“'Cash for Clunkers' fuels sentiments - Newark Star-Ledger” plus 4 more

'Cash for Clunkers' fuels sentiments - Newark Star-Ledger
Crushing clunkers: Government program a boon to scrap dealers as well ... - Asheville Citizen-Times
Man died returning from benefit for bike victim - Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Clunkers for Hummers? - Lowell Sun
Top motorcyle racers will guest instruct at Yamaha school - Salt Lake Tribune

'Cash for Clunkers' fuels sentiments - Newark Star-Ledger

Posted: 16 Aug 2009 06:03 AM PDT

by Mark Di Ionno/The Star-Ledger

When it came time to put the old boy down, I wanted to be the one to do it.

It was only right. The old boy had been faithful as faithful could be. Least I could do was be there at the end.

My old truck, like they say, was part of the family. This is how long it was around: The four older kids learned to drive on it, bucking and stalling it hundreds of times. The two little ones graduated from car seats in it, and never remember their dad driving anything else. There's almost 11 years of memories in that truck.

Like the time daughter No. 2 hung it up on a rock during driving lesson No. 1. It was typical. You know, the usual parent-child acrimony and the acrid smell of burning clutch in the air. But mostly, she was doing fine, going round and round in a deserted county park lot. Then she got too close to a tabletop slab of puddingstone, and ran up on it. Passenger side and front wheel were stuck in the air. She was worried about the truck. Don't worry about the truck, I said. You can't hurt this truck.

After her tears subsided and the tow truck was called, she looked at me and said, "Dad, you're not going to write a column about this, are you?"

No sweetheart, I'm not. This column is about the truck. My indestructible 1999 Chevy truck. A truck as basic as basic can be. Manual trans, roll-up windows, cloth seats. The fewer options, the less that can go wrong, I always say. To me, air-conditioning is a luxury.

And after 316,259, miles, there was still nothing wrong with the truck. Not even the air-conditioning. Yes, the gray body was creased and weathered, like the face of an old ranch hand. Rust corroded the rear bumper. The front-end paint was pockmarked by flying pebbles. There was a long vertical crack in the windshield, and the tailgate was missing. But that was all cosmetic, a funny word to use in the same sentence as my truck. Mechanically, it was sound as sound can be. Just like Bob Seger said. Like a rock. All eight cylinders were still banging like a soft tom-tom drum roll, and not a drop of oil leaked or burned.

The truck would have been 11 in the winter. That's in human years. In car years, it was pushing 99, if you consider most cars are driven only 12,000 miles a year. The truck did that one summer easy when I drove most byways in this state for a book called "Backroads, New Jersey." We were partners, the old boy and me.

It was still going strong when the "cash-for-clunkers" program came along, and decided to I turn it in.

Turn it in. Those words hurt. They carry a traitor connotation, and that's how I feel today. Mercenary. Disloyal. Opportunistic. I am all those things. I weighed the government bribe against the truck's service. I turned it in. Profit trumps loyalty across America these days, and me, I'm just as bad. The truck was worth more dead than alive, as they say. The government was giving me a $4,500 trade-in credit for a truck not even worth the gas in the tank, on paper.

But my truck didn't live on paper. It lived on the road -- old reliable, carrying me and my kids everywhere. Virginia, Quebec, Western Pa., New England, Ontario, Maryland. The Shore and The City and more. A few times, I had all six kids packed in. Daughter No. 1 said, "Great, dad, now all we need is a couple of dogs in the back." I knew what she meant. White trash. It was good 'ol self-effacing humor. She learned it from her dad.

I cleaned out the truck, sort of, on the day I turned it in. I found some old vacation brochures and maps. I found a baby sock, wedged deep in the rear cushion from the long gone car seat days. I found Canadian coins under the mats and lollipop sticks stuck to the carpet. The little things in life. The things that make a car more than meager transportation. You know. We all do. In everybody's life there's such a car. If not, there should be.

And so when the time came to put it down, I wanted to be there. The clunker program says the trade-in must have its engine disabled before being sent off to the salvage yard and compactor. The oil is drained, replaced with sodium silicate, which is essentially liquid glass. The engine runs until the heat gums up the solution, which hardens and stops all those rhythmic parts of the engine heart. The auto version of a lethal injection.

When I bought the truck 11 years ago, the dealership was owned by Vlady Scerbo, whose family began selling cars in the 30s. Now it's owned by Dave D'Alessio, who wisely kept the service department intact. One of those guys was Mike Lange, who took as much pride in keeping my truck running as I did.

We decided to put it down together.

The guys from service drained the oil and put in the chemical. Mike got behind the wheel and I turned the key. Mike didn't believe it would die even then.

"We'll probably put the chemical in, and 20 minutes later, it'll still be running," he said.

But it didn't. After a few seconds, the engine seized and the truck flat-lined.

And that was that.

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Crushing clunkers: Government program a boon to scrap dealers as well ... - Asheville Citizen-Times

Posted: 16 Aug 2009 08:12 AM PDT

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Next, the forklift driver placed it on a platform to allow a worker to go underneath with a heavy metal rod and puncture the gas tank and oil pan, letting the fluids out of the motor. Then it was on to the hydraulic crusher, which exerts 2,500 pounds of pressure per square inch, popping the windows, folding the sheet metal and flattening the 5-foot-plus tall vehicle down to 18 inches.

Another vehicle is stacked on top, and then they're both crushed again. Then they're stacked up near the door, where a truck will take them to another facility owned by OmniSource Inc., Edaco's parent company.

OmniSource grinds the vehicles up into pieces no larger than a quarter, and then metals are separated from the other materials and sent to steel plants, while the remaining material, the fluff, goes to a landfill.

Eventually, the steel is melted down and resold, with some of it likely ending up in new vehicles.

A big boost

The program has provided a nice boost to car dealers. U.S. Commerce Department statistics found that auto sales in July jumped 2.4 percent, the biggest leap in six months. Overall, retail sales fell 0.1 percent last

Scott Wilbanks, sales manager at Prestige Subaru, said they've seen probably a 30 percent boost in sales, mostly attributable to the clunkers program. He estimates they've had just over 30 vehicles qualify, and the program definitely is bringing customers into showrooms.

This is taking people that might have been six or eight months away from buying a new car and putting them in the market now, Wilbanks said.

Boyd said they've had about 15 deals made through the Cash for Clunkers program.

Even when some cars didn't qualify, it allowed the dealership to open the door to other potential deals.

All the fuel-efficient vehicles we have, we're out of them, except for one car,

Boyd said. It's really helping stimulate Pontiac sales for us at this location. It's a great program.

Both Boyd and Prestige send their clunkers off to be crushed.

Now they just hope the government comes through with the payments.

If you don't get paid on some of them, it really eats up what little bit of profit you've got in the deal, Boyd said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Man died returning from benefit for bike victim - Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Posted: 16 Aug 2009 03:47 AM PDT

WORCESTER — Family and friends of 20-year-old Joseph E. Howard gathered much of yesterday on Benefit Street, lighting candles and leaving memorial items at the scene of an accident that took his life Friday night.

Mr. Howard, of 8 Mattson Ave., died when the motorcycle he was riding collided with an undercover police cruiser. Mr. Howard's mother, Alexis Weaver, said her son was on his way home from a benefit held in memory of Jovanni Melendez, a 10-year-old boy who died Aug. 1 after being struck by a pickup truck while pedaling his bicycle out of McCauley Field onto Acton Street.

Police are continuing to investigate and provided no new details yesterday about how the accident occurred. They have not officially released Mr. Howard's name as the victim of the accident. Capt. John Harrington of the Worcester Police Department Traffic Division said Friday that three police officers from the Worcester police gang unit were on Benefit Street in a red unmarked Ford Taurus when the accident occurred. He said the police cruiser had stopped after seeing Mr. Howard heading toward them, driving erratically. There have been conflicting reports from police and witnesses about how the accident occurred

Ms. Weaver fought back tears yesterday as she spoke about the death of her son and what he meant to her. He said he was someone who loved life and a person who never stopped smiling. She said he was at the benefit because she is a friend of the mother of Jovanni Melendez and he wanted to support the child's family.

"He helped me sell tickets for it," she said. "He'd help anybody with anything."

Ms. Weaver said her son was a hard worker who was liked by everyone who knew him. She said he had a difficult childhood but turned it around and excelled in high school, earning honors while studying for the auto collision repair trade.

"He was doing so well," she said.

Ms. Weaver said her son touched many lives, but hers especially.

"I just don't know what I will do without him," she said.

Mr. Howard was a 2007 graduate of Worcester Technical High School and won the senior award as the top student in auto collision repair. He worked for Paul's Motor Sales and Auto Body and also worked as a tow truck operator part time for Early's Auto Sales.

Paul Cleary, owner of Paul's Motor Sales and Auto Body, said he was a polite, dependable young man and everyone who worked in his business liked him.

"He was an awesome kid. Awesome," said Paul Cleary, owner of Paul's Auto Sales and Auto Body. "Anybody would like to take that kid home and introduce him to his daughter."

Mr. Cleary said Mr. Howard worked for him for 3-1/2 years, starting part time while in high school. He said he excelled at the work and was someone he and others at the business thought of as part of their family.

"His work was flawless," Mr. Cleary said. "If you paid him for 40 hours per week, he'd work 45. It's just a tragedy."

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Clunkers for Hummers? - Lowell Sun

Posted: 16 Aug 2009 07:29 AM PDT

By Brett J. Blackledge

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON -- Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, the nation's top car salesman in recent weeks, has cited the Obama administration's best-seller list of mostly smaller, fuel-saving cars like the Ford Focus to describe the success of the Cash for Clunkers rebate program.

But what LaHood and other administration officials usually don't mention is that some trucks and sport-utility vehicles that get less than 20 miles per gallon, like the Ford F-150 truck and one version of the Cadillac SRX Crossover, also are being purchased with the new government subsidies. Both are bulky vehicles weighing more than 6,000 pounds when loaded that boast at least 248 horsepower.

Just how many consumers used the federal rebates to buy these larger, not-so-green vehicles is unclear. The Obama administration has declined so far to release detailed records of purchases under the program being compiled by the Transportation Department, listing every clunker deal requesting rebates. The Associated Press requested the data July 31.

The Transportation Department distributes regular summaries of sales from the clunkers program and has used the electronic sales information from dealers to bolster arguments that Americans are dumping gas guzzlers for gas savers. But its failure to release detailed records means the public can't verify those claims.

"Today almost 200,000 new fuel-efficient automobiles averaging 25 miles

per gallon are on the road instead of gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs," LaHood wrote on his official blog just before Congress voted to spend $2 billion more for the government rebates last week.

He praised Ford's announcement Thursday that it was increasing production of its Focus compact car and other more fuel-efficient models. "That's good news for all of us," LaHood wrote on his blog.

But he didn't write about Ford's other announcement Thursday. It's also increasing production of its popular F-150 truck because of demand from the clunkers program.

Even the Top 10 list of mostly smaller, fuel-efficient cars that LaHood has cited as evidence of the program's success is being questioned. A different Top 10 sales list produced by Edmunds.com, an auto consumer Web site, shows fewer small cars and more large vehicles like the F-150 and utility vehicles make up the best sellers.

A list of eligible vehicles has been available to the public on the clunker program's Web site, www.cars.gov, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. Edmunds.com's lists of clunker sales did not come from the government's data, she said.

Edmunds.com determined the list of top sellers and trade-ins under the program using sales data collected directly from dealers, company CEO Jeremy Anwyl said.

The program, now expanded to $3 billion and offering rebates of up to $4,500, isn't limited to the best gas savers on the market. And that's good news to Beny Ledesma, general sales manager at Williamson Cadillac-Hummer in Miami.

The dealership has sold three 2009 Cadillac SRXs -- the six-cylinder engine model -- through the clunkers program, he said, and is finishing paperwork on two more. Ledesma hopes to sell the other 14 at the dealership, along with some of the Hummer H3Ts on the lot that are eligible for clunker rebates.

Both vehicles get about 18 mpg, considerably less than the 25.3 mpg average that LaHood has attributed to new cars purchased under the clunker program.

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Top motorcyle racers will guest instruct at Yamaha school - Salt Lake Tribune

Posted: 16 Aug 2009 08:19 AM PDT

Some of the world's top motorcycle racers -- past and present -- will serve as guest instructors at the Yamaha Champions Riding School at Miller Motorsports Park through the end of September, track officials have announced.

The list of guest instructors, who will join the regular five-person staff at the riding school, includes Scott Russell and Brandon Currie (Aug. 18); Ben Spies (Aug. 24); Josh Hayes and Melissa Paris (Sept. 22-23) and Ben Bostrom (Sept. 28-29).

"The Yamaha Champions Riding School helps anyone learn to ride the same way the best in the world ride," said Nick Ienatsch , the lead instructor at Miller Motorsports Park.

"Having guest instructors who have won at the highest levels of motorcycle racing brings that experience closer to the students and provides an experience most enthusiasts can only imagine."

To learn more about the Yamaha Champions Riding School, log on to MMPSchools.com or call Daniel Short at 435-277-8799.

Husband and wife post a win

The husband and wife team of Martin and Melanie Snow of Pleasant Grove scored a two-lap win recently during the American Le Mans Series' Acura Sports Car Challenge at Lexington, Ohio.

The win was the second in three tries this season for the Snows, who compete in the series' new Challenge Class. They also prevailed in the Utah Grand Prix

at Miller Motorsports Park in May.

The Ohio win was nearly their third straight, but a late mechanical failure while in the lead cost the Snows a chance to win in July at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut.

RMR results

In the recent Maverik Clash of the Titans monster truck event at Rocky Mountain Raceways, the winners were Bounty Hunter and King Krunch.

USCA Sprint Cars also competed in the two nights of racing.

In the first main event, Mike Murgoitio took advantage of a spin-out by leader Ryan Burdett on the 21st lap to rally for a victory.

In the second main event, Lynn Hardy came from behind and won after leaders Johnny Luttmer and Michael Haddenham crashed late in the race.

luhm@sltrib.com