Your tax dollars at work.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A total of 690,000 new vehicles were sold under the Cash for Clunkers program last summer, but only 125,000 of those were vehicles that would not have been sold anyway, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the automotive Web site Edmunds.com.
So all CFC really did was move some buying forward.
Still, auto sales contributed heavily to the economy's expansion in the third quarter, adding 1.7 percentage points to the nation's gross domestic product growth.
That's 1.7 percent that won't be in the fourth quarter.
The Cash for Clunkers program gave car buyers rebates of up to $4,500 if they traded in less fuel-efficient vehicles for new vehicles that met certain fuel economy requirements. A total of $3 billion was allotted for those rebates.
And those rebates are taxable. The gummint giveth, the gummint taketh away. TANSTAAFL!
The average rebate was $4,000. But the overwhelming majority of sales would have taken place anyway at some time in the last half of 2009, according to Edmunds.com. That means the government ended up spending about $24,000 each for those 125,000 additional vehicle sales.
Because no one can waste money better than the gummint. And I'm including Republicans in there because their out of control spending turned the gummint over to the Dimocrats who really know how to do out of control spending. They make the Republicans look like pikers.
"It is unfortunate that Edmunds.com has had nothing but negative things to say about a wildly successful program that sold nearly 250,000 cars in its first four days alone," said Bill Adams, spokesman for the Department of Transportation. "There can be no doubt that CARS drummed up more business for car dealers at a time when they needed help the most."
That's business they got in the third quarter that they won't be getting in the fourth quarter. It was a colossal waste of our money.
Posted by denny at October 29, 2009 03:55 PMAnybody who thought it was anything other than a boondoggle must have been smoking some strong $hit.
Posted by: Inbredredneck on October 30, 2009 09:19 AMI am a car salesman. Have been for nearly 11 years. I sold some cars from the CFC program, and I can tell you without any doubt-- It was a Fckuing Fiasco! It's called "selling your future". I've seen this movie before, just under different titles: "0% financing for 72 Months!". That film was a blockbuster no doubt, but couldn't compare to the Double Feature of "0% For 72 Months and Employee Pricing To The Public!". When they did that shit, you couldn't sell a car when those programs ended. People got SO SPOILED that they refused to buy cars unless they were dirt cheap, and had virtually NO finance charge. The record high months that these programs gave, caused the record LOW months that very much contributed to the bankruptcy of GM and the Imminent doom of Chrysler. No wonder with Chrysler- I find myself amazed that seemingly intelligent, decent people can test drive a Chrysler product and still want to buy it. It has to be the shittiest American automobile on the road, bar NONE. I CANNOT believe they've made it this long with such a substandard-to-the-rest-of-the-industry product.
BTW- I work at a Chrysler/Honda dealership, and have previously worked at GM and Ford dealerships. Honda is the ONLY reason that this joke of a car dealership is still open.
I start my new job next week. Getting out of the car business altogether and not looking back.
When you go to a new car lot, and the saleperson says that business has been anything but slow to non-existent- He's lying. I promise. Grosses are down dramtically, pay plans are being sliced to compensate for the evolving market. It not the car business that it used to be, and I will not miss this one bit.
Posted by: Tony on October 30, 2009 04:21 PM