I’ll always buy Ford. I have a cow pusher on my Expedition, you know, for when the zombies attack and all. Suburbans are shit.
The program is also driving up the price of used cars across the country, making it harder for people who already can’t afford a new car to even buy a used one. Not to mention what its doing to small mechanic shops across the country. That’s 1 million used cars they don’t have to repair .
Everything this banana fudge sunday does is complete shit.
Economically distorting policy? Yes.
A bubble on the horizon? I’d say not - there is no element of speculation to drive it. Our previous bubbles were caused by the compounding effect on an expectation that the asset prices would grow (exponentially) indefinitely. We won’t have that in this industry.
Here’s a double up yours for the charities that used to take cast off cars. Those charities would either fix them, auction them off or junk the real junkers that had no value. Some got fixed up by churches to give to needy people without cars.
At least in NY and possibly throughout the federal program, the car engines on all clunkers are drained of their oil, a silica mixture is poured in the crankcase and the engines are run at 2000 RPM until they blow. Which can take seconds or up to several minutes.
How is that for a waste? I passed one dealer today and some of the “clunkers” looked pretty good to me. Nice and shiny, clean and some were at least a 2003 vintage.
BG
[quote]orion wrote:
Ryan P. McCarter wrote:
Rockscar wrote:
pittbulll wrote:
I believe you may be right, I hope they do not continue this policy. There has been a small up side to this though
2% increase in sales of Japaneese cars for 5 Billion.
People are getting into debt with this program, and my taxes paid for them to get into debt. Rediculous!
Uh-oh, we wouldn’t people in this country to get into any debt!
Wars in two countries, tax giveaways to the rich, handouts to pharmaceutical companies, no problem, but $5 billion for new cars?! Tyranny! Raaaaa!
You have a point but how large does that straw that finally breaks the camels back actually have to be?
[/quote]
Dunno. We’re already in more debt as a country than we really have any excuse for. It wasn’t amassed through economic stimulus, though. It just irks me that the budget hawks were nowhere to be found during the Bush Administration, and now everyone’s an accountant.
[quote]stokedporcupine8 wrote:
Ryan P. McCarter wrote:
Yes, the rational business men who presumably read the newspaper are delusional enough to think that a ~$5 billion program is going to last forever. Seems like people are rational when you want them to be and irrational when you want them to be. This will probably serve mainly to clear out inventories.
They’ve done much dumber things, that’s for sure. [/quote]
I don’t know. Many “dumb” things can actually be smart for a single company in a capitalist economy.
[quote]pushharder wrote:
My daughter just bought a car yesterday from a dealer that told her someone had just traded in a 2007 VW Jetta on the Cash for Clunkers program. Not a typo. A 2007 Volkwagen Jetta.[/quote]
I have no doubts about that. I saw an Explorer pickup that had to be a 2005 this morning. I would have given the person $4500 for that in cash in a flash. But then again, just turning the car over is the EASY thing to do. No bickering with some dealer type that has the scruples of a crack whore (not to give crack whores a bad name), having weird as shit people calling you at 4 AM if you put an ad in the paper.
Some dealers toss another incentive on top of that as well. We had one Chrysler dealer matching the $4500 for a total of $9000 back, but then again, who wants a Chrysler product?
BG
[quote]thunderbolt23 wrote:
Economically distorting policy? Yes.
A bubble on the horizon? I’d say not - there is no element of speculation to drive it. Our previous bubbles were caused by the compounding effect on an expectation that the asset prices would grow (exponentially) indefinitely. We won’t have that in this industry.
[/quote]
Agreed. No one is directing resources to this industry rather they are diverting them away. This is a vacuum.
[quote]pushharder wrote:
My daughter just bought a car yesterday from a dealer that told her someone had just traded in a 2007 VW Jetta on the Cash for Clunkers program. Not a typo. A 2007 Volkwagen Jetta.[/quote]
The least efficient 2007 Jetta on fueleconomy.gov is 22mpg. That doesn’t qualify. Don’t ever believe anything a car salesman tells you
[quote]pushharder wrote:
bpeck wrote:
pushharder wrote:
My daughter just bought a car yesterday from a dealer that told her someone had just traded in a 2007 VW Jetta on the Cash for Clunkers program. Not a typo. A 2007 Volkwagen Jetta.
The least efficient 2007 Jetta on fueleconomy.gov is 22mpg. That doesn’t qualify. Don’t ever believe anything a car salesman tells you
You may be right. I’m just reporting what I heard.
There is some kind of mpg standard? What is it?[/quote]
I think the car has to get less than 19 mpg based on the fueleconomy.gov website. I totally believe that the dealer told your daughter this. I had a dealer tell me that the program would give me $4500 in addition to my trade in value. My car didn’t qualify anyway.
bpeck
How much would I get for my 91 Isuzu Rodeo? I know, through my futile hopes and dreams, that I can drive it for 100k more miles. It’s a quality vehicle, y’all.