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Went to the u-pull-it yard today [actually 3 yards] and all I found was one rusty 240.Just one!I did see a very nice 740 turbo with intercooler,grey color,nice paint,no dents or rust.Interior black leather about an 8.5 -9 condition.The car has a notice painted on the side fender 'cash for clunkers,engine no good'.The odometer read 199k.Yeah the engine was ok until they put whatever they use into the motor.It was such a nice car,pretty decent engine compartment.Guess the guy cashed out.In the meantime where are all the 240s hiding?
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Except for rare 240 turbo models, the 240 is NOT eligible for the CARS program. Believe it or not, the auto industry has not increased the average gas mileage of cars above what NA 240s have been doing for decades! Are you feeling like you've been punished for making a good decision many years ago yet?
jorrell
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92 245 278K miles, IPD'd to the hilt, 06 XC70, 00 Eclipse custom Turbo setup...currently taking names and kicking reputations!
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I know the 240s don't qualify.It's just that now that I have a few of these carsΔ] and looking for a couple of parts ,there are none to be found.Maybe the ownwers of the 240s are getting wise and realize it is cheaper to keep her.
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240 do not qualify for C4C. I saw the story below and thought you all would find it interesting if you have not seen it. I find it remarkable because the guy is writer/ publisher of a website about new cars so you would figure he had a newer car at home.-
By Bob Gordon
President and Co-publisher
The Auto Channel
Boy do I feel like a disloyal jerk...my 1992 Volvo with 210,000 miles will be turned-in for cash as a clunker against the purchase of a new hybrid SUV (improvement of 11 MPG thank-you). Yeah I know she isn’t what she used to be (but hey who is?), and I know that continuing to use her everyday is really pushing our luck, and that now she is worth more as the clunker that she is than as a rat hole for mechanic’s expenses, ok that’s the reality.
But do I feel good and proud and excited about my new super deluxe car…NO! I can only think of some grease monkey at the dealership smiling with joy as she/he pours a government prescribed poison into my trusty steed’s gut and then revving her over her redline…until her heart stops...how sad.
I have never before felt this way when disposing of an old car of mine...is it because I am older or is it because of the definitive finality of this ignominious end for a car that has been more than terrific to my family over these past 17 years?
My turbo charged, leather interior-ed, power window-ed old girl still has most of her original parts that were stuffed into her in Gothenburg 18 years ago, and her turbo still purrs and she can still cut a mean corner…but enough of these maudlin thoughts…I have to think positively right now…hmmm, maybe her steel will end up in a new life saving medical device or it will end up in the bomb that rids our planet of the vermin that exist here…I can only hope.
When I drive down the road over the next two decades(hopefully) in my hybrid suv I will continually think, "hey new car you’ve got big tires to fill"...so RIP my good servant and companion…I know that if there is a heaven for great cars you will surely have a rock star's parking spot, so rock on gray lady!. Do any other car nuts out there feel the same way as I do? bgordon@theautochannel.com
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1989 240, 1992 745
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When the price of scrap steel whet up a few years ago, many yards scrapped or squashed older cars. It's the same with BMWs. Many are gone forever.
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I read an article somewhere that made the point that the Prius killed the 240. Many 240's were originally bought by people that didn't like cars 20 years ago. And then driven with willful neglect until they found another properly anti-car car to buy - the Prius. So they bought a Prius, the 240 hit the junkyard, and got melted for scrap. And the car hating driver gets to cruise the right lanes at 45 mpg instead of 25.
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'63 PV544 rat rod, '93 Classic #1141 245 +t
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You said right lane, here they cruise the left lane at 45. But I think the timing is off for this hypothesis. Type 2 Prius was introduced in USA in 2001, but you seldom saw them. Type 3 came in 2004, and this was the big seller. I saw very few 240s in the 2000s, they disappeared long before that. Age, rust, and neglect killed the 240s, not the Prius.
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It's a dirty rotten shame that we are going further in debt as a society and murdering perfectly adequate automobiles for the questionable merits of this program. There, that's my .02.
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You wrote, "murdering perfectly adequate automobiles for the questionable merits of this program." In reality, I think no. I doubt there are many Volvos or cars of that sort being traded in for the $3500 or $4500 rebate. Most are POS Explorers and similar SUVs or well-worn pickup trucks that were were poorly maintained and are now downright dangerous. I'd be glad to not share the road with them. (Let's not go down the road that maybe the government should offer cash to take dangerous drivers off the road.)
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Using my taxes to reward people who have already demonstrated poor judgement in buying these clunkers then the overextension of credit to replace them. So on the up side, there is going to be a lot of nice repos around in a couple of months.
Sounds like the housing bubble all over again.
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I haven't seen any 200 series Volvos on the official Clunkers list. 700/900/S90s, yes, 200s, no.
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The models I checked on, only the turbos qualified, barely. The 16 Valve B234 gles also qualify.
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Paul NW Indiana '89 740 Turbo 140,000
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If it is over twenty years old or obtain over a 12 mile per gallon difference. It does not get on the list. So its above 42 if yours get 30. Its easy if your a guzzler. Clunker that's another question being muddled.
Our government is learning and has known (think tanks) what it takes to sway the moods of the people. For good or bad, it doesn't matter. As long as we are moving and shaking.
Working and spending? Let me change that again.
Working and excepting each others confetti, world wide. The monetary system is under regulated for the amount of new players from the evolving world stage.
Credit has been the demise, of a many spenders but not of one saver! I do not owe any credit cards. I use them but that's it!
I can feel the difference of paying cash out of hand, versus plastic. I know I'm laying down a value! The releasing of a grip, of the green, per say.
The inevitable conclusion is going to be. Taking responsibility for ones own actions! Giving back as much as one receives. Having compassion to keep ones environment in balance.
Reading these posts, strike that eternal nerve. Indebtedness is mostly incurred without feeling.
Credit is at work because people are spending with mindless emotions.
They want to get by without working. Suck up the easy life.
Its takes desire to work, to keep things longer.
They (with greed are many) didn't plan to pay anything to begin with. No feelings. No connection. No value.
Use it until I can toss it. Anyway I can. Thank You Sucker Taxpayers!
Where is the balance?
Things I have worked for and saved for have instilled that compassion. Recognizing the labor's of a person's endeavors i.e. craftsmanship. Are what makes me want to pay back.
To play by the rules. Stay even with Steven. Jones I presume?
Credit is softness. Its being abused by the ease of the credit greedy. It is affecting all of us.
From the post about pouring government poison into the Volvo's engine.
The poison is called CREDIT! Its us, that's the engine!
The mechanism needs adjustment or overhauled.
New, is really going to be hard to pay for? What with...will it be?
Good night, gentlemen and ladies.
IMHO
Machine Man, Phil
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Well said Phil.
I bought Mrs Klankenborg - my '91 240 - last year when the lease (rhymes with "fleece") on my '07 Audi was nearing its end. When I took that car back to Audi that was the end of any debt I had (I rent, no mortgage). Oh you better believe they almost barred the door trying to get me to sign up for another 3-4 years of throwing money down a rathole.
A few months later I was laid off, but I had savings so it wasn't panic time. I was laid off in 2005 with a heavy debt load, and it was panic time then I assure you. Taught me a great lesson. Zero debt now. I use ONE credit card (how else would I keep IPD in business?) which is paid every month.
I got a new job last month. I need it to buy parts for Klanki but otherwise am not participating in the 70% of GDP that is consumer "spending" aka putting it on the card or digging furiously through your wallet for one that hasn't been cut off. Still see unhappy-looking people pushing expensive Chinese booty out of Costco or Best Buy to their new SUV. Other drivers in new high-end cars look sad too. Why aren't they happy?
When I am cruising along in Klanki on a nice day, windows down, music loud, singing my face off, I am the happiest guy in the world.
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Thanks for your kind comment. I liked your story and I know it was lesson you won't go back do over. Scary stuff here!
I noticed when credit dried up. I heard that leases also stopped. I have wondered if there was a connection between dealers getting dropped by the car makers.
In reality, dealers work for banks and loan shark companies.
There was some lies hidden in there somewhere.
SOUNDMIAMI, BENSKI, AND V7DRIVER have made good points of "questions" in their post. Which is in this stir of the "clunker economy rejuvenation program".
The twenty year limit. Why? The older the car, you would think it would clunk more? Are they wanting to clear up the environment? Make roads safer? Cut energy demand?
My opinion, not whole heartily. To many factors at play on the world stage.
This is only a "end run play" to keep things moving and shaking, in what is left of our working economy.
If you go back to say 1978 you could buy a new Volvo for $10,000 out the door.
1986 it moved to $17,000. So by 1989 (twenty years)the car in this program is bought at 100 percent value of that car. Which has the value of a $20,000 replacement, nothing car. With nearly the same mileage.
They are reducing the car price but not showing it as a give away. Which is what they are attempting to do while the whole world stage watches.
You keep all of the support services industry working. Clever marketing without crashing the present value of cars on the lot.
If they did a "come and get your free cars" program. That would get everything hopping and really busy wouldn't it!
The rest of the world would hop up, mad for sure. They are our finance company! They are holding this country by the shorts. The loan papers. Just like housing!
As long as all countries except the rules. The playing of the "monopoly game" will continue until the bank runs out of money. In this case, credit tokens. This game should have ended some time ago.
Because the balance sheets aren't in balance!
Exploitation of the unknowing. It is the rule.
Question is who is in the dark and when does the light come on?
Nine Billion people wanting to play, has been the solution so far. It can also be the problem.
The game board. The planet. Cannot go on supporting more or possibly the one's we have now.
We are all downsizing to make room for more. Why? I don't think we are we an endangered species? Reckless for sure?
Build more cars with NO BACK SEATS! Guess we could try that. Since their going to get smaller. A new program credit or tax incentive game rule for a trade in!
Would that help?
You tell me?
Phil
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I live in Southern California, and there are still bountiful 240,etc. donors.
However I see very few 120, 140, 160 models in the places I frequent.
I had a 1975 164E I put 400,00 miles on give or take. Lets see a Prius do that.
My wife's Astrovan barely lasted ten years, before chunks of it were falling off.
You can have my beat up Volvos when you pry my air tools from my cold dead hands.
Paul
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