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Cash for Clunkers - Good or Bad Idea?

4110 messages,  Last post on Nov 23, 2009 at 11:42 AM

You are in the Automotive News & Views Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & claires

What is this discussion about? Legislation, Truck, Sedan, Wagon, SUV

For questions about how the program works or to discuss program details, please visit our discussion titled, "Cash for Clunkers - Does it Work for You?"


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#3951 of 4110
Re: White House clueless on their failed stimuli [kdhspyder] by gagrice
Nov 01, 2009 (8:30 am)
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Replying to: kdhspyder (Nov 01, 2009 8:16 am)

Your opinions are just that, Opinions. Nobody likes to admit they were bailed out of a failed business. That would include car salesmen that our tax dollars BAILED OUT.
You are in the minority of people thinking these bailouts are working.
 
#3952 of 4110
Re: White House and Obama lash out at Edmunds for CFC info ! [kdhspyder] by hpmctorque
Nov 01, 2009 (10:04 am)
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Replying to: kdhspyder (Oct 31, 2009 9:13 pm)

What you consistently ignore, kdhspyder, are the drawbacks and costs associated with C4C. These outweigh the benefits. There's no need to list and explain these negatives, since they've been extensively mentioned in countless messages on this board.
#3953 of 4110
Re: White House and Obama lash out at Edmunds for CFC info ! [hpmctorque] by imidazol97
Nov 01, 2009 (10:28 am)
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Replying to: hpmctorque (Nov 01, 2009 10:04 am)

Which car companies sold the most cars during the cash for clunkers fiasco? The foreign companies. SNL just reran a mild parody of BO last night and that was one of the bullet points--that the foreign companies benefited the most. Therefore I'd expect a salesman for the company selling the most foreign cars would be in favor of the program.
#3954 of 4110
Re: White House and Obama lash out at Edmunds for CFC info ! [hpmctorque] by kdhspyder
Nov 01, 2009 (11:23 am)
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Replying to: hpmctorque (Nov 01, 2009 10:04 am)

The 'drawbacks', which you fail to mention, btw are simply unfounded fears or a lack of understanding about how the world of business and government work. There is nothing on these boards thus far which has raised any specific detailed factual statements. Don't get me started again on the dopey Edmunds article. It's wrong from its initial premise.
 
Typical unfounded fears you come out with are 'our grandchildren are going to have to pay for this forever'. What are these poor babes going to have to pay for if there's little or no debt coming from this program?
 
Another typical unfounded fear is 'OMG they're going to crush a classic'. Puleeze.
 
Another goofy and false one was that 'OMG you're going to have to pay taxes on the $4500 rebate'. Fed by Faux News of course.
 
It's like you people live in a cartoon world fed fears of hobgoblins by Faux News. I have data and facts that none of you seem to want to discuss or refute in any way. Why is that? Show me data to substantiate your fears. Keep it focused on C4C.
 
I asked 4 questions of one poster above and he said he had no idea what the answers were and he asked me to give him the answers. How can you be afraid if you don't have any facts? This is typical. Heck none of you are even involved in the industry. Everything you get is 2nd or 3rd hand.
#3955 of 4110
Re: White House and Obama lash out at Edmunds for CFC info ! [imidazol97] by kdhspyder
Nov 01, 2009 (11:38 am)
Reply

Replying to: imidazol97 (Nov 01, 2009 10:28 am)

How ironic. Do you realize that millions of people hated the C4C program because they see it as a crutch and a prop for the disabled domestics. Ask your buddy gagrice. Make up your minds wouldja. This part of it really cracks me up.
 
Look if it will put things in perspective. I agree fully with your last sentence. We killed more clunkers than all but one store in the state of VA. It was a shortterm bonanza not only for new car sales but also for used car sales. At the end of the program where we should have had 250 - 350 new cars and 100+ used cars on the lot we had SIX new vehicles and 15 used vehicles left over. Everybody involved got a boost from the deluge of buyers that suddenly appeared at our doors. Our Chevy store was nearly wiped clean.
#3956 of 4110
Re: White House and Obama lash out at Edmunds for CFC info ! [kdhspyder] by berri
Nov 01, 2009 (12:44 pm)
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Replying to: kdhspyder (Nov 01, 2009 11:38 am)

Here's the thing, when the government engineers social or economic matters there are usually resulting unintended consequences or distortions. Real estate, whether housing or commercial, tends to be inflated and incurs bubbles because the tax system is skewed too favorably toward it. By engineering healthcare and higher education for the lower income, the resulting costs are borne by the other classes. I'm not judging whether these are right or not, but making the point that its generally the middle class that takes the hit for these government actions. Who bears the brunt of higher college tuitions or consumer health insurance costs, its not the wealthy. And the added deficit from this C4C nonsense and weakening dollar ultimately will hit the middle class hardest because they are the largest number of consumers and taxpayers.
 
As for C4C, you need to be careful of the statistics. The increase in sales isn't just from additional units, but also from higher prices the dealers were able to gouge from the government market intervention and distortion. The market for vehicles is rather finite and few people buy cars every year or two, so ultimately most C4C sales units were just moved up rather than new incremental volume. The impact from the removed clunkers is marginal at best. Not high enough to really affect global oil demand, and as someone already pointed out the resulting tax consequnces probably wash between less gasoline tax versus higher insurance, car license and sales tax.
 
I resent using public monies to subsidize cars and houses. As I've stated before, if the economy needs a jump I'd rather see public works jobs and let the newly employed spend the money as they see fit. I don't watch Fox news and am not a registered Republican. But I think I'm probably pretty representative of middle class America.
#3957 of 4110
Re: White House and Obama lash out at Edmunds for CFC info ! [kdhspyder] by houdini1
Nov 01, 2009 (1:52 pm)
Reply

Replying to: kdhspyder (Nov 01, 2009 11:23 am)

It's like you people live in a cartoon world fed fears of hobgoblins by Faux News. I have data and facts that none of you seem to want to discuss or refute in any way
 
So we should make our economic decisions based on what a car salesman tells us rather than Fox news?
 
Are you gunning for the position of "Car Sales Czar"? Remember, in order to qualify you have to owe a lot of back taxes, and have a rather unsavory background, etc.
 
If nothing else, this thread is entertaining.
#3958 of 4110
Re: White House and Obama lash out at Edmunds for CFC info ! [berri] by gagrice
Nov 01, 2009 (1:57 pm)
Reply

Replying to: berri (Nov 01, 2009 12:44 pm)

As I've stated before, if the economy needs a jump I'd rather see public works jobs and let the newly employed spend the money as they see fit.
 
I could get behind programs modeled after the WPA. I doubt they would be possible with the Union influencing the WH. The whole bailout including C4C was paybacks to the auto industry Unions. It is obvious guys like Wagoner did not kick in enough to save his job. All the babbling about getting the $3 billion back in taxes is just that ramblings of a fertile imagination. That money is gone and we are right back where we were in June. Only the cars are mostly 2010 models. I would be real surprised if C4C added 125k sales to the total for the year. Of course there is no way to prove it one way or the other. So both sides spin it to fit their fantasies. Same as the crap about jobs saved by the stimulus.
#3959 of 4110
Re: White House and Obama lash out at Edmunds for CFC info ! [gagrice] by steve_ HOST
Nov 01, 2009 (2:03 pm)
Reply

Replying to: gagrice (Nov 01, 2009 1:57 pm)

WPA fraud was apparently widespread enough that WPA administrator Harry Hopkins started up a squad of WPA fraud investigators called the W-men. (link)
 
No program is perfect, state funded or corporate. Cash for Clunkers had a limited scope and focus and seems to have met or exceeded the goals that wound up in the legislation.
#3960 of 4110
Re: White House and Obama lash out at Edmunds for CFC info ! [berri] by imidazol97
Nov 01, 2009 (2:32 pm)
Reply

Replying to: berri (Nov 01, 2009 12:44 pm)

>The increase in sales isn't just from additional units, but also from higher prices the dealers were able to gouge from the government market intervention and distortion.
 
Amen on that. The prices on new and used cars went up. It was just like Nixon's price freeze: Krogers had the stockers in changing prices on the shelf before they opened so that would be the new higher price limit at which they could sell.
 
The car companies took advantage of the people buying in a similar manner.

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