THE DETROIT NEWS – Last year’s “cash for clunkers” incentives program stoked demand for cars and trucks without pulling sales forward, according to a study by the Maritz Automotive Research Group.
“Our findings not only provide strong evidence that many more vehicles were sold as a direct result of the incentive program than were previously estimated, but they also largely debunk the myth that ‘cash for clunkers’ mortgaged future car and truck sales,” said Dave Fish,

vice president, Maritz Automotive Research Group. “In fact, the program resulted in sales of vehicles to people who don’t normally buy them.” Toledo, Ohio-based Maritz surveyed nearly 36,000 consumers who bought a new car or truck between July and August 2009, when the Car Allowance Rebate System was in effect. It concluded that the “cash for clunkers” program generated 542,000 incremental new car or truck sales, meaning that those buyers and lessees would not have been in the market without the lure of the incentive program.

Experts previously estimated that incremental sales generated by the program ranged between 125,000 and 346,000 vehicles. According to Maritz’ survey, half of all trade-ins were more than 10 years old and had more than 100,000 miles. It said older vehicles such as these only averaged 15.8 miles per gallon and were replaced with vehicles averaging 24.9 miles per gallon, citing data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The Maritz study concluded that the program didn’t pull sales forward. Although sales dipped in September when the program ended, partly due to depleted dealer inventory, the annual selling rate from October to December was higher than in the months preceding the “cash for clunkers” program.

Previous studies have shown the “cash for clunkers” program created tens of thousands of jobs.
According to a NHTSA report, the program created or saved nearly 60,000 jobs. The Ann Arbor-based Center for Automotive Research has said 40,200 new jobs were created, including about 11,000 in Michigan and Ohio alone.

Hurricane Katrina  had major long term implications for a large segment of the population, economy and politics of the entire United States.  By August 31, 2005, 80% of New Orleans was flooded, with some parts under 15 feet of water.  Included in the flood were new and used vehicles, some of which were dried, cleaned up and sold to unsuspecting purchasers.  Hundreds of thousands of vehicles damaged by the hurricane were sold across the country as used cars that have been cosmetically altered to appear almost new. 

The response to the onslaught of flood vehicles from Katrina has been the re-introduction of the Passenger Vehicle Loss Disclosure Act .  The Passenger Vehicle Loss Disclosure Act (S 164), introduced in January 2009, is designed to improve consumer access to passenger vehicle loss data held by insurers.  This bill directs the Secretary of Transportation to require all insurers and self-insurers of motor vehicles to disclose to the public, in a commercially reasonable, electronically accessible manner, for each passenger motor vehicle declared or determined to be a total loss: (1) the vehicle identification number and odometer reading; (2) the date of and primary reason for the total loss determination; and (3) whether the airbags deployed.

Title-related car fraud costs consumers up to an estimated $11.3 billion each year.  There are many who believe that this type of bill could empower consumers with vehicle disposition information, aid law enforcement and ultimately protect the environment.  If you purchased a vehicle in the past 5 years, how do you guarantee its history?

Salvage Direct, the pioneer of online salvage vehicle, watercraft, motorcycle, powersport and commercial auctions, announces its new, state-of-the-art Enhanced Processing Center near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. SD New Britain is Salvage Direct’s sixth facility in Pennsylvania, 80thworldwide and the first of its 2010 expansion plan.

Every facility in the Salvage Direct logistics network recently upgraded the processing and preservation capabilities to include a more in-depth, value-driven service with an emphasis on engine and transmission performance. The Enhanced Processing Program will expose more detailed information to salvage auction bidders and increase the number of units in inventory that run and move.

“We’re excited about the Enhanced Processing Program,” said Bob Joyce, Founder of Salvage Direct. “This initiative takes vehicle information to the next level. Our runs/drives initiatives will now contain additional power and drive train information complete with a new, multi-media presentation. Buyers benefit from complete disclosure and suppliers will experience even better recovery on their invested assets.”

The SD New Britain facility is situated on a 21-acre parcel, which includes 20 acres of secure outdoor storage space and a 25,000-square-feet indoor processing and warehousing facility. It is conveniently located between the Philadelphia and Allentown, PA markets.
Salvage Direct was founded in 1998 as the first online auction in the total-loss salvage industry. The company’s pioneer spirit has lead to growth among buyers and sellers alike. Today, the company auctions cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats, power sports, recreational and commercial vehicles on behalf of its insurance company, finance company, and rental fleet partners. It leads the industry with catastrophic-loss management services and superior customer service.

Whatever the cause of loss, insurance and rental car companies select Salvage Direct because of its experience, fast-selling cycle times, titling proficiency, worldwide buyers and simple auction site. For additional information regarding Salvage Direct, please visit the Company’s website at www.salvagedirect.com .

The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) announced today that its vehicle title history and brand information is now available to consumers through the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System (NMVTIS). The database greatly improves the tracking of vehicles across state lines for law enforcement and motor vehicle agencies. It also allows consumers to learn about the history of a vehicle prior to making a purchase.

DMV Director George Valverde said California is supportive of NMVTIS, and sees it as another valuable tool for consumer protection. “We are delighted that prospective purchasers of vehicles can now access title and brand information on the millions of updated vehicle records California provides to the NMVTIS database.”

California is one of 31 states now participating in NMVTIS, which was established by federal law in 1992 as a major tool to combat rampant nationwide vehicle theft and fraud. According to statistics released earlier this year, 1.3 million vehicles are stolen in the 50 states each year, with losses to consumers totaling more than $8 billion. NMVTIS records are available at http://www.vehiclehistory.gov by providing a vehicle identification number and paying a nominal fee.

NMVTIS is operated on behalf of the U.S. Dept. of Justice by the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA). Several entities are required to regularly report information to NMVTIS, including: State motor vehicle agencies; Insurance carriers (including some self-insuring entities); and, auto recyclers and salvage yards.

In the end of 2009 the RusBusinessNews correspondent analysed in detail the Russian pilot project on scrapping vehicles older than 10 years. In the month passed the programme has acquired more detail and posed more questions. In order to develop the project, the Chairman of the Russian Government Vladimir Putin Vladimir Putin  -Search using: News, Most Recent 60 Days  Biographies Plus News assigned the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade to start the programme on 8 March and finish the intake of old bangers from the population on 1 November 2010. The number of participating regions has been extended from the initially selected nineteen to include all the subjects of the Federation.

The Prime Minister openly admitted that the country lacks scrapping facilities. “In all the regions of the Russian Federation there are not enough enterprises which could do this work. But I ask in the shortest time in the first half of January, regardless of holidays to develop and finalize the process. It is necessary to focus the effort on those regions where this scrapping can be realized. It is necessary to designate the points of collection for these scrapped vehicles, the logistics, that is transporting these vehicles to locations where they will be scrapped,” is how Mr Putin has set the goal.

According to the latest version of the pilot programme any citizen of the Russian Federation who has owned a car older than 10 years for at least a year can participate in the programme. Having scrapped the vehicle the car owner can get a certificate entitling him to the 50 thousand roubles discount when buying a new car from a dealer.

Alyona Shipilina, the Press Secretary of the Automotive Industry and Agricultural Machine Building Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the RF, told the RusBusinessNews correspondent that 60-65 models of Russian and foreign brands made in Russia will be covered by this scheme. One certificate can only be used for the purchase of a single car. If one person scraps several vehicles under this programme the discount does not add up.

According to the scheme developed in the Ministry the car owner is responsible for the delivery of the “banger” to the official dealer for scrapping, then the owner prints out the special scrap certificate form available at the Ministry of Industry and Trade site and processes the letter of authority to carry out operations on taking vehicle off the register, passing it to the scrap centre and other necessary procedures at the dealership.

Moreover, the parties sign a contract allowing the car dealer to carry out the above actions. Then the participant of the experiment pays up to 3 thousand roubles according to the contract for scrapping and books the chosen new Russian-made car at the dealership purchasing it later with the 50 thousand roubles discount.

Whilst the sequence of actions on the way from and old car to a new one looks quite clear, then the further fate of the dead “iron horse” remains one big question.

According to Valeriy Kuzovenkov, a former Technical Director of the largest Russian scrap processing enterprise Chelyabvtormet (formerly Chelyabvtorchermet), scrapping cars and other machines was not seen as a problem in the soviet times. From all over the Union not only spent cars but also carriages “sacked” from the railways and large size agricultural machinery were delivered to Chelyabvtorchermet as a the leading enterprise of the domestic scrap procurement.

For instance the written off Niva combine harvester without any dismantling having gone through the plant’s scissors and press came out as a compact square block and then proceeded directly to steelmaking plants into a Martin furnace. The issues of dismantling and sorting, scrap fragmentation, to be more precise and utilisation of toxic liquids were not a concern to Soviet metal makers as Martin furnaces were capable to “digest” scrap with any impurity substances content. All associate components simply burned in the furnace at the ultrahigh temperature and released as gases into atmosphere. By the way, the quality of this kind of Martin steel corresponded to the process.

Western scrapping technologies in those years had not been that far ahead. For instance, scrap companies in the US simply chucked dead-beat Mustangs and elderly Fords from a pier into water where they got “utilised” by the depths of the ocean.

At the moment these kinds of ways of getting rid of auto junk are hardly acceptable. According to Mr Kuzovenkov today Russian metallurgical plants categorically refuse to take in the hastily cubed automotive “pick and mix”. The today’s metallurgy all but got rid of Martin process and electric steel furnaces require raw material which is as pure as possible. At scrap intake centres scrap metal has to very carefully sorted, steel must be separated from cast iron and non-ferrous metals, rubber, glass, and autoplastics have to be removed and toxic liquids transferred to special tanks.

The expert reckons that today the scrap intake centres have be given large areas for storing vehicles and the dismantling itself has to be carried out in specially equipped heated bays. It would also be quite logical to assume that spontaneous car markets will mushroom around the scrap intake centres as Russian drivers are not proud and happy to buy cheap second hand cars. This means that everything with any value will end up at car markets as spare parts or go to second hand dealers.

According to Roman Petrov, PhD in technical sciences, the scrap intake centres have to be licensed and equipped with special tools and machines. For instance, there have to be water insulated areas with tanks for collection and separate storage of all liquids, sinkers and purifiers, devices for water treatment and purification, fire safety system in areas for storage of tires, polymers, and other combustible automotive components.

Specialised equipment is also necessary. This includes shredders; these are large plants where special hammer crusher first breaks the car into small pieces and at the same time knocks paint, rust, slag and other impurities off the vehicle. Then, using methods of magnet, air, weight, and manual separation, scrap is sorted into ferrous, non-ferrous and light fractions which include polymers, upholstery, glass etc. These fractions amount to 20-25% of a vehicle’s weight and have to, as a rule, be taken to a landfill site or incinerated.

So far in Russia there are no companies capable of full automotive recycling. The foundation required to create such companies is being established with some intensity. According to Igor Nechayev, the Commercial Director of the Cherepovets Iron and Steel Works, the company has already started the project of the construction of the shredder plant for scrap processing within the investment programme; the plant with the annual processing capacity of 1 mln tons will enable the company to have the full cycle car scrapping process.

The majority of Russian scrap procurement companies, however, are rather suspicious of the pilot project. So far they do not quite understand the sequence of work within this programme; moreover, the needed legislation is still lacking. / http://www.rusbiznews.com