk reactions from Labor in the past 3yrs with all their policies that's pissed off such a lot of Australians. It's not even really needed to a degree, it's just with all the fracas over the Emission Trading Scheme over here, putting prices on carbon, mining, etc. that this got thrown into the picture......almost as an afterthought. Also, only $2k?? Didn't the American's and Brit's get a lot more for their clunkers??

Is the Australian automobile industry in that much arrears that they need to pass another round of this pure idiocy under the guise of environmental protection?

Nothing to do with the auto industry, it's all about being "carbon friendly" as the Labor government puts up another scheme regarding helping the environment. To tell you the truth, it will probably end up the same as our insulation scheme....a complete and utter failure because of the incompetence of the Rudd/Gillard government. Honestly, these guys are as good at making decent policies as George W. Bush was at making a decent speech.

God I hope little to none of the awsomeness gets clunkered. This upsets me.

I'm hoping too JCE, and unfortunately this will reduce the amount of potential project cars for car modifiers in the future. The amount of R31's & VL's, not to mention many other great base cars for modifying will almost disappear overnight if the car community doesn't step in soon!

 

[Tornado]

Nothing to do with the auto industry, it's all about being "carbon friendly" as the Labor government puts up another scheme regarding helping the environment.

So the Australian auto industry isn't having problems and your government is just that stupid that they believe C4C schemes truly help the environment?

 

[Jay]

So the Australian auto industry isn't having problems and your government is just that stupid that they believe C4C schemes truly help the environment?

Correct, but I think they want to appeal to the stupid.

 

[Paulie]

Yeah as far as I know our auto industry is doing half alright, although I have to admit as a worker at a car dealership, if this helps get more cars out the door at all then it's good for me.

 

[mafia_boy]

So the Australian auto industry isn't having problems and your government is just that stupid that they believe C4C schemes truly help the environment?

Correct, but I think they want to appeal to the stupid.

Not they want to, they always appeal to the stupid.

 

[Rotary Junkie]

And given the effects hanging upside down has on a person's brain function, that's most of the population.

Kidding aside, why don't they put all the rejects into a nice big lot in the middle of nowhere and put together an export scheme? I'm sure anything 25+ of any use would be happily snapped up by us US boys.

Edit: Also, why not give a 2k credit to those who update their old beaters to meet current emission standards? Depending on how you go about it, it's possible to get it done for less than the "bump" and if the new bits are pulled from an otherwise unusable newer vehicle (aka wrecked) it actually has a much more "positive" effect on the environment.

 

[Sniffs]

hmm...rotary has a point. they'd probably make boatloads selling cars to guys over HERE.

be carefull you don't get so enthusiastic about it that there will never be a used vehicle for sale anywhere for less than 20k.