So they get what they want, and then they want to kill it? “We want this program to encourage new car sales……..WHOA!!!!! Not that many new car sales!!!”

Wow. Programs kicks off, car manufacturers start advertising like crazy, and then boom…shut down. Probably surprise and annoy a lot of people, but hey money doesn’t grow on trees (even if the majority of the clowns running the show in D.C. think it does).

On a side note…as a proud owner of 1988 Nissan Pathfinder 2-door…I resent the clunkers picture in this article (I’m kidding of course). That beast has 250k and is still running strong despite my best efforts to kill it both on and off road. The 33″ tires probably don’t help it either. hahaha

I love the fact that LLN is calling out clunkers of all brands. The ‘91 Explorer is just as much a clunker as a ‘95 Blazer as a ‘92 4runner as a ‘94 Pathfinder.

There’s no way in h@ll that over 200,000 cash for clunker cars were traded in over the past 3 1/2 days. They are NOT out of money. This is just an example of government mismanagement at it’s best.

This is scary stuff!!! If the government can’t run a $1 billion dollar program – how in the world do they expect to run a $2000 billion+ (That’s $2 trillion for those of you in Rio Linda) health care program??

I don’t care…I had enough sense to NOT have a gas guzzling pile of junk to begin with.

04focus, off the top of my head, we’ve posted pictures of a Grand Marquis, Suburban, 4Runner and Pathfinder. I guess next up is some sort of Euro clunker, eh?

Focus
Sorry, but nothing clunks like a Chevy Blazer
Makes an Exploder look like a Lexus
That is short-yellow-bus special!
DrFill

Madcapp does care, but yet he is buying other people cars. How generous.

Moosekevin has it right.

I’ve been on benders that lasted longer than 3 1/2 days. Oddly enough running out of money usually ended those programs as well.

moosekevin, who do you think was managing Freddy mac and Fanny May? It wasn’t Lee Iaccoca nor Jack Welch. If really want something to get f*cked trust it to both houses to do so.

how many of you have actually read this?

It’s not because they want to cancel it early, they just had as many vehicles sold as they would have if it had lasted “longer”. They just ran out of money.

But it doesn’t matter, I don’t believe this carp in Washington. Assuming the market this year will sell 10 million vehicles, that’s approximately 27,397 per day. Over the programs time of 6 days, thats about 164000 cars
Assuming that every car turned in got a rebate of $4500, which is extremely unlikely of course, it would total out to approximately 211,000 vehicles sold out of $950million, over six days.
Over a six day period, with approximately 150,000 cars sold (little bit UNDER prediction), that would mean an increase in demand of approximately 125%, and 360,000 cars sold.

Typical. Our government is like a chick. They can’t make up their minds or stay loyal to anything. I’m against this program so I am happy to hear the madness might end early before the used car market is too badly damaged. It kills me inside to think that nice old cars that are not old enough to be a clunker unless abused are being killed instead of resold or sent to used cars dealers or auctions. I thought our government was going green? I guess they lied again.

Just like when Bush decided to take over Iraq, they is no plan in place for when it actually works.

I still want to know which of you said this would never sell cars? Do I have to go back and look at the original comments?????

OK:

JakeK66
This bill has limited appeal, if any. Why even bother?

gta89mike
I agree with Jake. About the only reason you are driving a vehicle that is worth less than $3500 is because you can’t afford a new car or do not want a new car with all the expenses that go with a new car – plates, registration, full-coverage insurance, etc. I was really excited about this when it was first talked about, but I do not think this is going to get a lot more vehicles sold, in my opinion.

bigs4610
agree with the 2 ahead of me.
it wont do a thing

gugy
I agreed with JakeK66 and gta89mike,

RaineMan
3.5 months? Wow, they really neutered this bill. I don’t think anyone with any sense would even go for it now.

A little FYI:

“GM offers more new vehicles eligible for rebates under the program than any other manufacturer. How many more? About twice as many. The legislation provides vouchers valued from $3,500 to $4,500 when a customer trades in a vehicle and purchases a new one that meets or exceeds higher MPG standards. The $3,500 to $4,500 can be combined with existing rebates and incentives, which leads to a significant saving for new car buyers.

The program is expected to last through November of this year, but could end earlier depending on when the one billion dollars allotted runs out. On Monday, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said that nearly 16,000 dealers nationwide have signed up to participate in the trade-in program, after his department issued the regulations last week. For details on the program and a list of GM eligible vehicles, you can visit the website below.

Check out the running tally of funds remaining here:
http://www.cars.gov“

Just a few days into it and the government has screwed up on the cash for clunkers program. And they want to control my medical care? What a joke!

That’s great they sold that many cars.
I hope they will keep doing it and get more funds. If that will help the industry and get rid of those old, polluting guzzlers, then I am all for it.
Better give this money for people buying cars than go to some bank, corporation or institution that are going bankruptcy because of their incompetence.

WOW ! Talk about being premature !

They shouldnt keep the time limit. thats stupid. I dont mind paying SLIGHTLY higher taxes for this

Hmmm… maybe fund it program with another $1 billion, but temper demand by reducing the incentive to $2500. We want the program to grease the wheels, but not pull too many sales forward. Otherwise, we’ll be in a sales slum again next year.

i was at my vw dealer getting my oil and check up today. All I heard and saw while I was waiting was people driving up in their old junk, one was even brought in on a towbed, and trading them in. I was really surprised to see so many people respond to this program…although I have only been at my vw and ford dealer since it started

jayjc.. the local news is reporting that in the last 6 days, over 225,000 clunkers have been taken in and the same number of new vehicles have been purchased. Multiply that by $4500 and there you go.. money is gone (and may not even be enough to cover the last couple hundred!)

And as far as the vehicles shown on TV as being taken in here in LA.. old Ford pickups, tons of Jeep Cherokees, late-’80s/early-’90s Cadillacs, and even a BMW 325i.

Article in yesterdays paper shows it is mostly 11 year old pick ups being traded in with the Ford 150 as number 1. Then Explorer, Silverado, Grand Cherokee, Ram

zoomzoomer- Did you read my whole post? That’s exactly what I said; I’m not saying that the money isn’t gone, I’m saying I seriously doubt they sold 225k cars in six days thru the Cash for Clunkers program. That wouldn’t be a 30% increase as LLN portrays; that would be nearly a 150% increase over what had been sold in that period of time without Cash For Clunkers.

So why aren’t dealers reporting 150% increases? You’d think some automakers would be reporting more gains than others, the ones that make the smaller cars. So why aren’t automakers such as GM, Honda and Suzuki (all of which have smaller cars in their lineups) reporting more than 150% increases?

Once again, the sheople are saying its because the government didn’t want to follow through… they ran out of money!!!

jayjc08, ok, so you just dismiss the claims that car sales are up due to cash for clunkers, let me get this straight, “just because”…fine, you don’t believe it, you doubt it, but is that actual evidence of anything? no…it’s just your own bias giving you an excuse to dump on something…

fact is, the program is a success, and you idiots are just way too deep into your anti-government bias to see that…and that’s ok, that’s why i’m here to remind you…

eat some crow, jackasses, so many of you said nobody would buy into this kind of a program…hehe

Again, anybody can say anything they want here, even if they are completely wrong and disagree with the facts.

FACT: the money ran out, it worked, this program is adding more stimulus than any of the stumulus package trys.

I must admit that I have underestimated the success this program would have. I think that is mostly because I live in a fairly affluent area and didnt realize how many people truly drive clunkers and would buy a new car given such an opportunity.

That being said, this program is not out of money. No way do I believe that yet. I believe that this article is misleading, as most credible sources I have read indicate that the program is being suspended….not necessarily because the money is gone, but because the government has not efficient tracking method. So therefore the program is being suspended because higher than anticipated demand has caused a need for the government to “step back” and evaluate just how much money is left.

That being said, I don’t necessarily approve of this social “redistribution of wealth” type program. Sure there are the goals of stimulating new car sales and getting gas hogs off the road, but lets not kid ourselves. If those were the only two goals they would let me go on craigslist, buy an 80s Bronco for 1K, and trade it in for something worthwhile getting the rebate.

@carstuff/others….who is reporting that the money ran out as fact? I have yet to see that yet. All this 225K clunkers have been traded in and “the money is out” reports seem to be coming from Michigan politicians….coincidence?

No hard facts have been provided showing me the money is out, and until then, I don’t believe it is.

I, for one, don’t doubt that this was a success one bit! I saw a guy bringing in a really old cadillac, the ones that had the bullet typed fins in the back, on a towbed. I doubt he was bringing it in for service, LOL! This thing is sure moving cars off the lots, or at least of the lots that is carrying cars that people want!

HAHA, THIS IS SO FUNNY, I KNEW THIS WILL HAPPEN.

I TOLD YA SO (JUST CAN’T SAY ENOUGHT OF THIS)

Here is the things guys, Obama program does not work as good as for yourself go in to dealer cut more then $5000 off on the vehicle then what he can give you. Too many of ya too scare to do it, and not doing your home work first before walking in to the dealer.

So much tax payer’s money has spend on stuff that is useless.

CASH FOR CLUSTERS just blows all the way around.

Most consumers don’t know that the program has ended. The average Six Pack Joe consumer comes to my dealership and thinks he qualifies for $4,500 when in fact he doesn’t meet all the stipulations. So it leaves him angry at my establishment that we couldn’t sell him a car. And if we did sell him that car we are now out the $4,500. Now we have to tell people oh by the way I know you won’t believe this, but the Government screwed up again and has no money 4 days in. So now they get even more upset. The vision of Cash for Clusters was a good idea, it’s too bad it was never thought out and prepared for!

leftwing- Alright, let me put it this way.

If the money is honestly out, that means they have spent $950 million on buying clunkers, right? That would mean that they have sold approximately 225k vehicles over six days, each with the maximum rebate (which is unlikely, but will give us the most conservative figures), right? Over six days, the American market sells about 150k vehicles, and that’s fact.
That would have meant that demand daily would have been up about 125%. How is that possible when dealerships are reporting that traffic has increased approximately 30% (which is fact)?

They haven’t run out of money. I’m not being anti-government by saying this, I’m happy they made such a good decision to get running junkers off the road. Its probably the best use of “bailout” type money since they started. I certainly haven’t seen a single penny of anything else. And I do know that some people have turned in their vehicles. But even 30% is pretty high.

*that means they would have bought approximately 225k vehicles from owners over six days,

I don’t think the new administration expected such a high turnout for this program but good way to stimulate the economy I guess. That’s quite a few car sales. I heard people driving their cars on towtrucks to dealers for trade lol. Wonder if some people went to the junkyard, bought an old car for a $100, and traded that in.

Many cars will not qualify for a voucher because of all the C4C requirements. If that’s your case, you can donate your car to charity and get a tax deduction instead. Your car donation will also help a charity.
http://www.cars4charities.org