I totally agree it's a shame to dismantle such a sweet monty, but with or without the CFC program, aren't the chances fairly high that it would've ended up in the junkyard anyway? When a dealer looks at the trade-ins and sees "'91 montero 212k miles," I doubt that he sees flashing dollar signs. He can either put it into auction and wait weeks or months for a sale and then after auction/transport fees collect a whopping...what....$500...if he's lucky? Or he can scrap it and I would imagine he could get a similar payout in a shorter time? Most dealers I know seem to care about quick cash, not about saving great old cars.

I think it's more reasonable to be angry with the guy that actually participated in the program - nobody forced this truck to be turned in. The owner just didn't care enough about an old montero to save it from the scrap heap. Not everyone shares our appreciation. I wouldn't shed a tear over a CFC'd explorer for example, but I'm sure there are plenty of ford guys that would need a hanky.

Or at the very least, don't forget to be angry at the 91 (yes, 91 out of 100) senators responsible for the original vote that started the program in the first place and the 60 (including 7 republican) senators that voted a second time to extend the program another $2 billion.

Sorry for the rant. I just think the F* obama, (or F* anyone for that matter) comment could be placed on a different board or at least thought out a little better. If he does actually show up at my door with a tow truck demanding my bishi keys, I might feel different. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/patriot.gif" alt="" />

I stand by my F* Obama post... I should of maybe said F* the gov in this situation though. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I feel they could of done some things a bit better, maybe have the C4C program send all vehicles of any quality to local charities. I feel a lot of those "clunkers" could of been appreciated by family's for years who really could use them. Maybe for people who have nicer cars that don't use them anymore could get a equal value tax incentive for giving their old car to charity, and bypass the requirement of sending people into new debt.

Agreed, and sure the benefits of helping out a truly needy family would outweigh the environmental drawbacks of keeping a 'clunker' running for a few more years. Only problem with donating cars to most charities is they normally just auction them off for cash, so the cars still end up in the same place as a dealer trade. Anyway I'm sure the particulars of the program have been beat to death on other posts - I'll stop now and mourn the loss of this pretty green monty. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

I found out today that the owner of this truck was a 70 year old gentleman who has owned it since it was new..... and has never been off-road in his life.

I'm still sniffing around it to try to understand why. It has a new plastic-top radiator that actually looks pretty nice, but makes me suspect he had a cooling issue, perhaps thought he had to replace the radiator, maybe had the engine rebuilt and just maybe the rebuild went bad from the head bolt issue. I wanted to open the radiator and see if any oil was in the coolant, but the truck was processed before I got to look. Maybe I'll check the overflow bottle and see if there are any tell-tale signs left.

I suspect some on this board would have paid $4000 for the truck, but not many. He was looking at a truck that was worth maybe $2000 to the average guy and the taxpayers gave him $3500-4500 for it. I'm sure he didn't like the fact that he had just had it painted, but he was likely pretty aggravated to spend a bunch of money and still not have it reliable. C4C was his bailout.

I drooled on it some more today. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cyclops.gif" alt="" />

Frank

Yes Ray, but it'll keep the repo men busy in a few months <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/scared.gif" alt="" />

Can you do me a favor and ask them how much for body' i might beable to use it for the project i've got instead of destorying my working raider. just let me know if its reasonable i can get a flat bed and some guys and just rip it off in a day......(i hope)

I would find a LWB to do your project also. My driveshaft is too short for the rearend to drop alot without breaking it. I put chains on it to limit its travel. I will shell out the big bucks for a whole new driveshaft at tax time. I will also buy the slip yoke eliminator which will make the 208 transfer case 4" shorter. Sucks about the Monty. Really nice ride. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Looking at that Montero akes me sick. Just because I used to own one that was driven in Cape Cod and introduced to Northern Salt! But I own a rust free Isuzu right now, and that's my Priority-One.. and I'm about to go Rape Frank's yard of a Rodeo Interior.. I love DIY yards. The local yards here just plain rob people.. Not even a decent price for something that will just plain sit and rot if I wasn't interested in it.

What's the carbon footprint to build the new vehicle, just to remove a perfectly good one that isn't as green? I don't know the answer, but I can't believe there is a green payback for these exchanges. Let alone the economic one of the $4500 incentive.

It would have been better to just give everyone some sort of tax credit and let them spend that money on things that make more sense.

It wasn't just about being green. I was also designed to stimulate new car buying to help automakers.

But I agree... I doubt the impact will be significant from an environmental POV. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />