Retire your ride is Canada’s vehicle recycling program and we discovered it at just the right moment. If your car was made before 1995 Canada will help you get it off the road and get into something more energy efficient and greener.
According to Retire Your Ride, older cars (1995 and older) produce 19 times more air pollution than cars made in 2004 and newer. For a long time Canada has had a yearly emissions test that must be taken before you can get new license plates or the year stickers that go in the corner of the old plate. We knew when September rolled around our old 1990 Dodge Caravan would not pass the test. It’s kind of hard to pass the test with no tail pipe. Besides we were very tired of tossing cold hard cash into a car that was too old to appreciate it.
You are rewarded for retiring your ride. In Ontario our choices were
- $300.00 Cash
- $359 to $490 off the price of a high end commuter bicycle plus parts and service discounts
- Chrysler, Hyundai and Ford all offer dollars off on a new vehicle when you participate in Retire Your Ride.
- Discounts on Auto Share – A program you join - Auto Share members get 24/7, self-serve access to clean, fuel-efficient cars and vans - at over 100 locations across Toronto - without the hassles, costs and headaches of ownership.
We chose option one. $300 is about $250 more that the book value of our old van. Our van needed to go so it’s gone. The auto share program wouldn't work for us because we don’t live in Toronto, Bicycles might have been a good idea about 25 years ago but not now, and we already have one new car we don’t want another. Something used for around town is what we will end up buying.
BELOW IS AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT A VAN LOOKS LIKE AFTER BEING HIT BY A DEER - the van was fixed and lasted five more years
My Dodge Caravan belonged to my Dad. When he died in 2001 it came to live with us. It had around 30,000 miles on it then (Dad didn’t drive much at 87 years old) and in the 8 years we’ve owned it we put over 100,000 miles on it. It was a good little car!
MY DAD WAS A CARD CARRYING MEMBER OF THE NRA - a hunter, the interior of the van was the same as when Dad owned it. It still smelled like him and that was good!
According to Retire Your Ride they have retired 14,692 cars and reduced 790 tons of smog forming emissions.
Their mission – SAVING THE PLANET ONE CAR AT A TIME!
IT MADE ME SAD TO SEE IT GO...
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Comments: 46
You have fun with your $300 and don't get to sad!! I need to trade in my car as well...it's a 99 and something goes wrong with it about every 6 months!
Wish we had clunker to turn in!! :D
Now I'm walking/bumming rides.
I like the FlexCar...now ZipCar...or your Ride Share program. But, it really does work best for city dwellers who can use mass transit most of the time.
And, in Oregon, we have had vehicle emissions testing for decades, too.
And we've had a bottle bill too...I remember that about living in Toronto.
Maybe Oregon should be one of the Canadian Provinces. ;-)
I likely would have taken the cash too...but the bike deal is very tempting.
This is an example of what happens to me not being able to edit my post photos.
Remember when I said if I save a post to edit I get sent to my photo uploader?
This happened again when I save this to edit AND I accidently uploaded a photo that didn't belong but left it because I knew I could delete it in the photo edit part - NOPE, because of what ever is going on - I have no photo edit part after the original one is accepted... When I clicked edit your photos it sent me to the photo uploader - again!
Is it time for me to go to support?
DD,
I have been experimenting with this and have some information for you. I'll post it to your original comment soon.
Note: I originally misunderstood your problem (I believe), thus I did not think your experience was related to a known glitch with uploaded photos and subsequent edits...however, it is.
I took all those photos the day it was leaving (except the accident photos) My camera is always handy! Sometimes too handy.