cash for clunkers end result

[Bonehead]

http://news.yahoo.com/why-cash-clunkers-hurt-environment-more-helped-024848694.html

 

[Snake Farm]

[S Why does that not surprise me.

 

[Dirtyrat]

Well, sounds like they would have been better off designating the cars as scrap title cars never to be driven again, and then sent to the recyclers for a proper disassembly....

 

[GJunktionMike]

What a joke that was.

Another government program designed to break the backs of the middle class. I have a cousin that worked at one of the dealers here. He said it was just sick to watch, cars that were under a couple years old (most of what came into the dealer ship) were being trashed for nothing. The most discussing one he saw was a caddy that had left the lot less then a year ago come in and get trashed.

I would like to see a report on the cars that were traded in, and see what the years of the cars were and if any were really clunkers. I would guess there were a lot of cars that were in perfect condition and the owner saw a opportunity to trade in, get the allowance, get a new car and have lower payment thank to the program.

690,000 car were traded in with up to $4,500 each that is $3,105,000.000.00. Even I could spend 3 trillion better then this.

 

[donsrods]

Not surprised at all. What the Government forgot in that deal was that a lot of low and middle income families simply could not afford to trade in their clunker and buy a new car, or their credit wasn't good enough to do it. But if those cars had gone to the wrecking yard instead of being shredded, those same families could have kept their old cars alive with the parts they could have bought. That would enable them to get to work and earn a living.

On the surface getting older, less fuel efficient and polluting cars off the road seems like a great goal. But as was outlined in that article, the reality is a lot of pollution was created as well as trash that will be in the ground for another billion years.

I think we all can see by the stupidity going on in Washington over stuff like the "fiscal cliff" that the people we vote into office end up looking out for their own careers and they really don't give a rat's behind about us.

Don

 

[Todd]

I worked well for me, had a mini van that got crap mileage and the motor and trans starting to lay down. That van was never gonna be worth $4500 again.[cl

 

[skull]

lies

l'm from the government & were here to help you

Later

 

[offroadrolls]

The center of the universe

makes me dizzy

 

[sneakysnake]

Figures..

 

[Bamamav]

I remember going to Pull-A-Part in Birmingham while that was going on. They would sell anything but the engine block and heads, they spray painted on them to mark them. There were several sets of Explorer GT 40 heads that I know of got out anyway, because they didn't mark them very good.

They put those vehicles in a separate section, a lot of them had lower miles and were in better shape than what I was driving! Made me sick!

 

[Neverdone]

not suprised.

 

[Sam_Fear]

I think most of us saw this coming when the program was announced. Those that pushed for this program will still say it was a success even when faced with the truth. Just more political BS. The road to he!! is paved with good intentions - this country has been on that road for a long time now.

 

[Willowbilly3]

Another government program designed to break the backs of the middle class. I have a cousin that worked at one of the dealers here. He said it was just sick to watch, cars that were under a couple years old (most of what came into the dealer ship) were being trashed for nothing. The most discussing one he saw was a caddy that had left the lot less then a year ago come in and get trashed.

I would like to see a report on the cars that were traded in, and see what the years of the cars were and if any were really clunkers. I would guess there were a lot of cars that were in perfect condition and the owner saw a opportunity to trade in, get the allowance, get a new car and have lower payment thank to the program.

690,000 car were traded in with up to $4,500 each that is $3,105,000.000.00. Even I could spend 3 trillion better then this.

So someone traded in a caddy less than 2 years old, presumable worth $20,000 or so just to get $4500? Somethings wrong with that story and I'm sure if it did happen it didn't happen much. I did however see some really nice 7-8 year old caddys with 60,000-70,000 miles go through a dealership and lots of real good old 10-12 year old pickups, better than what I drive.

 

[GJunktionMike]

So someone traded in a caddy less than 2 years old, presumable worth $20,000 or so just to get $4500? Somethings wrong with that story and I'm sure if it did happen it didn't happen much. I did however see some really nice 7-8 year old caddys with 60,000-70,000 miles go through a dealership and lots of real good old 10-12 year old pickups, better than what I drive.

The caddy thing was just one of the rare things that happened. Here is what the sanity behind the madness was around here. We were at the tail end of a drilling boom (just like the Dakotas are in right now) here when this program started. There were a lot of local guys that got into the oilfield a year or two before the bottom dropped out. I had 50+ guys that worked under me in a years time quit and go to the oilfield. A lot of them went from making $14/18 to $25/50 and hour. A lot of these guys went from the verge of bankruptcy to liven high on the hog (but never learned to budget) and went on spending sprees because they now had more money then sense. Because they started with bad credit and didn’t have the sense to build their credit back up first, they got into high payment loans. When the jobs started to end they would be stuck with a car payment that was high. They would take these cars down to the dealer get the allowance and have the remainder of the loan tacked on the back of a loan for a cheaper car and better payments because there credit improved, saving a couple hundred a month and saving your credit makes people do strange things. To bad they didn’t have a cash for the house you can’t afford any more program. For a while you couldn’t drive down a single street with out seeing one foreclosure on every block.

 

[Torch]

If there's something stupid to be done sooner or later somebody will try it.
If people don't take naturally to being idiots on their own the government is there to help nudge em.