Living Car Free - Trade-In Your Clunker Car For A Shiny New Bike?

Would you go through with a deal like this one offered locally in my area?

"......The folks at Santa Monica Mountains Cyclery in Woodland Hills (CA) have a solution for the ever rising cost of filling your gas tank: Trade your car for a bike. Literally......This week, the Woodland Hills bike shop has teamed up with Vista Ford Lincoln to offer a promotion that lets drivers trade in their old clunkers and get a shiny, brand-new two-wheeler instead......It's probably the most fuel-efficient type of transportation out there.....Still, there hasn't been any takers yet, though quite a few calls have come in with some interest.....We'll take anything. It doesn't even have to run," Sweeney said.....Customers can pick out a new bike at the cyclery -- which features a giant flat-screen TV, leather club chairs and an espresso maker, not to mention some sweet two-wheeled rides -- then head over the Ford dealership. They'll trade in their cars, get a check and head back to the bike shop. Any leftover money goes back to the customer.....Purchase options range from a $480 Trek 3500 entry-level mountain bike to a $11,000 custom-made carbon-fiber Colnago C59 road bike......Santa Monica Mountains Cyclery's Trade Your Car for a Bicycle promotion lasts through Sunday......"-http://www.dailynews.com/ci_20215409/trade-your-car-bike-at-woodland-hills-shop (http://www.dailynews.com/ci_20215409/trade-your-car-bike-at-woodland-hills-shop)

Good one.

The article said there were no takers. LOL!

It's the used car lot trying get customers to trade in their old vehicles. The bike shop get to sell a new bike but the dealer gets most of the profit. It won't work because used cars are going for a good price today and having to buy a new car afterward is too expensive. I suppose someone could buy a car for $200.00 dollars and try to get a newer bicycle that costs more. However, any car that can start is worth $500.00 dollars or more.

Our car isn't that old and we have 2 kids so its nessecary. But, if I lived alone then I surely would. I have my motorcycle for long distance/short time commutes and my bikes for anything else.

A great trade-in idea. Particularly if the car isn't too dependable.

For my car, they'd give me a Walmart bike. ;)

While this is a tantalizing offer, I would rather sell my car-that is, if I actually owned one-myself, buy the bike of my own choice at my own favorite bike shop of my choice, rather than being restricted to only 1 bike shop and what is on that particular showroom floor, and still pocket the left over change.

But still....a great idea.

Plus changing one's method of preferred transportation is not restricted by time or space (location) limitations. Get cracking!

The best way to approach that is to find a bike at that shop you like. If nothing there, pass.

Yeah, I know....DUH.

I also know there's NO WAY I'd have the bike I have now if I'd gone that way; my last car wasn't worth HALF what I have in this bike (or the one before it)!

I love it! At the least, it will put the idea out there that a bike is a practical replacement for a car in some cases. The news article says that the dealership doesn't plan to profit from this promotion:



"'I'm obviously not here to change the world, but if we can get two or three people and plant the seed that they should ride their bikes instead of their cars, it was worth it,' Kooi said.

There's not much in it for the dealership, but Vista Ford Lincoln wants to help out the bike shop, which sits across Ventura Boulevard. And the dealership's fleet manager -- Ken Neumeyer -- is an avid cyclist."
http://www.dailynews.com/ci_20215409/trade-your-car-bike-at-woodland-hills-shop

And since the Cash for Clunkers promotion, the supply of used cars is lower than it used to be. So it's a way to improve their inventory.