Reply With QuoteDealers made ok money on the used cars, now used car market will be dead. What's the point
Article continued at http://www.breitbart.com/article.php...cle=1&catnum=0Administration: 'Clunkers' improving gas mileage
Aug 3 01:42 PM US/Eastern
By KEN THOMAS
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration appealed to the Senate on Monday to bail out the cash for clunkers rebate program, arguing it has already made striking gains in fuel efficiency and is a "wildly popular" economic boost. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood ducked when asked if the program will be suspended if the Senate does not vote to replenish coffers before lawmakers go on vacation later this week. Instead, he said "I believe the Senate will pass it this week."
The administration said the average fuel economy of new vehicles purchased through the program is nearly 10 miles per gallon higher than for the vehicles traded in for scrap. LaHood said some 80 percent of the traded-in vehicles are pickups or SUVs, meaning many gas-guzzlers are being taken off the road, and the Ford Focus is a leading replacement vehicle.
"The program is working the way Congress intended it to work," he asserted on MSNBC. But it was not intended to run out of money nearly so quickly, nor create such confusion at dealerships.
The administration pressed hard for an additional $2 billion after serving notice over the weekend that the program could expire as early as this week unless the Senate acts, as the House did in voting overwhelmingly for the money Friday.
Dealers made ok money on the used cars, now used car market will be dead. What's the point
More money for the automakers who can't run a damn business and the unions that drove them into the ground. It's gggggggrrrrrrrrrrreat!
So it's unions fault for producing unreliable, fuel thirsty cars nobody wants to buy?
Yeah those commercials are really creepy, I just see a woman and her "partner" in SF dreaming that **** up with the monkey/sun flower children having an orgy around the prius. (All in a fit of eco-ecstasy.)
I'll keep my 6.6L 13mpg monstrosity!
Responsible, I know.
Not all American cars are pieces of crap like Europeans would have you believe. We've owned two Fords and one Chevrolet, all with over 200,000 miles while our last Ford has well in excess of 255,000 and counting. They've all needed just basic maintenance, while our beloved E320 has had electrical problems, clutch and engine trouble after 100K on the clock.Originally Posted by Minardiau
The union deals that have burdened GM with legacy costs are what has been killing the company. One tenth of all cars sold in the US go towards paying the legacy costs. With things like this driving up the price of cars, there is no way GM can be competitive.
I hate the Prius with a passion. Cars are supposed to look like they were designed with aesthetics in mind.Yeah those commercials are really creepy, I just see a woman and her "partner" in SF dreaming that **** up with the monkey/sun flower children having an orgy around the prius. (All in a fit of eco-ecstasy.)
I'll keep my 6.6L 13mpg monstrosity!
The irony of the whole program is that it is doing nothing more than creating a new round of unsustainible debtors. People that own "clunkers" tend to have less disposible income. However, the clunker is normally "paid for" due to its age. Now these people have new vechicles with new payments. In an interview this morning on CNBC the anchor interviewed a car dealer who stated that "most of the people that buy these new cars are not normally new car buyers" and he also said that "they are using creative ways to reach the financing needed".
My bet is that once again the government will create its own problem. These people will fail paying their new payment and as a result a massive increase in used cars will enter the market and further bog down the overall market.
Indeed - raise the stakes to 1.5 - 2 trillion, with more bureaucracy and difficult oversight issues, ram it through the filibuster proof Congress, and call it a day - Health Care solved!
Then fast forward to 2020 when $1 won't buy you a bazooka joe bubble gum. Spend away, boys and girls.
Good point, and is analogous to the 10%/$8,000 first-time homebuyer's credit they are attempting to make available at time of close. Great idea: you couldn't afford the house before, but now we will give you the down payment so you can afford the purchase initially, but then go into foreclosure 4 years down the road instead of 3. Makes perfect sense.
While they're at it, how about a first time 911 Carerra S credit? I will exploit said credit and stimulate the local law enforcement, club racing events, and tire dealers.
Having a bit of an insider's viewpoint on the auto industry, and having just completed a tiki tour of selected dealer ops in the US, cash for clunkers is only INDIRECTLY beneficial for US automakers.
It is DIRECTLY beneficial for US dealerships.
US Dealers were sitting on record amounts of unmoving inventory........crushing their balance sheets....and putting many in jeopardy of collapse....further magnifying the problem.
There's lots of folks employed making cars, there's even more employed SELLING cars.
The manufacturers do not have the funds to pull forward anymore sales like they did in 05, 06, and 07 with "friends & family" discounts that used to be worth something now applying to anyone with a pulse...they ran out of tricks.
So now they are relying on Uncle Sam's pocket book.
The FACT is, in the vast majority of cases, people could easily keep their existing vehicles on the road for another 5 years...only in the minority of cases is a vehicle upgrade truly required.
Consumer behavior has been changed by manufacturer marketing stupidity as well as armageddon sized financial stupidity...it's all related.
"Cash for clunkers" is a box of glazed Krispy Kreme for a fat man in need of a heart transplant.
It buys a tiny bit of time, but doesn't even come close to solving the problem.
I'm a car guy to the core.
But I also keep a close eye on "bang for buck".
My wife's 2nd hand Prius is still easily worth what we paid for it, you put petrol in it and it goes, occasionally it needs to have an oil change.
It is easy to park, has great safety features, and gets insanely good fuel economy.
It also gets a hell of a lot less nasty looks than the more ostentatious car it replaced.
Is it fun to drive? hardly......but it's a very well built and practical car.
While I agree it maybe should have been called the Generica, it saves us heaps of money that can be spent on things we are far more passionate about since Ferrari lacks a People Mover.
Figure it applies here.The American Republic will endure, until the politicians realize they can bribe the people with their own money...
-Alexis de Tocqueville
Even without the legacy costs I highly doubt the US manufacturers would remain competitive. Fact is they have less market share then what they had 20 years ago. Let alone 30-40 years ago.
So they change their business model for SUV's so they have a cash cow when the economy is booming. Economy takes a major dump, nobody is buying SUV's, fuel prices are sky high bang there goes the business.
It's got nothing to with unions bleeding companies dry. Yes some deals companies made with the union have not helped but even without these deals what has happened to GM and Chrysler in the past 6 months may have been delayed by 6 months but it still would have happened.
GM still has $1,600 added to the price of every car they build due to these costs. It's not something that is easily ignored.
You're right about the SUV craze. It was ridiculous. Unless you have a big family to move around or use it for off-roading or camping, I don't see why you need an Expedition or Navigator to drive to the local Walmart and back home by yourself.
IMO part of the reason why American cars haven't been selling as well is that many models are simply sh*t. There are only a handful of US built cars that I would buy had I the money to purchase a European equivalent.
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