Cash For Clunkers: OK We've Made Up Our Minds

Classic car guys celebrated this week when the Senate ditched the "cash for clunkers" provision in the stimulus bill. The move would have paid $10,000 for any POS old gas guzzler so its owner could buy a new eco-ride. Crushing the clunkers cuts carbon emissions, helps the formerly-Big Three, the logic goes. Also makes every POS on the street worth $10,000 and turns rusty El Caminos into scrap metal cubes -- the hot rodder's dual nightmare.
We're late to the game to comment on this one because although we hate to see junker prices rise (and we really hate to see anything cool go to the crusher) there's the problem of the POS Town Car parked in front of our apartment, the one with the falling off bumper drooling oil onto the street.
We love old cars, but they are not created equal. So we are not taking the absolutist argument on this. There's got to be a way to get smoking eyesores like this off the street without sending cool stuff to the junkyard.
But as much as we hate the Lincoln (and question how the driver can pilot it with the interior crammed full with newspapers and McDonald's wrappers), we've decided to come out against the failed clunkers plan. Forking over ten to the Lincoln owner isn't a good use of tax dollars. Better to pay some kid $100 to toss a match in the tank.