Jalopnik 
Enter your username and password.
Detroit, 3:53 AM
Sun Nov 15
8 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jalopnik.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Ray Wert | Email | AIM
Road Test Editor:
Wes Siler | Email
Weekend Editor:
Murilee Martin | Email
Associate Editor - Houston:
Matt Hardigree
Associate Editor - Detroit:
Ben Wojdyla
Editor-at-Large:
Mike Spinelli
Contributors:
Mark Arnold
John Krewson | Email
Andy Didorosi
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
08/20/09
Sure, there are other factors, but 0% financing on everything was, IMO, the primary cause...other than greed.
Gimme $2250, I'll throw new wheels/tires on my Beater Baby Benz, and have the transmission rebuilt, so I keep the junkyard clear, still get 26 MPG on my highway commute, and throw some work to the local folks.
Hold on. There I go having that rational thought thing, again.
Carry on....
08/20/09
Stable: '01 S54 M Coupe, '09 Fit.
08/20/09
08/20/09
08/20/09
If not I coulda used a backup beater car...
08/20/09
08/20/09
The one female owner said she had been out of work for over a year and traded in her "clunker" and purchased the car in order to land a better job.
Besides putting us into further debit with the $4500.00 incentive, just imagine how the recent repo'd cars will effect our economy. and all 4 cars were from the first billion dollars..imagine how many more will come to my shop to be re-keyed.
They say our economy is improving, I say their full of $#!*.
08/20/09
But at least you're getting some work from the carpocalypso, so it's all good.
08/19/09
08/20/09
08/19/09
Running out of funding means that there's a lot of folks who want to buy new cars, at a moment when no one was selling any cars. The program has been a runaway success. Which doesn't make it perfect.
As with manufacturer rebates, the art will be in figuring out how to taper off from the program, while still encouraging folks to get down to the dealers and buy those wonderful new cars. Myself, I'd ratchet up the limits with each new round of financing: restrict it to trading in ever more clapped out cars and trucks, and ratcheting up the mileage improvement required. When you get to th point where all you can turn in is a Coupe DeVille or an F350 for a Prius, you've just about drained the pond and can end the program.
08/19/09
Of course, what's another 2 billion? This country's already fucked.
08/19/09
Again.
Unfortunately, we'll probably end up re-funding C4C instead of calling Don Ready.
08/19/09
I am getting tired of hearing dealers complain about the program, ask them if they would rather have not had it at all. It's the first time running this, of course there are going to be glitches, but it did generate sales, so, to the dealers, "quit ur whinin"
08/19/09
08/19/09
08/19/09
But they gave me $4,501 for her! How could I resist?
08/19/09
08/20/09
Sweet new Caliber you're rocking there!
08/20/09
F*ck - I thought you wouldn't notice the Caliber, and would instead be under the impression that I might be driving the E-bay Ghibli with Chevy 350 by now.
08/20/09
So, is your Caliber lime green or orange?
08/20/09
My Non-Caliber BMW is white.
Aww, f*ck, now I'll prolly get demoted again for driving a BMW.
08/20/09
You will be trading in that beemer for something in a Kia Rio, right? It's an easy $3,500, stupid not to, really...
08/19/09
08/19/09
I know they're not generally popular on teh intarwebz, but I've always loved a spelling nazi
08/19/09
Mr. Previously Neglected Pilot, a heart-click for you too.
07/31/09
Even this morning she was still bothered of the wasting of 23,000 cars that could be used for at least parts. But she is like me and very country at heart which means all this green bullshit that is on TV today is nothing more than a bunch of rookies making stupid talk.
07/31/09
edit: It's also important to note the difference between fuel economy and annual fuel consumption (a distinction that's almost never made). Annual fuel consumption is really much more important for both the environment and our energy infrastructure. My guess is many of these vehicles actually had very low annual fuel consumption, and rising fuel prices would push that number down even more. It seems like many of these were not the person's primary vehicle, and so may have accrued a few thousand miles per year or less.
07/31/09
They're going to the yards.
It's just the engines that are toast.
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
07/31/09
Money that wasn't going to show up as a new car purchase for a long time, if ever. And what this economy needs right now is more goods and services being bought pronto, preferably durable goods.
I'm also going to bet that this CARS program will prompt a lot of other sales that won't participate in the rebate. Folks will come to shop for a car, find out their old one doesn't qualify or that the paperwork is cumbersome and has some risks, and they'll buy a new car anyway.
I'm hoping we can rely on car salesmen to do their job and not let anyone walk out the door without the keys to a new car in their hand.