The U.S. Government's program of paying $3500 or $4500 per car turned in for the purchase of a new car was taken advantage of. There was an initial budget of $1 billion and that was spent in a week or two. Then Congress appropriated an additional $2 billion. This lasted for about 2 more weeks.
There have been over 400,000 vehicles that were traded for this program. Most of the vehicles I have seen redeemed were SUVs, full-size pickups, and vans. The program is ending on Monday.
There are dealers complaining. What are they complaining about. They are complaining that they are not being reimbursed for the money they put up front for pay $3500 to $4500. Just like typical government red tape! Dealers are also complaining that it has depleted their supplies. Today, I saw GM, Toyota, Ford, and Chrysler dealerships without any new cars and just a handful of trucks. It is true that some factories were shut down or put on hiatus this summer. But the factories have been able to supply the dealerships with 2010s yet. It is going to take several weeks to get the dealerships back up to typical supply. Hopefully the dealerships will be able to sell cars once this program is over.
Also, others are complaining because there will be less access to used parts. Those Cash for Clunkers (C4C) cars that are in dealer lots are going to be scrapped. No parts will be stripped from them and the engine is disabled. The cars will be crushed. I have seen many lots in the area and there was one car that was a rarity. It was a 1986 Merkur XR4Ti. That was a car that has some history in the United States as it was built in Germany to be a sports competitor to BMW in the Mid-1980s. Some others are complaining that in our recession with a credit crunch, people are extending their credit to buy a new car that they may not be able to afford. I hope that this isn't true as I'm hoping people were looking for a good time to trade in their old vehicles.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
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