Thank you Cash for Clunkers!

[Sticky Spice]

It's been a long time since I've had a car payment, but with a $3500 clunker and $2000 rebate I had to buy a 2009 Hyundai Santa Fe. My first new car Thanks to the feds for subsidizing my purchase.

Anyone else clunkin'?

[KCollins1304]

I traded in my 01 Ford Explorer for $4500. It was perfect timing, the transmission was starting to go bad and I wouldn't have gotten more than $1000 just for trading it in. As an added bonus I got $1000 for being a recent college graduate. I ended up getting a 2010 Toyota Corolla, I enjoy it a lot so far but I wish I could have afforded the Camry. The seat doesn't go back as far as I'd like. I had meant to start a thread on this when I got my car last Thursday, but never got around to it.

[sox 06]

My car gets 33 MPG in the city so I guess it doesn't qualify?

[ayebatter]

Hey, you guys are are supposed to be buying from Obama's car companies !!!

[Art Vandelay]

If this program would have come around a couple years from now when my wife's car is paid off, I may have taken advantage, but there's no way we could afford a second car payment. I have a 1994 Dodge Dakota with almost 175K on it that still runs like a dream. I bought it with 96K and all I've done (other than routine maintenance and stuff like breaks) is replace the water pump and the heater fan. I'm going to drive that bad boy 'til the wheels fall off.

Also, this Cash for Clunkers program is about the stupidest thing I've ever heard of.

[Snakes Gould]

shouldnt it be mandatory that its an american car company or the whole purpose is defeated?

[Dan Lambskin]

im too poor

[acsguitar]

shouldnt it be mandatory that its an american car company or the whole purpose is defeated?

Not really. First off that screws over foreign economies which tend to own us or parts of us. Secondly many foreign cars are produced here by American workers.

[Madison]

Also, this Cash for Clunkers program is about the stupidest thing I've ever heard of.

Curious, so can I ask why? I know it doesn't change a whole lot as far as the environment goes, but every little bit does help. Not to mention quite a few people are getting great deals on wheels they otherwise wouldn't/couldn't have bought and in turn, that's helping to keep jobs in the automotive industry (salespeople, dealerships, repair techs, manufacturing, etc).

It's much better than the mandated healthcare Obama's trying to force through that will turn middle class people into poverty class people (I'll probably be putting up a very detailed post about that whole thing in the next few days if not sooner, showing exactly how Obama has zero idea what his forced and manadated healthcare plan will do to the Average Joe).


EDIT: And no, I didn't cash in on "Cash for Clunkers". I've got '05 and '07 Tiburons that get 30+ mpg, so I didn't/don't qualify and I like my cars too much to trade them in.

[Art Vandelay]

Also, this Cash for Clunkers program is about the stupidest thing I've ever heard of.

Curious, so can I ask why? I know it doesn't change a whole lot as far as the environment goes, but every little bit does help. Not to mention quite a few people are getting great deals on wheels they otherwise wouldn't/couldn't have bought and in turn, that's helping to keep jobs in the automotive industry (salespeople, dealerships, repair techs, manufacturing, etc).

I'm trying to get some stuff done so I can blow out of work early today, so I'm going to have to keep this brief, but simply put, we already bailed out the auto industry once (which I also wasn't a fan of). Spending $3 billion in federal money so people can upgrade their working automobiles seems like a huge waste. The environmental impact of this plan is likely overstated, and I would guess the benefits of the reduction in emissions is probably balanced out by the negatives of disposing of millions of used cars. Just the batteries and tires alone will create tons and tons of waste. It also seems wasteful and foolish to simply destroy a bunch of cars and trucks that run and are perfectly useful as is. Also, it doesn't actually change anything in the way cars are manufactured, marketed, or sold, so it's just a band-aid.

But yeah, auto sales are way up, so congratuations auto industry, all of your problems are temporarily solved.