Not only did they kill and Corvette, but they also killed a Jimmy that is a mirror image of mine. 93,000 miles and it doesn't owe me a dime. In many ways, this program just sux!!

Just remember that cash-fo-clunkers was voluntary...no one had to participate if they didn't want to.  It's not fair to blame the program on people giving up cars or trucks that still were usable.  Car manufacturers sold a ton of cars (good, if you believe that manufacturing is the backbone of this society), mostly on some sort of finance plan (good, if you believe freeing up of the credit market is a good thing), all with substantially better gas milage (good, if you believe that dependance on foreign oil is a bad thing).  If anyone wants to drive a Jimmy w/ 93K miles on it and gets 15mpg on a good day..that's great!!  We've got a Silverado 2500HD that we use practically every day...but it's usually got a bed full of god-knows-what or a pulling a trailer full of animals....it's worth way more to us than whatever the program would have given us. It's not the program that sucks; it's the people who suck that probably (in my humble opinion) shouldn't have participated.  I just shake my head when I see one person in a (fill in the name for any gas-guzzling barge) on the road at 7:30 in the morning going to work.  But hey, it was their decision to buy the thing, and if that's how they decide they want to spend their money...oh well..pour me another cheap beer barkeep.

I agree with Bob, folks. This was a voluntary program. No one was forcing anyone to participate. If someone chose to sacfrifice a Corvette, sobeit. It was their choice, not ours.

[QUOTE=sundew]I agree with Bob, folks. This was a voluntary program. No one was forcing anyone to participate. If someone chose to sacfrifice a Corvette, sobeit. It was their choice, not ours. [/QUOTE]

absolutely the guy who traded it in was an idiot but same the political B%$#%^&t. It was a waste of my good tax money to buy a car for someone else.

The original, Cash fer Clunkies bill was meant to get older, fuel in-efficient vehicles off the road, and the people into HYBRID vehicles....NOT just anything that got X more mpg than the trade in vehicle. As it turned out, you could (or at least until the end of the program) trade in an older Suburban for a new one, the way the bill got watered down. I've actually had people stop by the house wanting to buy my 'Burban, just to use it for a trade. Apparently, they decided against it when I said "Sure...I'll take $5000 for it...cash... now git off my lawn..."

The idea got twisted in the progress to where it really didn't do what it was originally intended to do. And, yep...folks have the right to do whatever they want with their vehicles in this case...that don't make it a good decision, tho....Who knows how the car ran, or how bad some dufus had screwed it up "upgrading" it...? Adams' Apple2009-09-01 20:10:09

My greatest concern with the program is not the cars.  Many people who would buy in the next several months bought now.  I don't blame them, I would too.   Many of those folks would have bought later, so who is going to buy later?   With the needs filled, the car market may take a huge nosedive for several months, just after they gear back up for production.  Will the sales be there?  Maybe, maybe not.   But it does concern me.

What gets me is that it is giving MY hard earned tax dollars to support Japanese manufacturing jobs!  There was no provision of where the cars were made, and each one of us who pays taxes are footing the bill.  Lets not forget that every dollar that the goverment spends comes out of our pockets in one way or another.

You do it all the time with tax credits on houses and tax breaks for business. When Boeing gets a 40 Million $ tax break who pays that?

I am with the other folks who feel that the less oil we get from the middle east the better. I dont get the argument that buying MORE middle east oil is good. You tax $ will sure be spent to fight the wars over there protecting that oil.
I know 2 folks who took part in the program and are getting 10 mpg better than the car they turned in. Thats bad because????

And I dont get the folks who wanted the car companies to fail. Town halls where they chanted "let em fail". This is pro American? Turn your back on the backbone of this country?
I sure wouldnt want these folks on the beach in Normandy.

Then the funniest criticism is that the program was so successfull that it was a disaster.
Guess they also thought Woodstock and landing on the moon went so well they were disasters also.