cash for clunkers

[Booreatta]

Saw on the news tonight the "CASH FOR CLUNKERS" is working its way thru congress, wonder how many great cars will be crushed? Will this make the parts for our cars dry up? This is something that needs to be watched. I guess if you turn in your car for a more fuel efficient ride the government will give you a voucher for $4500.00. There are a lot of our cars out there in that price range.

[padgett]

Not that many I suspect. First both proposals require that you buy a new car getting better gasmlage (up to 13 mpg more than the old car). Second it is a sliding scale based on how bad the original is.

So to get the $4500 maximum you have to trade in a vehicle getting less than 18 mpg and made before 1984 for a new one that gets at least 10 mpg more. You must also have owned and insured the car for a year before trading in.

Sounds more like an incentive to buy new cars.

[KDirk]

Stupid piece of legislation (but what isn't these days). This will have very little impact due to the reasons Padgett already gave and:

Most any "green" car costs over $20,000. Take away the [maximum] credit and YOU (the buyer) still have to pay the balance of $15,500 or more out of pocket. Who has that money to spend in this economy? Ok, so you finance the balance.

Oops, not so fast. With so many people's credit score resembling their shoe size due to unemployment and too much existing debt, can't get the financing either. I guess that settles that.

Let CONgress break their arms patting themselves on the back with this feel good garbage. Meanwhile those of us here in the real world will be trying to figure out how to keep food on the table and the lights and A/C on, not buy a new car we don't need.

/rant off.

KDirk

[Guest spamseptictank]

It's actually Vouchers for Lower Mileage Vehicles that are newer than 1985, but that doesn't have people clamoring to get rid of Grandma's sedan fast enough.

IIRC, you get a $3500 voucher for getting a vehicle that gets 4mpg better than yours (under $45,000) and $4500 for something 10mpg better (again, under $4500).

http://jalopnik.com/5285032/cash-for-clunkers-bill-house-passes-we-analyze

If I'm reading this correctly, you can sell any part of the car except the engine block before getting your voucher. This means that body parts may still be available.

FWIW,

Dave