Collectors Rally to halt old-car crushers

Gun collectors are known for the intensity of their convictions about the right to bear arms. Many car collectors are just as passionate, as some environmentally inclined politicians are discovering.

Eleven state legislatures, prodded by provisions of the Clean Air Act, have enacted or are debating “junker clunker” bills, under which heavily polluting cars are bought with government money and destroyed. The cars are often singled out by age.

In addition to the state laws, Representative C. Christopher Cox, Republican of California, has proposed Federal legislation that would grant $600 tax credits to owners of clunkers who turn them in to be recycled.

The Environmental Protection Agency says that cars built before 1980 are responsible for 86 percent of automobile emissions. Figures like that make old cars a tempting target for legislators struggling to meet impending deadlines under the Clean Air Act.

The idea of crushing clunkers began in 1990 and 1991 with initiatives by oil companies, including Unocal in California and Sunoco in Pennsylvania, that wanted good publicity and an opportunity to gain “emissions credits” that would allow them to pollute without penalty in other areas of their businesses.

Unocal, for instance, crushed about 10.000 cars in a campaign that is on hold until fall. Although the company says it has allowed experts to look through its hoard and save valuable vehicles, it has been bombarded with angry letters. “They just won’t listen to us, we’ve told to them over and over that we are not crushing classics, ”a Unocal spokesman, Barry Lane, said. “There are no Ferraris in this problem.

Open letters to the two oil companies fill pages in Hemmings Motor News, a thick monthly often described as the car collectors’ bible. But Hemmings’ publisher, Terry Ehrich, considers himself an ardent environmentalist. “I don’t like junker clunker programes, ”he said, “ because they give stationary-source polluters like the oil companies a loophole to continue to pollute.”

Opposition is well organized in the antique auto clubs and by a lobbing group supported by parts companies, the Coalition for Auto Repair Equality. In addition to worrying that the government will come for their keys, collectors fear that the programes will eliminate parts used in restorations. They also say that their own cars are well maintained and infrequently driven. Diane Elliot, president of the Antique Auto Coalition, adds, “We’re in danger of having two or three generations of our automotive heritage disappear.”

The hero of car hobbyists is Dr. Donald Stedman, A University of Denver chemistry professor. “My brief explanation is that these programes are a waste of time and money, ” he said. “It costs $1.000 to scrap an old car, but only $200 to fix it. All it takes for a car to go bad is a broken wire to the oxygen sensor, and that happens a lot.