Cash for Clunkers results

[Vwbeamer]

Many people who traded did not know that they will have to pay income tax on the $4500 rebate. The tax on the rebate could be as much as $1400 depending on what tax bracket you are in.

Also, you have to pay sales tax on the $4500, since it's done as a rebate, that could be up to $300 depending on where you live. and don't forget State income tax on the 4500.

For a person in a top income bracket, there net gain was only about 2600-2700 dollars. They are ok if their car was worth less than that. But what about those people who traded in cars and trucks worth 3000-3500? they got ripped off.

Also, say you had a lower income family do cash for Clunkers. there car was worth 1500 max. Well, before they had no car payment, their insurance was just liabilty, and the tag was cheap.

Now they have a car payment, they have to pay full coverage insurance, and the tag is $300-$400 bucks or more depending where they live. This car is cost them a lot of money.

And, they still get a 1099 on the $4500, which may knock them in a higher income bracket, so they will not get an earned income credit.

And the emmsion reduction, is very small. The same amount of money could have made a bigger reduction if used other ways.

http://green.autoblog.com/2009/08/16...ssions-reduct/

Government has screwed us again.

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

I saw an article that said a survey shows 17% of new vehicle owners under the clunkers program are already having doubts and second thoughts about the wisdom of taking on new car payments.

For the sake of arguement, I'm going to assume 17% of program participants weren't really thinking of getting a new car but did because of the program. Then, 83% of the program sales were going to happen in the near term regardless- people that would have bought earlier but caught wind of the program and waited, and those who would have bought later but did it before program deadline instead.

If my assumption isn't total garbage, that means the $3,000,000,000 program spurred 117,000 "new" sales, at about $26,000/sale. :/

[theycallmeebryan]

Originally Posted by cfg83

theycallmeebryan -



Wow, your sister is "one with the stats".

CarloSW2

I guess you can say that .

Originally Posted by Vwbeamer

Are you kidding ? Average profit on a new car sale is about $1300.00 The profit comes from the trade in, which was taken away by the rebate.

So the dealer is out $3200.00 until the rebate comes. One local dealer is selling the better Clunker cars rather than waiting on the rebates.

The program was a total failure. The reduction in emmisions is less than 1%. We paid out 3 billion for very little.

Well, in my sisters case, the 1996 blazer she had was nothing but a nightmare in every possible way. She kept having to either pour out money for repairs on the thing (if me and my father couldn't fix it in our driveway, or didn't have the time to do it), or she would be left stranded on the side of the road broken down. It got to the point where she was afraid to drive the thing out of town because she was afraid of being left stranded.

Using the CFC program was a no brainer for my sister. She was due for a new car anyway, we would have never got $4500 for her truck, and she more than doubled her fuel efficiency (from like 15-16mpg at best to over 30mpg easy) by getting a brand new fully loaded 09' Hyundai elantra. After all the rebates she qualified for, she walked out the door with the car for $10,900, and the total before rebates was around $21,000.

Hyundai made sure every single piece of documentation that was needed for the CFC program was completed. They required her to go to the dmv to get a registration history (i think), along with a bunch of other legal documentation. Hyundai went out of their way to make sure everything with the CFC program was met properly (pretty much to cover their butts in the transaction).

So overall, it was a good situation for her. She bought the car with cash, so there are no payments to deal with. With all the warranties that hyundai gives you, she'll be safe and covered for the next 7-10 years, and after that.... well the car looks easy to work on

[JasonG]

While some like your sis did make good choices, most didnt. The fuel economy wasnt mandated high enough.
I look forward to buying one of these in a year or so from a foreclosure.
Do the math, $400 X 12 mos. plus the higher insurance = $5K that will do lots of repairs or mods.
I want my part of the $3Bill back !

[Vwbeamer]

Yes, the program was good for some people. My Brother in law traded in a tatal POS Bravda that over 200K, blown head gasket, inside was all torn up, no air, etc. Car was worth $300 max. It was a very good deal for him and a lot of other people.

But, was it a good deal for the taxpayer, in terms of new cars sold and emmision reduction?

Chances are my brother in law would have bought a new car anyway pretty soon. So it helped him personally, but not the auto industry because he would have been in the market without $4C.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for those that good deals and many did, I just think the 3 billion could have been spent better.

Cars sales increased 33%, so I figure at most only33% of the people doing $4C would not have bought a car. so using that number, it cost us about $13000 for every new car sold or about a 50% rebate.

If that is a good deal, then lets just have the Government offer a 50% rebate on every item and really get the economy moving

Cash for Clunkers a jolt for car sales, not a fix - Yahoo! Finance

[cfg83]

theycallmeebryan -

Originally Posted by theycallmeebryan

...

Well, in my sisters case, the 1996 blazer she had was nothing but a nightmare in every possible way. She kept having to either pour out money for repairs on the thing (if me and my father couldn't fix it in our driveway, or didn't have the time to do it), or she would be left stranded on the side of the road broken down. It got to the point where she was afraid to drive the thing out of town because she was afraid of being left stranded.

...

That sounds like my friend's Blazer. He still has his, though. I should have thought of nagging him to look into the CFC. But I think the Blazer has "stabilized" after X amount of $$, and he has a short commute, so there it is.

CarloSW2

[Frank Lee]

I swung by the local Ford dealer today and looked at "clunker row".

It was very disappointing to say the least.

There were several trucks just like mine that looked to me like they had many many miles left in 'em. Some mini-vans and a nice looking Jeep too.

But the one that really REALLY ticked me off was the super-clean '89 F150 that some retired farmer brought in. The salesman was out there with me and he said the 85 year old guy (now) bought it new. It's a beautiful truck- no rust, no dents except on the tailgate, nice paint, heck, hardly any wear anywhere. I'm looking for a plow truck and this one would be the ultimate. But it's gonna be crushed instead.

What a joke.

[LUVMY02CREW]

Originally Posted by Frank Lee

It was very disappointing to say the least...........What a joke.

Nicely put Frank Lee.

I drive by a carlot with a whole bunch of c4c tagged vehicles in it and I wonder when the used car dealers will get their bailout since so many nice looking used vehicles will never come there way.

If those vehicles weren't marked as c4c, a person driving by would think that a new used car dealer just opened up. A few of the vehicles there make me think "clunker", the vast majority do not.

[wdb]

Originally Posted by Vwbeamer

The program was a total failure. The reduction in emmisions is less than 1%. We paid out 3 billion for very little.

I know it's from the gummint, and spun to put the program in the best light, but the numbers from the CARS website beg to differ:

In addition, the program provides good news for the environment. That’s because 84 percent of consumers traded in trucks and 59 percent purchased passenger cars. The average fuel economy of the vehicles traded in was 15.8 miles per gallon and the average fuel economy of vehicles purchased is 24.9 mpg. – a 58 percent improvement.

That kind of MPG improvement, combined with the fact that new cars with new emissions systems replaced old cars with worn systems, has to mean a much better improvement than you claim.

Doesn't it?

Originally Posted by JasonG

I look forward to buying one of these in a year or so from a foreclosure.

Me too, truth be told.

Someone else stated that people would pay federal income tax on the $4500 or $3500 they got for their clunker. That is false. No federal taxes, period. In fact the feds are letting people who buy new cars in 2009 deduct any sales taxes paid from their taxable income, so the exact opposite is effectively true. As for the states, some taxed the C4C money and some did not. Read more here:

» Cash for Clunkers Tax Rules - The Truth About What You Owe | Prime Time Money

CARS.gov - Car Allowance Rebate System - Helpful Q&As for Consumers - Formerly Referred to as “Cash for Clunkers”

[McTimson]

The junkyard here has a bunch of the clunkers in their yard now. They have big red stickers that say the engine block cannot be sold, but the rest of the car is up for grabs.

They also had a bunch of nice looking cars that looked like they were about to be crunched, that had 'CARS' written on the windows. There was a nice looking Lexus, and a bunch of other atypical trade-ins. I'm not sure if they were actually part of the program or not.

A friend of ours traded an Isuzu Rodeo for a new Nissan Sentra, and my landlords traded an old Explorer for a Nissan Cube. Apparently, the Isuzu had transmission problems, and the Explorer made too many creaking noises to be considered safe, so it worked out great for them.

[Doofus McFancypants]

Just wait.
that 16% mentioned above concerned about the Payments will be demanding a Bailout for having to high of car payments.