Just wait until the Cash for Clunkers program utterly destroys the used car market. A lot of kids and low income folks are gonna get pissed when there are no used cars available that they can afford.
Wait, I thought cash for clunkers was the best thing since sliced bread? I thought it was going to line the pockets of dealers and car manufacturers? But it's causing cash flow problems? That can't be! I mean, the gub'mint can just print money and cart it to the dealers, right? And I thought that this program was a resounding success to the point that the gub'mint was gonna triple it! :flow2:
How do you figure? A month or two after the program ends, there will be a massive glut of "klunkers" sitting on car dealer's lots, waiting to be sold off at bargain basement prices. And remember, it wasn't the dealers offering up the extra cash for the used cars, it was the govt. So the dealers' cost for them remains the same. And they'll have so many they'll HAVE to deal in order to get rid of them....
And all of those used cars have had their engines destroyed as mandated by the Federal government. [YT="Destroying a Jeep Cherokee Engines"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DtsZE7o6_A[/YT] It freaking pisses me off. This is SO WASTEFUL. That engine ran smooth, the car body is in good shape... waste, waste, waste. All of the oil low lines in that engine are full of glass now, and all of the bearings in it are scored.
Umm, no there won't. Have you ever read the news? Those cars have to be destroyed. That's half the point of the whole program.
In the past, the value of a car with a bad engine has been 1/4 of the wholesale price of that vehicle with a good engine. Now that they're destroying an entire generation of engines, that value will plummet even more. This doesn't affect only used engines, by the way, but also affects remanufactured engines - Jasper, CMEngines, Grooms, Jek, ATK, APS - they all need tens of thousands of core engine. These aren't even good as rebuildable cores now.
You mean . . . a reality-impaired feelgood liberal program has run afoul of the Law of Unintended Consequences? The hell you say!
No, I think this was an intended consequence. This short term program is going to FORCE people to buy cars they cannot afford in the future. Fannie Mae might have to have a car loan program.
Indeed. And on top of that, this is milking every "on the fence" new car buyer out of the market. Once the program ends, new car sales will collapse in spectacular fashion because everyone with the wherewithal to buy will have already been bribed to do so.
Yeah, I can wring around 19mpg out of my '97 Jeep if all the lubes are fresh, the plugs and air filter relatively clean, the tires inflated properly, and I apply some judicious restraint to my heavy right foot, so I'd have to get something too "compromised for fuel efficiency" for my taste.
Then the car dealers will just talk Congress into authorizing another one, and another one, and another one, until "pick up your new-car voucher from the government" becomes a standard part of buying a car.
