Get Ready to Cry....:(

[emmahumpfritter]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj5gzvGnGP4

[dlb]

i don't understand. do 'cash for clunkers' vehicles have their engines run dry so that they can be recycled easier? and why not just part the vehicle out or sell it to a scrapyard?

[splatterdog]

Many nice usable cars were destroyed. I saw a Toy 4runner with less than 40k get "clunkered".

After seeing more than a couple C4C vids on youtube, it looks like Volvo's have the toughest engines. Some don't make it a minute with liquid glass for motor oil. I think one Volvo made it almost 8 minutes.

[splatterdog]

i don't understand. do 'cash for clunkers' vehicles have their engines run dry so that they can be recycled easier? and why not just part the vehicle out or sell it to a scrapyard?

The oil is drained and a silica based liquid is added and then run to death. Besides the lack of lubrication, when the silica solution gets hot enough it basically turns to glass. I almost feel sorry for the guy that pulled the turbo "core" off the Saab I needed some body parts from. I guess he didn't see the "glass" in the oil feed pipe.The driveline was supposed to be destroyed so it can't ever be used again. Other parts were fair game, at least if they were removed before they were crushed, as per the C4C program's deadline.

This was only to help people that could aready afford a new car and of course the manufacturers(The Jap's made out the best). For the rest of us it only reduced the number of affordable cars by taking almost 3/4 million cars off the road permanently. Between that program and scrap prices, affordable cars are going away, unless you like Daewoo's and their like. Isn't reuse the best form of recycling? Many of these destroyed cars are "nicer" than anything most of us here own. I sure hope they never come after our cars. They can pry my gun out of my cold dead hands while I'm strapped in a T4!

I feel like I've been stimulated without lube....

[emmahumpfritter]

The reason I posted that is, I have an opportunity to buy an 89 Landcruiser 5-spd EFI here in Duluth. Fairly low miles, fairly low rust. It's been sitting for approx 3 years with fuel stable (probably still gummed up) I don't need another vehicle, but I can't pass up 80's Toyotas. It's dirt cheap too...I'll probably find room for it.

[emmahumpfritter]

Here's the Cruiser I picked up today for $500 bucks. It's an 86 (not an 88) thus Carbed, but started right up after sitting since 2002! Manual choke (so cool) 4-spd trans, manual hubs and as far as I can tell, a tank! I'd call the rust factor moderate. 131K orig miles. Should make a good plow/tow vehicle.

[dlb]

how many vehicles do you now own, and where the hell do you store them all??

[emmahumpfritter]

Can we ever have too many 80's Toyotas?! Trust me David, parking IS an issue. I hide them all over the place. I'd stick one in my basement if I could figure out how to get it in there.

I'm waiting for splatter to tell me if they make a weber for these?

I hear the MPG's are horrid...but they can literally pull a tank out of a hardened tar pit. After sitting for 9 years, I dropped it in EL and it popped right out of the hole it was in, buried in snow and the e-brake welded on I'm sure. A fine new member of my herd

[ARCHINSTL]

True story - an employee at the bicycle shop owned one of these '80-something Land Crushers for a while back in the late '90s. I don't recall the MPG, but I DO recall him lobbying for a raise "Because it costs me so much to drive to work."
Points for originality.
Tom M.

P.S. I had a heart of stone...

P.P.S. Another true story - I was putting a bike in the back of a new one around '00 and remarked to the yuppie princess how much more civilized the Land Crushers had become. She was insulted by my sobriquet for her car and never returned. And never, NEVER, refer to the Lexus LX___ as a fancy Land Cruiser...

[dlb]

there's a guy in duncan, just north of where i live, and i don't know exactly how many land cruisers he has but it's at least a dozen. primarily imported RHD's from japan, just because they're in immaculate shape. he's got a toyota 4x4 shop so he lives for them. they definitely have a big following.

[takza]

Those have a straight six Chevy engine in them....was going to buy one one time but was warned away about the poor mpg. But if it runs...it will get you where you need to go...and places you don't need to.