So everyone has heard of the super successful "Clunkers to Cash' program right? Its where they take your older vehicles and give you a $4500 credit towards a brand new car. Sounds pretty good right? Who wouldn't like someone else to pay for a good chunk of a new car?

Here's the thing though, These people are taking a completely paid off vehicle, that runs and could probably run longer if maintained and they are trading it for a 4-6 year loan and all those payments. Sounds like more debt to me, and most people should know that you do not take on more debt when you don't know if you will have a job tomorrow or not. Unemployment just keeps getting worse and worse in this country. Wow some people are just dumb, I mean sure its probably great for someone who has the cash to pay the balance, but for most people they cannot afford 25 grand or so to buy a decent new car now a days. I just don't get it, I thought we had more fiscally responsible people in this country. The program is so successful that they ran out of money in a week and have already appropriated more. Where do people think the money to pay for cars comes from? Trees? China? It comes from taxes, this program is only going to make things worse in the long run economically. the estimated yearly saving in Gasoline by switching to more fuel efficient newer cars is 72 million gallons. Sounds like a lot of gasoline doesn't it? Would you be surprised to know that the USA alone uses that much Gasoline in 4 hours? Its true. Assume one 42 gallon barrel of oil makes about 30 gallons of refined petrol. http://www.eia.doe.gov/basics/quickoil.html

Wow those billions and billions of dollars aren't doing much if over a whole years time it only saves 4 hours worth of fuel. And the American Tax Payer is footing the bill in 2 ways, taxes/inflation and of course the cost of servicing the new loan. Not Smart America!!

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Well-written. I agree wholeheartedly. It's much more efficient to run a vehicle for as long as possible rather than trading in for something with better mileage. I don't understand what people are thinking - it seems predatory ta boot.

i like the way u word your thoughts, you have could write 4 a professional journal company or something like that, but yeah, the cash 4 clunkers seems to be already out of money from what i heard

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Not everyone who is buying cars is a financial nitwit... On the contrary, I purchased a new car a week or two ago (not through the CARS program), and while the economy does concern me, its just not bad enough to not purchase a car.

I'm paying $300 a month for this car, and I'm not even employed

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Funny though how the program ran out of cash within the first week of being available.

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Well if your not employed and you can make the payments easy enough then go for it, but what would happen if your alternate cash source dried up?

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It is far easier to ignorantly control others than it is to wisely control yourself.

You grow more money lol

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do they give you $4500 or UP TO $4500 for every car? if they give you the full 4500 each time then i bet you could scam the government good by just buying a lot of shitty cars for like 500 bucks and get the credit and just keep doing this till you can buy a new better efficient car for very cheap.

More effecient cars = good. Government meddling in business and increased debt = bad.

The Japanese cars seem to be selling the best.

There is another side to this that gets ignored.

I am about to buy a new car, or trade in my lease, so I scan the paper real fast and find someone selling a car for a couple hundred. I go buy it and take it to be traded in.

That puts a few hundred in the hands of the person selling the junker.
I buy the car from the dealership that has been there for the last year helping with the crazy overstock, this puts money into the dealership (salesperson, accountant, service people, taxes, rent, other businesses that depend on those people having money).
Then they destroy the motor so the junkers get paid to tow it and at the junkyard they strip the usable parts and scrap metal can be used.

And here I am with a new car that I was going to buy anyway (how many people you think are buying a new car with this that was not going to buy one), with everyone else in the chain getting some money in their pockets creating a stimulus package.

And also taking a ton of old cars with oil leaks and all out of the economy. This will benefit anyone trying to sell a used car. Anyone needing to get used parts will benefit from the extra stock that will come from this. Refurbished metal companies will benefit from the uptick in material. On and on.

And anyone that has ever made a "Where is my bailout?" joke can benefit from this if they need a new car.


And the reason that it ran out in a week is due to how good it worked, thinking anything else is silly. They put up 2billion. And the estimates were that it could take up to 2 months to be used up. But the demand for it was so great that it ended up being used in one week. That is highly successful.

If you were selling weed, and figured that it would take you 2 months to sell through all your stash, but instead you unloaded it in one week would you be bummed that you didn't take the entire 2 months?

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