Cash for Clunkers aka Auto Bailout #2

June 19, 2009

The Senate passed a $1 billion “cash for clunkers” program that provides government incentives of $3,500 to $4,500 to car buyers who trade in old gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient vehicles. Sounds great doesn’t it? Until you read the small print.

The vehicle that you trade in has to get 18 MPG or less but the vehicle that you buy has to get only 22 MPG to get the $3500 voucher. For SUV and trucks, the new vehicle only has to get 2 more MPG in order to get the voucher. You can trade up to the newer version of your current model and qualify for the voucher.

This is nothing more than another give away to the auto industry by helping them to sell more of the SUVs and Trucks that we Americans have come to love but can not afford to fill the tank on. Not very helpful on the environment either.

The big surprise for folks is going to be when they drive into the show room thinking that they are going to get the voucher in additional to their normal trade in amount. These vehicles are going to be scrapped. There is no resale value other than the price of the scrap metal. In many cases there is not going to be any gain or advantage for the buyer; just a shell game of moving money from your trade in to a government voucher.

Thanks for nothing Uncle Sam.

Tags:

This entry was posted on June 19, 2009 at 12:17 am and is filed under Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

4 Responses to “ Cash for Clunkers aka Auto Bailout #2 ”

  1. Valuable Internet Information » Cash for Clunkers aka Auto Bailout #2 on June 19, 2009 at 2:20 am

    [...] View post:  Cash for Clunkers aka Auto Bailout #2 [...]

  2. What you need to know about Cash for Clunkers | Wide Trends on June 19, 2009 at 10:03 am

    [...] According 2 Mark › Cash for Clunkers aka Auto Bailout #2 [...]

  3. jordan on June 19, 2009 at 12:32 pm

    I don’t qualify because my car already gets good gas mileage. My dad swears by the car buying process here: http://excarsalesman.typepad.com/ It is kind of similar.

    I haven’t tried it yet, but I might because it looks good.

    I have a feeling dealers are going to automatically increase prices because of the increased demand (artificial) for lower MPG cars. So the thousands of savings from this bill for consumers is not entirely accurate. The demand will increase prices and you’ll get a voucher from increased prices. I’m certain some markets you’ll come out even as if they never offered this voucher. It is poorly written legislation.

  4. AnnaHopn on June 21, 2009 at 12:28 am

    Hi,
    Super post, Need to mark it on Digg
    Thank you
    AnnaHopn