Cash For Clunkers Program Reaps Positive Results At Auto Dealerships

amazing what people(Lemmings) will do when they can get easy money...now who wants a no doc refinance on their house at an adjustable rate mortgage of only 2.5%...Al you have to do is add the rest of the interest to your principal for 5 years! Don't worry the price of your home is "expected" to always go up in perpetuity at 6-8% forever because some 23 year old kid out of Harvard says so at Bear Sterns!! Sign me up baby!!

I was at a local dealer on Friday and while not crazy busy, it was certainly hopping a lot more than I usually see them. They had about 10 CARS deals pending whilst I was there and were expecting quite a crowd on Saturday.

Isnt the 1500-4500$ tax credit pretty much paying for the depreciation of a mid sized car a person buys new for the first year?

I've been hearing the opposite. Sure it works for tons of people. But I have heard stories of dealers calling people back and telling them they have to pay up the extra or return their car because the EPA changed their fuel economy readings once again. I also heard of people not being eligible because of their vehicles, i.e. 1986 Mercury's, 1988 Toyota 4Runners.

Basically what that says to me is that if a car that old can still get mileage that does not allow them to get the CARS funding, then I would say we have done pretty well keeping efficiency on new models with all this CAFE crap. The weight of new safety equipment, and cars in general have added stress to engines that have progressively gotten better emissions standards. MPGs are not the main factor, emissions would be to me it seems.

And on that thought, it irritates me cause I would love to trade in my 2005 Toyota MAtrix for a 2010 Jeep Liberty Limited but I would totally not qualify.