To give a short synopsis, Davis Jr. basically reiterated the sentiment I expressed months ago that seeing a perfectly good automobile destroyed can be downright painful to watch. It’s as if every car has some personality; it’s not just a heap of steel parts sitting on rubber. However, just like humans, personalities can have a dark side, and there are plenty of cars I wouldn’t mind doing the honors of destroying (such as my gratefully departed 1998 Subaru Outback).
In the developing Third World nations such as those in Asia and Africa, people haven’t been afforded the liberties and economic prosperity that we here in America have enjoyed since at least the 1950s. This post-war era saw automobiles become an attainable luxury and urban sprawl gave way to suburban commuting. Davis Jr. makes the case that instead of blowing up the engines in so-called “clunkers”, perhaps those automobiles could have been given to poorer nations to help them enjoy a piece of the prosperity pie.
Geez, handing out American wealth (at the cost of taxpayers, no less) to poor nations (many of which hate us) sounds like it would be right in line with Obama-esque socialistic values.
Car and Driver, in the January 2010 issue, made mention of some of the vehicles American taxpayers purchased: Jaguars, various 2008 models, and a rare Buick GNX. C&D editors jest that Nancy Pelosi kept the GNX for herself. She'd look great cruising around in that, perhaps in her thong. Sorry. Back on topic, here. You need only look as far as YouTube to see the famed video of a fine Swede being blown up along with plenty of other still-useful cars and trucks.
To see a place where these clunkers could have made a striking impact, one need not even look as far as Africa or Asia. About 90 miles south of Miami lies Cuba. I know we don’t have diplomatic relations with Castro’s communist regime, but Obama is even trying to fix that. Since the embargo began in the 1950s, Cubans have kept alive as daily drivers many of the cars that today we see only in antique/classic car shows. Romantic as these Dinosaurs of Detroit are, the showroom floor and occasional Independence Day parade is about all they belong in.
Much to the chagrin of classic car collectors, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety plowed a 2009 Chevy Malibu head on into a 1959 Chevy Bel Air. Watch the results for yourself. It’s gruesome, but proves the iron behemoths of the past didn’t exactly offer much occupant protection in the event of a crash. Oh, but Cuba offers superior socialized healthcare to its citizens, right Michael Moore? So when Cubans get maimed in a crash, at least they get free hospitalization! Oh wait, Obama's trying to get us that, too. (Ok, don't get me started on the healthcare thing).
Safer, cleaner, more reliable cars could have been redistributed to poorer nations where they’d make far more reliable transportation than the relics that rule the roads. Or how about this? Keep the wealth at home; get the true clunkers—the unsafe, unreliable, smog-belching cars—off the road here in the good old US of A. But as Davis Jr. quipped in his column:
“Not until the government got involved was anyone stupid enough to pour sodium silicate into the engines of the trade-ins on used-car lots and render them utterly useless except as junk to be sold by the pound.” (emphasis added.)
I won’t even go into what user-car inventory could have done for local dealerships, the economy, and those needing a car but unable to afford brand new, even with taxpayer-funded credits.
A Clunker Worth Junking?
