For those of you that missed the news a couple of months ago we partnered up with CarsForums.com and we have our own forum area titled Used Auto Parts and Car Recycling – Just today we cracked 2,500 views and are looking forward to having many more visit.

We have some really great topics over there and I would like to encourage our members and visitors to swing-on-over and contribute!

Thanks again to everyone that has helped this partnership become such a great success!!!

Canada’s own Retire your Ride program is an initiative of The Government of Canada, Clean Air Foundation and its partners, designed to enable people to get their high-polluting cars off the road and reward them for doing so. The program is committed to improving air quality by responsibly recycling vehicles and aims to retire at least 50,000 vehicles per year until March 31, 2011.

And this is all fine and dandy and I am a big supporter of anything that encourages folks to help the environment and it even puts a few bucks in their pockets. But there is a big problem when it comes to the fact that these cars need to be running and insured – and they only get $300 for a car in that condition.

What that means (and I know because I was in this situation with my 1994 Concorde that had only 75k kilometers on it) is: I have to get rid of my current car that is serving its purpose of getting me around to work and play but I only get a paltry $300 which won’t even cover one month of my new car payment of $400 for a Honda Civic. So really what is my incentive? Now if it was like the USA and I was getting a $3,500 discount off my new car I would say whoa, that pays for 10 months of my new car and maybe my old one would be dead by then anyways.

It is good to see various car companies coming out with incentives above the $300 the government is offering but to make this program a ‘real’ success I would like to see the minimum amount raised to $900 or even $1,200 for each car brought in through the program.

The ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program now renamed CARS was a huge success in the USA because it offered a real, worthwhile incentive to get old cars off the road, now it is time for the Canadian government to step up and offer more to make the Retire your Ride program even more successful.

Here is another good one that tickled my funny-bone:

I found this one very funny!

Regular people are starting to chime in about the ‘runaway’ success of the Cash for Clunkers program.

Collecting money from the taxpayer to distribute to car buyers should be expanded to all areas of our daily lives. How about $325 bucks to anyone turning in their gas or electric powered lawnmower if they purchase three goats. How about $1700 towards the purchase of a 14 foot rowboat with oars if you turn in a twin engine Sea Ray. How about $400 bucks towards a deluxe roof mounted Windmill for your home if you discontinue your electric service. How about $2,100 towards a stand alone restroom behind your home if you turn in your toilet. Gee! , we could save all kinds of money! I sure am glad that we have Obama and the democrats in there with all of there great ideas. I am so proud that I just want to donate, donate donate!

I am not sure I agree with this guy but it did make me chuckle!!!

Has this plan been so succesful it has to be put on hold already, well the Wall Street Journal is reporting just that!!

The U.S. government plans to temporarily suspend its “cash for clunkers” incentive program because Obama administration officials believe its $1 billion budget has been exhausted after just one week, said several congressional officials.

Department of Transportation officials contacted lawmakers offices Thursday evening to inform them the program would be put on hold as early as Friday, these people said.

The program, which offers rebates of up to $4,500 to consumers who trade in old vehicles and buy new, more fuel-efficient models, was launched July 24 and sparked a surge in car sales.

There is probably a hundred thousand cars still in limbo looking for disposal and I guess we can expect another 4 or 5 billion to be set aside for a more substantial run at this program because of its runaway success.  It should leave us all in a great position to  profit from the next wave!

I absolutely love the new cool graphic they are using to count down the funds remaining in the cash for clunkers program aka: CARS (Car Allowance Rebate System).  Personally I think the money will be drained by September 29th, 2009 – so everyone of you should really get your ‘dealer kit’ fully prepared and hit the pavement trying to grab some of these available cars for recycling.

If you have any questions about how to customize the kit for your own use make sure to call Carmen at 1-800-668-5014 x 260

It seems a few customers are having difficulty understanding exactly how the rules of the CARS program play out when purchasing a new car.  Here is the verbage from the CARS FAQ’s

In addition to this credit, will I get the full value of my trade-in vehicle?

No. The law requires your trade-in vehicle to be destroyed. Therefore, the value you negotiate with the dealer for your trade-in vehicle is not likely to exceed its scrap value. The law requires the dealer to disclose to you an estimate of the scrap value of your trade-in vehicle.

But the deal still works out well because the total discount is much better than if they just got a higher trade-in price.

After the webinar yesterday we sure had a lot to talk about and after hours of doing just that we are in the proccess of putting together a very ‘awesome’ looking ‘kit’ for our affiliates to take around to local dealers so they can get hold of some of the vehicles brought in through the ‘cash for clunkers program’.

One of the burning questions we had was what would happen to the salvage price over the $50 the dealers are able to take as an administration fee?  It seems anything quoted (one of the rules of the program is that all dealers have to give the customer an estimate of the salvage value of their vehicle) above and beyond the $50 is taken off the price of the vehicle to the customers advantage.

I am getting ready to start a pool on how long the initial funds of $875,000,000 will last, want in?