cars for cash
WENATCHEE — "Old Blue" was Wenatchee's first "clunker."
The 1985 Ford F250 pickup was likely the first vehicle in the Wenatchee area to be exchanged for a new, higher-mileage vehicle under the government's "Cash-For-Clunkers" rebate program that began Monday.
From Wenatchee World
All area dealers and most dealers across North Central Washington are participating in the program, which has set aside $1 billion in federal rebate funding for the dual purpose of stimulating new car sales — hard hit by the recessionary credit crunch — and getting old gas hogs off the road.
That suits the old pickup's former owners, Bob and Barb Butler of East Wenatchee.
"I told Barb that when that program got started, I was going to get rid of Old Blue," Butler said from the living room of his East Wenatchee home. "I wrote to our senators, encouraging them to pass the program. It puts the purchasing power at the bottom and lets the consumer decide how to spend the money."
In his driveway is the old truck's successor — a beautiful metallic-maroon Ford Ranger, a small pickup freshly purchased from Town Ford.
Butler, a 2001 retiree from Alcoa's Wenatchee Works, bought Old Blue a few years ago from his son, who was moving out of the area.
Cash for Clunkers gave Butler $4,500 for the old pickup, a vehicle that normally would have garnered some $500 in a trade in.
He used the Cash-For-Clunkers rebate toward the purchase of the $13,950 Ranger. His final price, including taxes, was $11,040, he said.
"He's happy. We're happy, and hopefully, it'll generate some more business," said Mike Andruss, the salesman who sold Butler the Ranger.
A Cash-for-Clunkers spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., said 22,330 dealers nationwide had registered for the program by early Wednesday.
Some $68.9 million of the total $1 billion in available rebate funding had already been claimed by Wednesday, she said.
Car dealers around town say the program has caused a buzz among potential buyers and kept their phones busy with inquiries.
"The program is going to be good for business. It's generated a lot of phone questions," Mark Prater, general sales manager of Town Ford said. "Anytime anybody's out there thinking about replacing a rig, that's good for sales."
Sid Kane, owner of Wenatchee Kia and Suzuki, says his local dealership has already received some seven clunkers in trade.
The program will stimulate sales, he says, but it's a "quick fix" that doesn't solve the industry's real problem: a credit crunch.
"Banks are not lending or are picky about who they lend to," he said. "The program is limited to a buyer who has the means and the credit. The person who most needs a new car is being penalized, and a lot of these people are good credit risks."
He said about half the people who traded in clunkers at his dealership paid in cash.
Todd McLaughlin, general manager of Apple Valley Honda, says the program creates uncertainty for dealers, because the government has 10 days to send out the rebates, but customers can drive their new cars off the lot the day of the trade.
"I think it's made a lot of dealers nervous," McLaughlin said.
For small city dealerships the program also presents another challenge — finding a local wrecking yard willing to take and scrap the clunker trade-ins.
"I haven't found anybody local who'll do it," said Dale Damskov, owner of Ford and Chrysler dealership, Damskov Auto Sales of Omak.
Of the required paperwork and regulations, he added, "I signed up for the program, but it won't hurt my feelings if we don't receive any (clunkers), because it's going to be a headache."
Bob Ramin, sales manager at Sunrise Chevrolet, also in Omak, says he has six to eight clunker deals on hold while he awaits authorization to participate in the program.
He said he'll be sending the clunkers to Spokane for the mandatory wrecking.
Butler's Old Blue remained parked at Town Ford Wednesday, the word "clunker" now scrawled across its windshield.
The old truck had its quirks, but it was far from the broken-down old beater that the word "clunker" normally conjures.
Its wheel hubs were rusty, but its brakes were good. Dents and scratches marred parts of its namesake paint job, but it had a plastic bed liner. Its ignition didn't work, but a "MacGyvered" switch under the dash — marked with a piece of blue tape — fired the engine right up.
The clunker program requires that it be scrapped and its engine rendered unusable — a sorry end to a trusty old vehicle.
But its 8 miles to a gallon "on a good day" can't match the approximately 25 miles per gallon of Butler's new Ranger.
And that metallic-maroon color ...
"It's as close as I could get to the color of the Corvette I used to have," he said.
WENATCHEE — "Old Blue" was Wenatchee's first "clunker."
The 1985 Ford F250 pickup was likely the first vehicle in the Wenatchee area to be exchanged for a new, higher-mileage vehicle under the government's "Cash-For-Clunkers" rebate program that began Monday.
From Wenatchee World
All area dealers and most dealers across North Central Washington are participating in the program, which has set aside $1 billion in federal rebate funding for the dual purpose of stimulating new car sales — hard hit by the recessionary credit crunch — and getting old gas hogs off the road.
That suits the old pickup's former owners, Bob and Barb Butler of East Wenatchee.
"I told Barb that when that program got started, I was going to get rid of Old Blue," Butler said from the living room of his East Wenatchee home. "I wrote to our senators, encouraging them to pass the program. It puts the purchasing power at the bottom and lets the consumer decide how to spend the money."
In his driveway is the old truck's successor — a beautiful metallic-maroon Ford Ranger, a small pickup freshly purchased from Town Ford.
Butler, a 2001 retiree from Alcoa's Wenatchee Works, bought Old Blue a few years ago from his son, who was moving out of the area.
Cash for Clunkers gave Butler $4,500 for the old pickup, a vehicle that normally would have garnered some $500 in a trade in.
He used the Cash-For-Clunkers rebate toward the purchase of the $13,950 Ranger. His final price, including taxes, was $11,040, he said.
"He's happy. We're happy, and hopefully, it'll generate some more business," said Mike Andruss, the salesman who sold Butler the Ranger.
A Cash-for-Clunkers spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., said 22,330 dealers nationwide had registered for the program by early Wednesday.
Some $68.9 million of the total $1 billion in available rebate funding had already been claimed by Wednesday, she said.
Car dealers around town say the program has caused a buzz among potential buyers and kept their phones busy with inquiries.
"The program is going to be good for business. It's generated a lot of phone questions," Mark Prater, general sales manager of Town Ford said. "Anytime anybody's out there thinking about replacing a rig, that's good for sales."
Sid Kane, owner of Wenatchee Kia and Suzuki, says his local dealership has already received some seven clunkers in trade.
The program will stimulate sales, he says, but it's a "quick fix" that doesn't solve the industry's real problem: a credit crunch.
"Banks are not lending or are picky about who they lend to," he said. "The program is limited to a buyer who has the means and the credit. The person who most needs a new car is being penalized, and a lot of these people are good credit risks."
He said about half the people who traded in clunkers at his dealership paid in cash.
Todd McLaughlin, general manager of Apple Valley Honda, says the program creates uncertainty for dealers, because the government has 10 days to send out the rebates, but customers can drive their new cars off the lot the day of the trade.
"I think it's made a lot of dealers nervous," McLaughlin said.
For small city dealerships the program also presents another challenge — finding a local wrecking yard willing to take and scrap the clunker trade-ins.
"I haven't found anybody local who'll do it," said Dale Damskov, owner of Ford and Chrysler dealership, Damskov Auto Sales of Omak.
Of the required paperwork and regulations, he added, "I signed up for the program, but it won't hurt my feelings if we don't receive any (clunkers), because it's going to be a headache."
Bob Ramin, sales manager at Sunrise Chevrolet, also in Omak, says he has six to eight clunker deals on hold while he awaits authorization to participate in the program.
He said he'll be sending the clunkers to Spokane for the mandatory wrecking.
Butler's Old Blue remained parked at Town Ford Wednesday, the word "clunker" now scrawled across its windshield.
The old truck had its quirks, but it was far from the broken-down old beater that the word "clunker" normally conjures.
Its wheel hubs were rusty, but its brakes were good. Dents and scratches marred parts of its namesake paint job, but it had a plastic bed liner. Its ignition didn't work, but a "MacGyvered" switch under the dash — marked with a piece of blue tape — fired the engine right up.
The clunker program requires that it be scrapped and its engine rendered unusable — a sorry end to a trusty old vehicle.
But its 8 miles to a gallon "on a good day" can't match the approximately 25 miles per gallon of Butler's new Ranger.
And that metallic-maroon color ...
"It's as close as I could get to the color of the Corvette I used to have," he said.
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