L.A. Times: All Old Cars are Dirty, Need to be Crushed

I’ve received a few emails about a recent L.A. Times story that’s been making the rounds with a quote from YT in it, defending the 25-year exemption inserted into the federal cash for clunkers program, thanks to SEMA’s lobbying efforts. For the story, Ralph Vartabedian and Ken Bensinger rounded up a bunch of folks who thought their VW Beetles should qualify for cash for clunkers and used those stories to question the 25-year exemption.

Aside from the libertarian who claims that destroying older vehicles immediately results in increased values for the remaining vehicles (attrition-induced rarity != valuable, as any Vega owner can attest), the authors also support limitless crushing of old cars with some dubious-sounding stats from the California Air Resources Board that claim a 1965 Chevrolet Malibu produces 400 times the smog-forming pollutants of a 2010 Malibu. Continue reading over at Hemmings.