Some ‘Clunkers’ Are Classics

Re “State Smog Battle Plan to Target Clunkers,” May 4: I’m puzzled over the furor about the old clunker cars on our roads and how they purportedly add to our air pollution. Old cars are typically collectibles that are driven rarely. I own a 1967 model E-type Jaguar that is driven three times a year and is displayed at meets and car shows occasionally. This is an old car, but well maintained. It doesn’t add materially to the air quality problem.

Why the push to rid our streets of cars that simply are preserved, driven rarely and add little to the air problem? If people sense that old cars are polluting clunkers, I suggest that those old clunkers left our streets decades ago, unless they were recycled as collectibles and rarely driven. If the state wishes to rid our streets of these cars, can it please explain why? The furor simply makes no sense, and I suggest that there is little justification for singling out cars based simply on age.

Patric Barry

Laguna Hills

It’s interesting to note that my 40-year-old classic VW bus, with its brand-new engine, exceeds the air quality standards imposed on it in 1964 and pollutes much less than the average lawn mower. Yet it is branded a “polluting clunker,” while the shiny new diesel-powered Mercedes belching clouds of choking fumes and particulates (known carcinogens) in the lane next to me is considered to be state of the art and perfectly acceptable. Class warfare?

Stephen C. Lee

La Habra

Re “Scrap Old Cars for Cleaner Air,” letters, May 7: Just two weeks ago, I personally drove a 1981 Toyota Corolla station wagon, along with its tearful owner, a very good friend of mine, to a 1981-and-older demolition derby yard in Sunland, and after they made sure it could be driven backward and forward for 100 yards each way, and that it wasn’t dripping “too much” oil, they took it away and gave her a check for $800. So, what’s with giving Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger credit for proposing some such visionary “new” idea? (Hey, my friend did the same thing with her prior-owned 1963 Plymouth Valiant. Lord! Could that have been no more than 14 years ago now? It seems like an eternity.)

Harvey Pearson

Los Angeles