Victim of its own success

[RgrF]

In an effort to clean up their pollution the Japanese have been "killing" engines for decades. They then shipped them to Europe and the US for reinstall in older cars.

Under this program the poison introduced in place of engine oil usually causes engines to size up and become unusable in about two to three minutes. Interesting aside is a story from one mechanic; "We watched that Volvo for 10 minutes and then left, when we came back 30 minutes later it was still running, it siezed a minute or two later. Never saw that happen with other engines"

Must have been a pre-Ford Volvo.

[Mac1337]

Japanese eat with chopsticks too. What is your point?

[RgrF]

The Japanese require that engines be removed from vehicles after a certain milege is achieved. They know that older used engines create more pollution than do newer engines so they require that their citizens NOT operate any vehicle that exceeds that predertermined limit.

If we are to be seen as serious about old engine pollutants, we would bar the importation of these used engines. While we are welding engines shut here we are still importing used Japanese engines.

It's a loophole that needs closure.

[OWC Jamie]

RgrF wrote:
In an effort to clean up their pollution the Japanese have been "killing" engines for decades. They then shipped them to Europe and the US for reinstall in older cars.

.

Why would some one in thier right mind install a dead engine in a older car, anywhere ?

seen as serious ?
A (one time) cash for clunkers stimulus program is a serious pollution program ?

OK.

Let's worry about "appearances", now.

[Sam3]

TLB wrote:
Not to hijack, but I have a friend that is a car saleman. His big gripe is that from his experience, the cars he has been destroying are not POS vehicles, but vehicles he would love to sell or perhaps even have the government donate to a needy family that is really driving a POS. His real outlyer--he had a real little old lady car with only 32K miles that he had to pour the "magic potion" in to destroy the engine.

This is the biggest problem that I have with this program. This is gutting the used car market for poor people who can't afford a brand spanking new car. Don't tell me that it's "saving the environment" or "cutting our dependency on oil" as there are new vehicles rolling off the assembly lines that have the same or worse gas mileage.

[RgrF]

For the benefit of the Blockhead from Barnstable: Japanese law requires that enginges be removed from vehicles at a certain milage point. These are perfectly fine engines in terms of operation and the term "killing" is used in the same context as the term for what American dealers are required to do, the difference being that these engines won't see another life somewhere else.

Since inanimate objects can't actually be killed (witness the poster billb) it's an appropriate analogy.

[Lux Interior]

Sam3 wrote:
Don't tell me that it's "saving the environment" or "cutting our dependency on oil" as there are new vehicles rolling off the assembly lines that have the same or worse gas mileage.

Your logic fascinates me.

Without this program, how many of these people would have traded their vehicle in for one with better gas mileage? I think it is a non-zero value.

But let's assume that everyone who got the rebate was going to buy a new car with better gas mileage anyway. How many of these trade-ins would be taken off the road permanently? Probably not too many.

No, this program is not going to "save the environment." It will cut dependency on oil (foreign or otherwise). Not a great amount, but every little bit helps.

No one thing is going to solve all our problems. If you reject anything that can't do it all, then it will never get done.

And if this program is too small to have an impact on oil consumption, how can it have such a large impact on the used car market? These "my friend, the car dealer" anecdotes are great, but that doesn't make their experiences the rule.