Eagle extinction theory

[shanebo]

I have always been a fan of AMC's and especially eagles and concords. I have always taken notice of them on the street, in classifieds, and on the net. After 1988 Im sure most of you noticed the rapid decline of the Eagle populations, sightings etc. I remember Eagles used to be fairly common here in colorado. I could name atleast five people back then that owned one or whos parents owned one. Around 1998 or so I noticed the first major die off..probably due to that magic 10 year number. I went from knowing 5 or 6 peole with eagles to maybe 2. After that the eagle poulation around here stayed fairly steady..While I didnt see them everywhere one didnt have to look hard to find one. I bought my first in 99 just a few years out of high school and there were still quite a few nice ones to choose from. Over the years I boutght and sold 3 more Eagles and every time they were just a bit scarcer. I bought my last one in late 06 early 07. Even then there were still a quite a few to choose form. Unfortunatly that nice little wagon got totalled a while back. Since then Ive been in the market for another..mostly window shopping but just waiting for the right one at the right price. I used to be able to get on the c-list or classifieds and see atleast one or two. Now however there is nothin!! one may pop up every other month..if im lucky. I know nothing lasts forever but you would thing if these cars are just rusting out or slowly dieing of old age they would be turning up more in salvage yards or fly by night dealerships. I have done some light research as to  where these cars are disappearing to..and I have come to a rather disturbing conclusion..."Cash fo Clunkers". That program strictly mandated that all cars traded in under that program be destroyed. Participating dealers were required to pour calcium silicate into the engine and red line the thing till it was seized or blown to pieces..the car was then sent to be crushed. So many geat cars were executed in this fasion...and I know of atleast 2 Eagles that were destroyed. When we bought my wifes GMC Canyon there was a very nice eagle limited wagon in the back lot...I inqired about it and managment informed me they could not sell it under penalty of law...that It had to be destroyed. I am still doing research to find out roughly how many eagles ended their lives in this fasion..the other one I know of was traded in by a friend  of mine..I offered to buy it from him but I did not have enough $  to match the 3000.00 cash for clunkers incentive and it too was off to the big Eagle heaven in the sky. Anyone else notice these die off patterns?  and has anyone noticed the huge drop in available eagles population since that Cash fo Clunkers

[Draekon]

An interesting fact I noticed is that they classified AMC Eagles as a "Category 1 Truck"

[ammachine390]

Well cash for clunkers happened in the summer of 2009. The program called that traded in cars be could not be older than 25 years. That means no 80-83 Eagles were crushed. Those were also the highest production years. So this means that of the 197,449 Eagles produced, 138,461 were safe. The remaining were eligible to be traded, but we know that many Eagles have rusted out and been scrapped over the last 30 years, and many are in the hands of people who care about them. So the odds of a lot getting crushed is pretty slim.  Being from Chicago, I never saw Eagles, before and after cash for clunkers. In the last 5-10 years, I have only seen 2 Eagles in the area, as most cars rust away here with the humidity in the summer and the salt in the winter.

[maddog]

as hard as it is for me to say i know of about ten to fifteen eagles that have been victim to cash for clunkers. and yes one of them was a mint kamback and an sx4, as well as several two and four door sedans and wagons.

[greythorn3]

heck i only seen 2 sx4's here in alaska since 2003 and i own one of them!

[HappyPappy]

SHANEBO:  Here is a link to check out when your looking for Eagles, http://daz.org/, it is a c-list link, but it cut all the bull out of what your looking for.

[El Matador]

as hard as it is for me to say i know of about ten to fifteen eagles that have been victim to cash for clunkers. and yes one of them was a mint kamback and an sx4, as well as several two and four door sedans and wagons.

The Kammback and SX/4 couldn't have been traded in under the federal CFC program, since they predated the 1984 cutoff.  Must have been some sort of local or regional thing.  Speaking of the 1984 limit, we can thank SEMA for fighting to have that implemented.  If Cash For Clunkers had been open to older vehicles, who knows what would have been lost.

Awhile back, someone posted the list of vehicles that were scrapped under CFC.  Some of them would have made you sick - for example, a Buick GNX and a GMC Typhoon.    According to this "official" list, 76 Eagles lost their lives to CFC.  Not to mention numerous Jeep Grand Wagoneers, each of them with a 360 that is no longer available to the AMC hobby.  Also about half a bazillion Cherokees and some Comanches as well. 

All in the name of artificially propping up the auto industry for a brief time...

[maddog]

the guy i got survivor from works at a crusher and he said they were brought in by licenced dealers for the cash for clunkers bs. so i"m only going by what he told me. oh and he owns a kamback himself and is not very happy to see all the eagles that are coming through his job.

[tougeagle]

I myself hated the cash for clunkers thing,  it made the price of decent used cars and trucks go up because over a quarter of a million of them were destroyed in the slaughter.

Shanebo, PM me, I think I have an option for you as far as an Eagle you might want goes.

[shanebo]

It was a vehicular Holocaust. A tragic loss of so many great cars

[eaglefreek]

As with any car, the number one cause of decline of the AMC Eagle is age. Once the value/cost of repair ratio is exceeded many go to the scrap yard.  It's not worth it to many junkyards to keep them on the lot because there aren't many on the road in most areas.

[vangremlin]

It's not worth it to many junkyards to keep them on the lot because there aren't many on the road in most areas.

Most of the junkyards around here are what I call "production" junkyards - they bring in the cars, let them sit on the lot for a prescribed length of time (a month? 6 weeks?) and then move them out, regardless of the historic value or how many usable parts are left.  They certainly aren't like the old school junkyards where the cars were brought in forever, and you could literally find cars that had been there so long that there were trees growing through them.

[eaglefreek]

Scrap metal prices are high right now and it doesn't make business sense to keep cars that people will only pick a few parts from. I wish I had the money and space to buy Eagles that pop up for sale cheap so they don't head for the scrap yard. There are a few cheap ones on CL in Idaho and Montana right now.

[maddog]

Scrap metal prices are high right now and it doesn't make business sense to keep cars that people will only pick a few parts from. I wish I had the money and space to buy Eagles that pop up for sale cheap so they don't head for the scrap yard. There are a few cheap ones on CL in Idaho and Montana right now.

times 2.

[shanebo]

Ya know, if I ever hit the Lottery you guys will see me on an episode of Hoarders with my wife chasing me around my 100 acre compound of salvage Eagles swinging a rolling pin at my head!!