Monday, August 24, 2009

CARS aka Cash For Clunkers was a wild ride, but it's over and I didn't scrap the Ranger

So, like many Americans I took note of the CARS program, more commonly known as Cash For Clunkers, and was actually persuing a new vehicle under this program. Mine was a complicated deal initially, because I did not want to scrap my beloved Ranger, but instead trade in my beloved's Isuzu Rodeo. That was not going to work for a number of reasons.

Then I decided I would part with my Ranger, see it put to a miserable death and scrapped.
But fate had other plans for me and the Ranger. My dealer and I couldn't meet in the middle on a couple of details and I walked.

Now I've advertised the Ranger for sale, not scrap, but to a "good home" for "market value".
I've checked Kelly Blue Book and NADA sites for the estimated value of my Ranger and have actually gotten a couple of nibbles. I decided to get the Auto Check report from NADA, it's half the price of the CARFAX, in case any prospective buyers don't believe my claim of 57,670 miles on a truck that's 10 years old.

I'd love to sell my Ranger to a good home, then go back to the dealer that didn't want to honor my Xplan pin and see if he's so confident that he's going to get full price for the silver Escape.

In the end, it was an experience, not just for me, but for our nation. Pundits are kicking the can around the block, bitching and moaning about the program and every media is looking for the latest opinion and factoid. I still think that it was a good program, maybe not run very well, but out of the billions of stimulus dollars flushed this year, it's the only program that the average citizen could actually feel a benefit from.

I'm working long hours this week and waiting to hear if this fellow wants to buy the Ranger, but I'll update as I can.

1 comment:

Gunnar Heinrich said...

Wasn't Ford's Focus one of the top five cars people purchased after junking their clunkers?

Don't remember (or care) if it was the coupe or sedan.

But just think... you could've parlayed your trusty old Ranger with all its 4X4 utility into that small bucket of $#!T.

Food for theory next time you happen to find yourself grumbling at the pump.