Right after the disaster on Sept 11, 2001, the nation took a body blow to it's national pride, but did we all come together, to tighten our belts, stay focused, and go after the real enemies of the country? NO, we were all asked to go shopping.

And so the first 0% financing scheme was hatched, and this brought droves of shoppers into the showrooms. We were already heading for some sort of a recession back in 2000, and 0.9% financing was available, but this scheme was like no other, pulling forward the buying cycle of many consumers.

When 0% financing started to fade, the large cash rebates were tried on the buying public, and they responded in a big way in 2003, pulling in further the normal buying cycle of those consumers. On top of huge cash promotions, there was a little known tax write off for trucks (and SUV's) purchased by businesses, in which they could write off 100% of the purchase toward their taxes. Land Rover produced a spiffy pamphlet showing how to take advantage of the tax loophole, even going so far as how to create your own LLC or LLP.

This too was starting to sow, so Voila, Employee Pricing was tried during the summer 2005 selling season, and once again, it pulled in buyers pre-maturely so that they can get "the deal". GM Started it, with Ford and Chrysler following, and they wiped out all of the 2005 inventory.

So what worked in the past isn't working now, and the big reason is that everyone who could but a car, has a reasonably new car now, and with the double whammy of last summers high fuel prices, and no credit, we are at a more reasonable 8 or 9 million vehicle production level, not an artificial 15 to 17 million level.

Now we have this bill, and quite frankly, it creates an artificial demand (again). I say let sleeping dogs lie, and it will work out (in about 3 years). We are just postponing the inevitable.

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Of course with 1 billion, it will probably only last 1-2 months.

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