ca$h for clunker$ @ stealership

[tonycarreon]

Originally Posted by timothy

No, instead they built a brand new football stadium.

in the rural parts of texas, high school football is king. the rest of the school can be falling apart and teachers need chalk, but football never wants for anything.

[Lil bastard]

Originally Posted by d18mike

Newbie here -- my first post so I will strenuously avoid discussing politics. But a couple of comments from here in Michigan.

1) I find it remarkable that a plan that had hopes of helping to perk up the American automotive industry has yielded the following results:

Top 10 cash for clunkers purchases
...
More than half the cars in the top ten are from companies headquartered outside the USA. I know many are built here ... but that leads into the more important point.

The central issue for the American car industry is reigniting the country's passion for the automobile. It does not lie in rebates or tax incentives or even in quality (table stakes). It's about producing something that doesn't look and drive like a jellybean on 4 wheels and understanding that the difference breaking even and making a profit lies in the passionate consumer.

Interesting POV. This program (CARS) has done nothing to specifically target America's automakers.

India on the other hand just passed legislation reducing the tax owed by their automakers on foreign revenue earned by 30%. That's a real incentive and also allows them to price their cars more competitively overseas. We'll soon be seeing offerings from India here, in fact we already do... it's called Jaguar.

[Lil bastard]

A couple more disturbing points about this program.

According to the text of the act, of the initial $1B set aside, $50 million is allocated to the Dept. of Trans. for administering the program! Government efficiency at it's best!

Second, you do not even have to be an American citizen (or even a Resident Alien) to qualify for the rebate! That means that even Obama's Illegal Immigrant Aunt, who twice ignored deportation orders and is living on welfare in a Boston Housing Project would qualify for the rebate and have the Taxpayers foot the bill!

Very Sad!

[urban_legend]

Well you can always donate your boat or RV...
Hey how about, cash for catamarans. Nice ring don't you think?

[mikefocke]

Ford just called back workers to start up another shift to produce more cars because they don't have enough to sell wouldn't convince anyone that the program is having a desired effect..would it?

[Brucelee]

BTW, I laughed my butt off listening to NPR yesterday. They were literally begging folks to donate their clunkers to the station rather than to use if for a CFC item.

Unintended consequences. It seems many of these old cars were given to charity.

Boo hoo.

[Brucelee]

Warning over US cash-for-clunkers scheme
By Simone Baribeau in New York and Bernard Simon in Toronto

Published: August 13 2009 18:51 | Last updated: August 13 2009 18:51

The popular US cash-for-clunkers programme may be drawing money from other consumer purchases and could also undermine future car sales, US economists have warned.

Motor vehicle and parts sales, down 8 per cent on the year, jumped 2.4 per cent from June, according to data from the US commerce department on Thursday, but other retail sales fell 0.6 per cent in July.
EDITOR’S CHOICE

“With income flows very constrained and household balance sheets over- leveraged, any incremental increase is likely to weigh on non-automotive sales,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief US Economist at MFR, a consultancy, noting that fading interest suggests current car sales are borrowed from the future.

“Anyone thinking about buying cars in the next several months might as well do it now when the government is giving away $4,500.”

Ford, whose small Focus saloon and larger Escape have proved popular under the scheme, on Thursday announced that it was increasing North American production to meet demand. General Motors is also considering following suit.

The cash-for-clunkers programme, in which buyers trade in old gas guzzlers for vehicles that consume less fuel and receive a rebate of up to $4,500 (€3,150, £2,700), was dubbed by Barack Obama, US president, “a much-needed boost” to the US economy.

After exhausting its $1bn funds in July, Congress last week allocated an extra $2bn to the programme. In total it is expected to fund up to 750,000 car purchases.

George Pipas, Ford’s sales analyst, said that dealers’ new-vehicle sales are currently “eye-poppingly high” compared to a year ago.

But Ford on Thursday rejected the suggestions that the scheme was drawing significant consumer spending from other items.

“This is a drop in the bucket compared to overall purchases of goods and services”,“This is exactly what fiscal stimulus is supposed to do,” said Ellen Cromwick-Hughes, Ford Motors’ chief economist. But a post-clunkers dip in car sales would come as the rest of the US stimulus is fading.

“It’s a nice success, but there’s a macroeconomic risk going forward,” said Joseph Brusuelas of Moody’s Economy.com. “[In] the first quarter of 2010, the stimulus will begin to wither, and consumption which would have otherwise occurred next year will have occurred in the second half of 2009.”

[RandallNeighbour]

I'm wondering why the gubbermint doesn't invite willing US citizens to go to New Orleans and Galveston and be paid to do demolition work on the hundreds of thousands of homes along the coast destroyed by Katrina and Ike.

Seems like this stimulus money could be better invested by cleaning up the mess instead of just taking old cars off the road. That could have been very easily accomplished by adding a clunker tax to any vehicle that is of a certain age or gets poor fuel economy.

Uh oh. My boxster is old and gets crappy mileage. I better be careful what I recommend.