Comments on: Cash for Clunkers: Success or Failure?

By: Dysert

Dysert — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:01:42 +0000

I agree 100%. Using our money to help the car makers was wrong. The good side is the new cars will run cleaner and get better gas even stimulate these companies. But the car companies and dealers have lived high on the hog long enough. Let the fat cats who put the car business here get it out. Not to mention the UAW how is responsible for the outragous price tags on cars today. Now you took 700,000 $4000 cars off the road. There is a huge market for $4000 cars or less. There will be 700,000 peaple who can’t afford new cars being forced to buy something they can’t afford. Isn’t that what 700,000 peaple just do? If you want a new fridge, Southern California Edison will pay you for your old one and recycle it!

By: Kathy Wittes

Kathy Wittes — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 05:30:02 +0000

Good article. I found it very accurate, except for one small point: of Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle, the most “green” is to reduce, followed by reuse and recycle.

An example of reducing vis a vis Stolen-cash for Clunkers (as I call it) would be if you had decided to never buy a car in the first place, so you didn’t even have a clunker. To eat less, buy less, consume less, etc. technically has the least environmental impact.

Your point on folks being enticed into buying things they don’t need and can’t afford is a good one. I used to reposess
cars so I can tell you how alot of the cash-for-clunkers stories will end. “Reduce, reuse, recycle” is a good mantra for personal finances as well.

I look forward to the cash-for-n’er-do-wells program. My neighborhood is very nice, and yet it has plenty of tiresome old thugs lying around who don’t respect the rights of others…but seriously, many states saw how poorly their own cash-for-refrigerators (or other old appliances) programs were a big mess.

Jay, you are right that the Stolencash-for-Clunkers program was a failure. Still, even if it had been a better program, I STILL say, ‘Don’t spend MY money on it.’

I’m rambling here, but I’ll continue anyway…we bought a new furnace recently, and the furnace man told us about a client who’d taken up Obama on the deal in the stimulus package that offered a credit for getting a new furnace. (This is true, but cash-for-your-old-furnace never got the press that cash-for-clunkers did.) The guy got a $5000 credit on a $10,000 enviromentally super-duper fancy-pantsy new furnace. A few weeks later, he got slapped with a $20,000 increase on his property tax assessment because the feds reported “a significant home improvement” in the form of the new furnace to the state. Obama giveth and Obama taketh away…he’s robbing Peter to pay Paul in hopes that he’ll still have the support of Paul come 2012.

By: Tony Peters

Tony Peters — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 00:28:56 +0000

I’ll bet most of those folks who bought new cars on the cash for clunkers program, had no idea that the same government “Santa Claus” who gave them the $4500 is also going to tax it as “income”. OOPS! Thats going to be around $1500 on your taxes gang. That means you really only get $3000 for your piece of crap.

By: freedomminute

freedomminute — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 13:34:32 +0000

Yes, the clunkers may be sold for parts, but that still doesn’t make up for the loss of wealth that comes from taking an otherwise useful vehicle off the road and scrapping it.

By: Pavel Moarte

Pavel Moarte — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:59:44 +0000

The clunkers’ engines are frozen with a frluid that kills the motor – then taken to salvage facilities where the parts (doors, seats, wheels/tires, etc.) are sold.

By: Heather

Heather — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 03:13:42 +0000

Everyone toss out your refrigerator, fill up the landfills create more stuff that is not necessary!

I thought it sounded crazy to get rid of cars that are still working. Actually, hypocritical to the environmental movement.

Cars that many would love to use are being trashed. From what I understand, you can’t even salvage any of the vehicle…which now negatively effect the salvage market. I myself have bought many parts for my VW salvage- was even looking into a new drivers seat since my leather tore.

I think there are better uses of money…and anyways- why are we spending money we don’t have? Going into debt further- an endless cycle from government to consumer and we will be paying in taxes. And paying in the fact that we now have to borrow from China…does anyone learn?

You bring up some other great points that I didn’t even think of like the “hangover”. It’s an artificial high. Shouldn’t we create sustainable business if we do anything?

Curious, what do you mean by we are “less wealthy now”? How does that work?

Thanks again for bring up more thoughts!