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The Auto-Euthanization of “Cash for Clunkers”: What Happens to your Clunker when you trade it in.

Not even Bill would allow it

Since the CARS program has been on the news constantly I got to wondering: What happens to the vehicles that are traded in as “Clunkers”. There’s lots of things that could potentially be done with these cars, many of which are still in fantastic running condition. They could be donated to people that need cars, used for the government or military, be test vehicles on nuclear or crash test sites, given to local high school or college vo-tech programs so kids can learn how they work / how to modify them, monster truck rally, etc. There’s a million different options for what could potentially be done.

And what does the government choose to do instead of putting good running vehicles to good use? It systematically and ritualistically destroys them. They use a product called Sodium Silicate, AKA liquid glass to get the job done by pouring it directly into the engine. The Sodium Silicate runs about $360 per barrel, check out prices here, where you can also buy an absurd quantity of other chemicals.

How it works is simple: You mix up your Sodium Silicate / H2O solution and pour it directly into the engine where you would normally put the Oil. Let it run at about 2k RPMs for 3-7 minutes and wait till it dies out. Try to start it up to make sure and there we go: The car is rendered useless and will be sent off for scrap.

These are the instructions:

Engine Disablement Procedures for the CARS Program

THIS PROCEDURE IS NOT TO BE USED BY THE VEHICLE OWNER

Perform the following procedure to disable the vehicle engine.

1. Obtain solution of 40% sodium silicate/60% water. (The Sodium Silicate (SiO2/Na2O) must have a weight ratio of 3.0 or greater.)
2. Drain engine oil for environmentally appropriate disposal.
3. Install the oil drain plug.
4. Since the procedure is intended to render the engine inoperative, drive or move the vehicle to the desired area for disablement.
5. Pour enough solution in the engine through the oil fill for the oil pump to circulate the solution throughout the engine. Start by adding 2 quarts of the solution, which should be sufficient in most cases.

CAUTION: Wear goggles and gloves. Appropriate protective clothing should be worn to prevent silicate solution from coming into contact with the skin.

6. Replace the oil fill cap.
7. Start the engine.
8. Run engine at approximately 2000 rpm (for safety reasons do not operate at high rpm) until the engine stops. (Typically the engine will operate for 3 to 7 minutes. As the solution starts to affect engine operation, the operator will have to apply more throttle to keep the engine at 2000 rpm.)
9. Allow the engine to cool for at least 1 hour.
10. With the battery at full charge or with auxiliary power to provide the power of a fully
charged battery, attempt to start the engine.
11. If the engine will not operate at idle, the procedure is complete.
12. If the engine will operate at idle, repeat steps 7 through 11 until the engine will no
longer idle.
13. Attach a label to the engine that legibly states the following:

This engine is from a vehicle that is part of the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS). It has significant internal damage caused by operating the engine with a sodium silicate solution (liquid glass) instead of oil.

You can view the government’s detailed instructions to the car dealers here, note it’s a .gov website and it will open up a PDF.

Here’s a video of everything going down in action. As you can see, this “clunker” isn’t the dangerous, falling apart, rusted out vehicle that the government would like you to believe is being traded in. It’s a Chevy Blazer, and one that looks to be in pretty good shape. The body looks good, the engine looks clean, and I’m willing to bed the Interior is just as nice.

To make things even more interesting, 9 in 10 of the cars being traded in are large trucks. Here in lies another problem. If you take a look at the lease payments for vehicles locally, you’ll see that overall, new trucks have a lease payment lower than that of a new car with comparable price. Why? Because trucks do not lose their value as fast as cars do. They are built to do with and to stand up to the world’s toughest conditions, meaning that out of all the vehicles we produce, these are the best built and the longest lasting.

Yet they are the first to get the chopping block in favor of a new car that isn’t built with the same quality. When you talk about being environmentally friendly, the best thing you can do is to get the most out of what was put into anything. It’s not environentally friendly to buy a new TV every couple years. Nor is it a house. Because of our auto-driven mindset, we look at automobiles differently. Almost everything else we hold on to until it no longer serves our needs, either because our needs have changed or the product no longer satisfies these needs for whatever reason. You outgrow a house and move out. The Fridge is on it’s way out, you get a new one.

We would consider it wasteful to replace other appliences or day to day products often, yet we consider this acceptable with automobiles. We buy cars as if they were fashion accessories, in for the season then after the idea is stale an no longer hip, try to get a new one. Now, the 24 month lease agreement is a bit longer than the fall fashion season, but you get my point.

It’s better for the environment to NOT continue consuming just because you enjoy it. It’s not better for the environment to replace a well running vehicle with a new vehicle due to the amount of energy that it takes to build the new vehicle in the first place. It doesn’t matter what the MPG trade off is, it won’t be enough to offset the difference change.

To make matters worse, some people are trying to trade in cars that have less than 75,000 miles on them. Which is just sad. Sure, it’s not a shiny new car, but it still has a lot of life in it and should under no circumstances get scrapped.

It also turns out that there’s some parts of the CARS bill that are just plain ridiculous. The Washington Independet reports that:

…critics are quick to point out that the bill offers discounts on many new vehicles with fuel economies below the average even within their own vehicle class. As a result, some truck and SUV drivers will be eligible for thousands of taxpayer dollars to purchase the latest version of the same large vehicle they’ve just scrapped — even in cases when the new model boasts just one- or two- miles-per-gallon better economy than the old. Many environmentalists, and some lawmakers, say the proposal is just another case of Congress protecting the auto industry — which has already received billions of dollars in federal help — at the expense of the environment.

Essentially, the more I hear about this program, the more I dislike it. It’s sad that such a noble concept is being executed in such a piss-poor way. It’s just more proof that the government can’t handle running anything efficiently.

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