Did my Cash for Clunkers.....a sad thing.....

[Audi Junkie]

Originally Posted By: brianl703
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete

Most of those C4C customers are now an extra $10-15k in debt, which tells me that they shouldn't have bought a new car anyway.

That seems like 100% theory and 0% fact.

I just gave 2 examples of normal people who can afford it upgrading their cars to a leftover/restructuring orphaned vehicle.

Now, you give me ONE example from someone you know or a even from a newspaper article.

I think the users of the programme are the most qualified to decide if they can afford to upgrade or not. Look at some of the horrid vehicles being traded-in! You go yourself tell the owners they shouldn't upgrade because they can't "afford" a $8k note on a new car. See how far that gets ya.

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
Well my buddy klunked a 1997 4-Runner that was absolutely decrepid. The G5 he got achieves twice the mileage and was sitting stagnant on a dealer lot. The payments narly exceed the savings in fuel and repairs on the 4Runner.


w00t!

The issue here (at least for me) is:

He just got a credit (paid from your tax dollars) to buy a new car from a company that just got 50 MORE billion of your tax dollars and is now owned by the government.

Seems like a cyclical black-hole solution to me...... using debt to pay debt to a system that owns both debts, all of which are "funded" by your tax dollars.

 

[Audi Junkie]

I agree, but that's a seperate issue.

In the Real World, the Govt does things that are hyperbolic and "wastefull", to achieve a satisfactory outcome. It's normal to accept that, and move on with the best intentions for the next "projekt".

 

[brianl703]

Originally Posted By: Audi Junkie
Look at some of the horrid vehicles being traded-in!


I do, and the only reason I can figure that they're driving that garbage is because they can't afford anything better.

 

[Audi Junkie]

Well, I dunno of the A6q quallifies as "garbage", but is was not a cost/effective machine at 15 years old.

If you do tha math, the benefit is apparent and it is shared by MANY entities: customer, mfg, bank, supplier and on the back end the Govt benefits from a improved economic situation.

You're not saying the old situatuion of 1000s and 1000s of leftover cars and shut down mfg facilities was better than the Govt throwing a few bills at the problem, are you?

I'll say again, C4C is one of the more effective projects we have seen from our Govt, ever, and it is right-on-time. If it was totally bad and totally wastefull, I'd be happy to say so.

 

[brianl703]

I've never heard anyone complain about wasteful government spending that they actually got a personal benefit from.

Case in point: A friend of mine's biggest issue with the $8000 housing subsidy is that he didn't get it because he bought his house last year.

 

[Pablo]

(Not so) Amazing - this topic is bound to drift....

As long as we don't re-do last night.

I still really want a new Toyota Matrix. Will they give me C4C for a 1996 Volvo 850???

 

[Quattro Pete]

The MPG rating isn't low enough.

 

[Pablo]

Shucks. That's why I was really whining. j/k.