Posted on 07/28/2009 2:52:39 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK – Car and truck owners looking to junk their gas guzzlers are flocking to dealerships to take advantage of the government's "cash for clunkers" program and buy more fuel-efficient vehicles, boosting sales in showrooms across the country.
"It's water to thirsty people," said Dave Kelleher, owner of two Chrysler dealerships outside Philadelphia. He said the number of shoppers has more than doubled at one of his dealerships and is climbing at the other.
"The last two days have been ripping," he said.
The program — officially called the Cash Allowance Rebate System, or CARS — took effect over the weekend at the nearly 20,000 car dealers who have signed up with the Department of Transportation. The program offers rebates of $3,500 to $4,500 for car shoppers who scrap their old vehicles to buy ones with better gas mileage.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I'm seriesly considering taking the dive myself .. I hate the thought of the old pickup getting nuked.. it's till got a few good miles left,, but..
If anyone does this, let us know how it works out!
You get a $4500 discount on a new car that will loose $5k to $20k value as soon as you drive it off the lot. You will also probably not get as good a deal on your used car from the dealer as you would have from a private sale.
This is so messed up. It is going to prevent poor folks from getting affordable cars. This is the Rats showing their true compassion for the poor.
a local surviving chrysler dealer has a matching 4500 max offer., effectively $9K off the price
Have to see how this program plays out. It runs thru
Nov 1 or ‘til the money allocated runs out..
Yeah, I’m thinking it’s a suckers play too. They’ll jack the price of the car to the amount of the “rebate” or at least a decent proportion thereof. Take the money and go out of state and buy a car might be the way to beat it.
And your car insurance goes through the roof. And if you live here in VA, your personal property tax also jumps.
Not to mention that it takes a bunch of idiot RATS to label my pre-98 luxury car a "clunker."
My 1973 Chevy El Camino pick up with a souped up 350 gets about 12-15 mpg. It is so fun to drive and so handy for hauling I could not stand to trade it in on some wheezing computerized junk. Besides, it is worth more as a collector car than the $4,500 clunker rebate.
I'm thinking that they know that people will be "paying" sticker using this rebate, not negotiating from sticker price basically, so in essense, yes, they are jacking up the price for this.
When we bought our Yukon XL in 2004, sticker price was $53K. After I finished negotiating on the vehicle I wanted, I got it down to under $35K (some company incentives, plus dealer ones too) ---- I just kept walking away from each dealer until I found one that would be close to what I was willing to pay. So anyone who doesn't think there is padding going on, I've seen it first hand.
You may fall outside of what I hear is a 25 year old limit on the current CARS program so not to worry,, for now. ;-)
I was hoping to get 200K out of my pickup but .. 1987 to what I see on the lot today.. awful tempting.. you have a classic and a waiver for a fee eventually ,, they should be safe until the internal combustion engine is banned.
The good old commerce clause - it gives congress and the thug in our White House the power to take the money that I earn through productive work and pretend to give it to people who didn’t earn it, which mainly enriches the UAW by keeping the “evil” car companies from dying quite as soon as they deserve to. The buyers will (as many noticed) make nothing on this deal, but they will assume they can better afford a new car and buy something they don’t need. obama is consistent; still half and half - half evil and half waste.
I just bought a ‘94 Ford Explorer (mint condition with 53K miles) from a lady who had ordered it from the factory and owned it ever since. She had babied this car for 15 years, and she chose to sell it to me for $3K—that’s $1500 LESS than the CARS program would have paid her. She couldn’t bring herself to destroy this vehicle, and preferred to sell it (at a virtual loss) rather than participate in the farsical guvament program.
This is a typical example of government meddling in economics—distorting the true value of things, and wasting valuable assets in the process. And guess what? We’re ALL going to pay for this mess through our confiscatory taxes. Or, should I say, the Chinese are going to loan us the cash until our great grandchildren finally pay the bill (if ever).
This program disgusts me!
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