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Cash For ClunkersFollow

#1 Jul 31 2009 at 6:20 AM Rating: Excellent
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The "Cash for Clunkers" program which provided $3000-$4500 to people who traded in vehicles getting <18mpg for new cars getting >24mpg is reportedly out of money after only a week or so. Given its initial funding of $1,000,000,000 that's ~250,000 new cars sold in around the last seven days. However, the funding was supposed to last through October leaving the government in a position to either pump more money into the program or to end it early.
Should the Government...
End the program:13 (20.3%)
Invest more money into the existing program:27 (42.2%)
Invest more but tighten restrictions so the money lasts longer:17 (26.6%)
Invest more but loosen restrictions so people buy even more:7 (10.9%)
Total:64
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Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#2 Jul 31 2009 at 6:25 AM Rating: Good
Expand it. This is an excellent form of stimulus that benefits struggling local dealerships (and their struggling employees) and gets people in to vehicles that will cost much less to operate in the long term (as well as being more environmentally friendly).

This is so much more productive than pouring buckets of cash in to megabanks.
#3 Jul 31 2009 at 6:27 AM Rating: Good
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Invest more. This program is really great; for car companies, for people driving inefficient cars, for potential buyers, for people who would only get a little money from reselling but get a good amount of credit for using the program. I think the fact that so many are taking advantage of it is a sign of its success.
#4 Jul 31 2009 at 6:30 AM Rating: Excellent
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My wife just bought a car (she didn't qualify for the C4C program but still got a great deal on a Matrix) and the salesman said that their lot had gone from 100% full to 40% full within days. He mentioned the program going broke and I was skeptical saying that would mean 250,000 new cars sold in a week. Well, sure enough.
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Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#5 Jul 31 2009 at 6:35 AM Rating: Good
Jophiel wrote:
My wife just bought a car (she didn't qualify for the C4C program but still got a great deal on a Matrix) and the salesman said that their lot had gone from 100% full to 40% full within days. He mentioned the program going broke and I was skeptical saying that would mean 250,000 new cars sold in a week. Well, sure enough.
I like those Matrixes. Matrices. Whatever.

I'm still holding out hope that VW will debut either a hybrid or TDI Beetle, though.
#6 Jul 31 2009 at 7:02 AM Rating: Decent
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I think I could get more miles out of Mindel.
#7REDACTED, Posted: Jul 31 2009 at 7:04 AM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) lmao...and the govn thinks it can handle everyones healthcare.
#8 Jul 31 2009 at 7:06 AM Rating: Default
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publiusvarus wrote:
stuff


And?
#9 Jul 31 2009 at 7:19 AM Rating: Good
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Joph,
I see your avatar, and it makes me hungry, but not for Gyros. Here in Atlantic Canada we have this thing called a Donair(they started here, not sure how far they've penetrated the rest of the continent yet), it's a ******* lovechild of a Gyro and a Doner Kebab that is more powerful than either of it's parents will ever be.

And all I have is a chicken salad sammich; so I say damn you sir.
#10 Jul 31 2009 at 7:23 AM Rating: Excellent
reavenance wrote:
Joph,
I see your avatar, and it makes me hungry, but not for Gyros. Here in Atlantic Canada we have this thing called a Donair(they started here, not sure how far they've penetrated the rest of the continent yet), it's a ******* lovechild of a Gyro and a Doner Kebab that is more powerful than either of it's parents will ever be.
I hate to crush your Canadian pride, but a donair is just shawarma with ****** ingredients.
#11 Jul 31 2009 at 7:24 AM Rating: Good
Vagina Dentata,
what a wonderful phrase
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Mindel wrote:
reavenance wrote:
Joph,
I see your avatar, and it makes me hungry, but not for Gyros. Here in Atlantic Canada we have this thing called a Donair(they started here, not sure how far they've penetrated the rest of the continent yet), it's a ******* lovechild of a Gyro and a Doner Kebab that is more powerful than either of it's parents will ever be.
I hate to crush your Canadian pride, but a donair is just shawarma with sh*tty ingredients.


Smiley: mad

It's Turkish, you *****.
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Turin wrote:
Seriously, what the f*ck nature?
#12 Jul 31 2009 at 7:30 AM Rating: Excellent
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I love my car, but if I got a good enough deal, I'd trade it. However $4500 isn't enough to make me consider having a monthly car payment. At least one dealership here is nearly sold out and said they would not be getting a new shipment for a couple of months. Another dealership is offering another $4500 incentive, THAT might get me to go look.
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#13 Jul 31 2009 at 7:31 AM Rating: Good
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I admit they are extremely similar; I didn't see an analog for the Donair Sauce though, which, imo, is what makes the meal.
#14 Jul 31 2009 at 7:34 AM Rating: Good
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Also, hearing from some friends that Cash for Clunkers actually accepted some Canadian registered cars.

With the pricebreaks people reportedly get from shopping for cars down in the US already quite large, this might really make it worthwile for me to start looking around down there for something to replace my oldass plowtruck with(it keeps breaking down so I bought a snowblower attachment for my lawn mower, works great :D).
#15 Jul 31 2009 at 7:36 AM Rating: Good
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Mistress Darqflame wrote:
I love my car, but if I got a good enough deal, I'd trade it. However $4500 isn't enough to make me consider having a monthly car payment. At least one dealership here is nearly sold out and said they would not be getting a new shipment for a couple of months. Another dealership is offering another $4500 incentive, THAT might get me to go look.


This is what's making it really good, IMO. I've heard of people getting new cars for $8000-9000 off by including the Cash for Clunkers deal with the major discounts dealers are offering to try and move their cars. It seems like a pretty darn good time to buy.
#16 Jul 31 2009 at 7:59 AM Rating: Decent
How many people are buying cars now that they can't afford? How many people are abusing the system? The former is probably not measurable and the latter is unlikely to be an issue given the restraints of the program (I think you have to prove registration/ownership of the trade-in for at least a year, and some other things, like, it has to be operational and such), but I do have reservations about how and why the funding ran out so quickly.

I agree it's one of those rare stimulus plans that has the potential for great benefit, but it seems a bit fishy to me to have emptied the coffers so quickly.
#17 Jul 31 2009 at 8:02 AM Rating: Excellent
Nexa
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Mindel wrote:
Expand it. This is an excellent form of stimulus that benefits struggling local dealerships (and their struggling employees) and gets people in to vehicles that will cost much less to operate in the long term (as well as being more environmentally friendly).

This is so much more productive than pouring buckets of cash in to megabanks.


This.

Nexa
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“It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But a half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
#18 Jul 31 2009 at 8:20 AM Rating: Good
I say tighten the restrictions a bit. The incentive should have been for people getting cards that got 25 mpg or more, instead of cars that were 2-3 mpg more efficient than their existing ones.

Also, expand it to include diesel trucks. The improvements to diesel engines over the last few years are astonishing; the engines made today have reduced 90% of the pollutants from comparable engines ten years ago. I think any incentive to removing trucks belching smoke off the highway is a good one.
#19 Jul 31 2009 at 8:33 AM Rating: Good
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catwho the Mundane wrote:
I say tighten the restrictions a bit. The incentive should have been for people getting cards that got 25 mpg or more, instead of cars that were 2-3 mpg more efficient than their existing ones.


I have been looking around, and was pretty sure you only got the full 4500 dollars for the trade in if the car you were purchasing got 10MPG more than the one you were trading in. In order to get full price for the vehicle I would be trading in, I'd have to get one with a combined highway/city rating of 28MPG or greater. Which pretty much narrowed it down to either a Toyota or Honda.

If it's truely out of money I will be sad. I had started just last week looking at local dealerships to find a nice car that I could trade in my old Caprice for.
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#20 Jul 31 2009 at 8:55 AM Rating: Decent
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I voted to fund but restrict - without really knowing what the current requirements are, it just seems like they miscalculated.

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I lost my post
#21 Jul 31 2009 at 8:57 AM Rating: Good
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Mindel wrote:
Expand it. This is an excellent form of stimulus that benefits struggling local dealerships (and their struggling employees) and gets people in to vehicles that will cost much less to operate in the long term (as well as being more environmentally friendly).

This is so much more productive than pouring buckets of cash in to megabanks.
Admittedly it is a good, successful idea. The only concern I have with putting more money into it is that there was the stimulus that pumped money into the megabanks. This, and ideas like this could have been an excellent alternative to the stimulus we already have but we can't forget that we already have a pile of debt tied up in other avenues.

We as a whole can't act like that money spent on the banks, foolhardy, misappropriated, or even admittedly defended as a the proper course of action did happen. Those dollars were spent, we need to act like there's a negative over there. Don't we? Rather, shouldn't we?

I'm saying, we can't keep spending and spending and spending. It just doesn't work like that, the card castle that's being built is going to collapse and the void in the economy that's left is going to be felt.

It's like the country as a whole doesn't realize that the c4c and programs similar to it are funded by real dollars. Dollars from all of our pockets, dollars we have not actually paid in yet. If you got a new vehicle, good on you you; got a grant from everyone else but that money came from somewhere. It's not free money. It's like the young kids who get credit cards and have no concept of the fact that the card limit is actual money that has to be paid back, till they get in over their head it's just a bank account to them with some arbitrary cap.

Idk, like I said, it's a good idea, just...idk.
#22REDACTED, Posted: Jul 31 2009 at 9:17 AM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) Isn't this cash for clunkers anti-family?
#23 Jul 31 2009 at 10:10 AM Rating: Excellent
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publiusvarus wrote:
Isn't this cash for clunkers anti-family?

How many small cars that qualify for this program can hold a family of 5?

Yeah, I listened to Rush too. I'm sure your cracker is in the mail Smiley: laugh
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Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#24 Jul 31 2009 at 10:12 AM Rating: Good
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TirithRR wrote:
If it's truely out of money I will be sad. I had started just last week looking at local dealerships to find a nice car that I could trade in my old Caprice for.

Looks like the program was just expanded by another $2b, so it sounds like you have another 2 weeks before it runs out again!
#25 Jul 31 2009 at 10:14 AM Rating: Excellent
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Bauran wrote:
The only concern I have with putting more money into it is that there was the stimulus that pumped money into the megabanks. This, and ideas like this could have been an excellent alternative to the stimulus we already have but we can't forget that we already have a pile of debt tied up in other avenues.

The House bill funding the program for another $2bil took the money from cash allocated towards "renewable energy" car research funding.
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Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
#26REDACTED, Posted: Jul 31 2009 at 10:52 AM, Rating: Sub-Default, (Expand Post) Jophed,
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