SHOCKER! The Big Winners For Obama's Cash For Clunkers Are The Asian Car Companies!

How is the a shocker, they make the most fuel efficient cars.

Incorrect information, top 10, 4 are american.

http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/ford-focus-tops-rebate-purchases/?ref=automobiles

am i the only one who caught the spelling error? its honda, oo1

unnecessary hysteria.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/08/07/autos/cash_for_clunkers_sales/index.htm?cnn=yes

the whole program is truly ridiculous. here's a shocker: give people HUGE amounts of cash to buy cars and....THEY BUY CARS. maybe if the government pays for 20% of houses people will buy houses! could you imagine!

washington is tripping over itself with excitement over this program and just goes to show how completely detached the beltway is from the reality that the rest of the country lives in...

this program is awesome. great way to jump start the automotive industry and put more fuel efficient, better for the environment cars on the road.

but keep whining right wingers hahaha

So this is called "Sharing the wealth"

nothing wrong with "sharing the wealth". USA only became a superpower when our government instituted major social policies that helped our middle class.

dinamo:

please do explain how we can afford programs like this while running a record $1.8trillion dollar deficit this year...and trillion dollars deficits as far as the CBO projects.

is this more important than healthcare? education? that's what's getting shafted all over this country.

the government is simply trying to buy off frustrated, small-minded, middle-class people like yourself.

oh...and for the record...i'm a libertarian.

one more thing dynamo:

if you're such a liberal, pick up the new york times or the economist (liberal and libertarian institutions, respectively) and see what they have to say about this program. you won't like what you read.

because not doing this program (that is obviously working great for the auto industry) would be more costly. how much GDP lost and how many jobs lost if the auto industry keeps falling like a rock?

oh, and this only puts safer, more fuel efficient, cleaner cars on the road. less oil imported, less money to dictators, cleaner air. works out perfect.

dinamo:

how is this sustainable? sales collapsed as soon as the free money. so what happens 3 weeks from now when this additional subsidy runs out?

will the overcapacity in the auto industry have been changed? will the bloated cost structure of the big 3 have been altered? will GM be any more solid?

If we are going to mortgage our future by borrowing billions after trillions from china, it should be for something with enduring value for the USA, not to buy cars from korea and japan. So we go farther into debt to china to transfer wealth to their neighbors japan korea and in return we get shitboxes that will be in a scrap heap in 10-15 years?! Brilliant. We should be building infrastructure, educating our kids, and obliterating our culture of anti-intellectualism if we want to have a country in the future.

SHOCKINGLY, top 10 trade in clunkers are all american cars, 7 of which are produced by the same manufacture, 6 of which are the same vehicle from year 1994 to 1999.

Ford is the big winner. My Ford stock went from $1,80 in march to $8,40 earlier this week

and how are japs selling fuel efficient cars a shocker? if idiot Bush administration had not killed any fuel efficiency standards and promoted huge SUVs, maybe that would not be the case.

And those jap cars are made in USA anyway. from camry to civic- they're all made in kentucky or ohio

Please stop posting racial slurs (no room for that here) or you will be banned.

You can make your point in an educated fashion.

001

Wow You bought stock Thats how big corporations share in there profitt making. Oh I forgot that big corporations are the bad guy. Looks like your a bit mixed up.

they can be good or bad depends how much power you give them. stop being a balck-or-white moron. Most things can be good or bad, depending how much of them you have.

so if we had one large worldwide corporation that would be more powerful than any government and any military, that would own everything, you would not have a problem with that? that would be worse than a nazi dictatorship

but what if it was run by jesus?

I guess Dynamo didn't read about the loopholes in the new Obama mileage standards for lower volume manufacturers ie: MB, BMW, Porsche etc.

LOL wow you have invested in Ford? lol good luck with that

Obama is such a dounce.

What a maroon!

What do you mean by "dounce"? Can you use it in a sentence that makes sense?

What do you mean by "dounce"? Can you use it in a sentence that makes sense?

Obama is a dunce.

Should I say it two times?

Congratulations! You spelled correctly...you get a star!

About the double post, if you look a the time stamp for the two previous, Einstein, you'll see that they occurred at the exact same time. Not my fault that this site has glitches from time to time.

You need to upgrade to high speed internet, Mr. Double Poster.

Shocker! Those have already been the top selling cars since the beginning of time!

But I am all for this program. The buyer receives a $4500 discount basically for giving a car that is worth next to nothing. The auto dealers sell their cars without having to lose profit from offering severe discounts. Not to mention how this will jump start out economy a little, cut down on emissions, while giving the consumer a safer, more efficient, automobile. If each car sold using this program cost about $20,000 or so, then the auto dealers made an astonishing $4.4 billion in sales the last week, with the consumers saving $1 billion!

Yeah!!.. but who pays for all this???

we all pay for it. to get our economy back up and running after 8 years of failed policies that nearly destroyed it

dinamo's going to pay for it. he's the policy expert.

Dynamo, like most libs, is probably not going to pay for anything.

There are plenty of local Honda and Toyota dealers in my area. Those sales people were smiling!!! As for it not helping Americans. How about painting the full picture before you blab on about half assed data that isnt thorough and was done without appropriate reseach. 001, stick to copying and pasting articles from other sites. It works out better for you that way!

What is the full picture that I'm missing.

Looks pretty clear to me...

001

our economy went down the crapper and noone was buying anything including cars. now people are buying cars and every $4500 government investment gives our economy $25,000. that is the full picture.

stop it with the corporatist rigth wing propaganda already. if you were so right crap woud not have hit the fan after 8 years of your policies

DR learn to talk like an adult. Your political insertions are iconic to an uneducated child.. Im sure your response will prove my point

Just wasted my time trying to find out why this is such a shocker for the OP. Just wondering if you have any problems with Japanese companies making fuel efficient cars?

'Cause the OP is Agent001, whose website relies on making up SHOCKING headlines to generate traffic.

The Camry, Corolla, and Civic are built in the USA. Trade treaties don't allow us to favor American manufacturers with incentives. It's against WTO rules. Besides, we'd just be retaliated against. Plus we can't succeed if the world economy isn't doing well. We're all in this together.

Cash for Clunkers was just extended in senate 15 minutes ago

Sweet: ))

sweet! more debt to china to pass on to our children and grandchildren! woohoo!

If you think healthcare is expensive, wait until it's free!

*Jobs at the mfrg plants of the transplants.
*Jobs for salesmen.
*Profits for dealers.
*Safer vehicles on the road.
*Less oil to be imported.
*Cleaner air.
*Hundreds od millions in local and state tax revenues.
*Millions in DMV fees for the states.
*Millions spent on tv and print advertising.
Millions in revenue for salvage yards.
Parts to keep other vehicles still on the road running longer.

All of these are benefits to Americans, that far outweigh profits going to (publicly traded btw) Asian car companies.

Who loses? No one.
The taxpayer pays a very small amount for a program with so many benefits.
The only potential criticism is pulling sales forward. This is a worthwhile risk. Worst case, these cars would have been sold eventually. Best case this jumpstart is a kick in the pants to our consumer economy that gets the economy rolling a few months sooner than if we had left it to its own devices.

You right-wingers can't keep thinking things will just sort themselves out. That didn't happen in the 30's. It's not gonna happen this time. Targeted tax cuts and smart spending/investment will pull us out of this mess. This one is pretty smart spending.

The taxpayer pays a SMALL amount? What about all the DEBT?

001

ugh...debt? that's all you got? 3 billion is too much debt for you to stimulate the car industry and save god-knows-how many jobs???

besides, if you clowns were not the same people who supported a president who said "deficits don't matter" and then spent like crazy, maybe, maybe, you'd have some credibility.

I don't think people who are driving 10+ year old ford explorers tend to buy new vehicles... therefore I would wager very few of the sales generated were going to happen in due course anyway.

The previous administration lost 8.8 billion in shrink wrapped cash in Iraq and spending 3 billion to spur on the economy is too much, com'on. At least some of the U.S tax payers are getting some benifit.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/feb/08/usa.iraq1

dinamo:

you're a little man who can't see beyond his own myopic view of the world.

again....how can we afford to artificially prop up the poorly run, wildly overcapacity auto industry?


who needs healthcare and quality education when we can just buy new cars subsidized by all other taxpayers. woohooo!

moron.

This has been a great success and it is good to finally have a president who can create a program that actually works, unlike the morons that we had in office the previous 8 years. With Barack and the rest of the goverment, hopefully, we will be able to fix what was destroyed.

with more programs like this we'll have a debt/death spiral and an entire economy on government life support for many years to come.

this is cynical voter appeasement at its most inglorious.

Again, please explain how how this program is a "great success"

001, so basically the govt should have forced ppl to buy american if they wanted the $4500? Is that what your saying? Sounds like regardless of what our democratic govt does, you will find a way to complain. I dont recall this during the bush years and there was ALOT more to complain about!!!

Stop whining you do nothing more than promote the Superiority of the European automobiles. How's the ML doing? Put your money where your mouth is and buy an American Car.

The overall winners:
Finance companies, States getting sales tax, employees at the dealerships, shipping and transit companies, advertising agencies, television stations, Federal government for getting sales taxes from the Car companies, mortgage companies and utility companies (car industry employees being able to pay their bills), on and on and Autospies for the flame wars and such.

DinamoR would you please shut your mouth. I have never read such irritating drivel about politics on this site. Everything you say is just propaganda you have been fed by someone elese. It is all talking points. When you have an original though of your own, then come and share it with us. Until then, keep your mouth shut so that rest of us can have some peace.

Seriously, nothing you say makes sense and it is obvious to the rest of ust ath you are a tax and spend liberal. The money that is going into this program is mine and yours and it just might be that some of us don't want to see our tax money being used to subsidize the purchase of foreign automobiles. This program is something that we freedom loving Americans call redistribution of wealth. That policy, as you might know, is socialism. Sure, socialism sounds all nice on the surface, but the fact of the matter is that it places too much power in one particularly untrustworthy institution...the government. That last thing the government needs is more power. Afterall, these are the same people who chastize the big three leaders for traveling in private jets to ask for a bailout and then turn around and spend $200 million on three private planes (Gulfstreams) when the United States is facing the most substantial economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Another point- this program is certainly not going to stimulate the economy. Studies have shown that Roosevelts New Deal likely extended the depression by 7 years rather than helping bring it to an end. The way to end a depression/recession is to give the people their money back and let them do with it as they choose. Our government is supposed to be for that people and that means all of the people and since you can never please everyone and do right by everyone, the best thing for the government to do is to limit its involvement in our daily lives. Life is inherently unfair and it is not made more fair when the government determines who is to receive the rewards rather than letting it be determined by hard work and individual enterprise. This program is nothing short of socialism and it only one small step from communism. You like sharing your money so much. Go to Europe where they tax you at 50 to 75% and share away. But for the love of Pete, leave me alone to make my own way in life without some idiot official telling me that I need to give some of my money to him so that he can use it to promote and program that in no way benefits me and which I do not support.

Oh Shut Up

We Freedom Loving Americans !!

Where were you when the previous President was blowing all your Country's Surplus Cash on Illegal Wars ?

I guess you did not care cause you thought as long as your House kept up equity gains of 15% PA, all is good.

Now all that is crashed you are concerned about Obama's atempts to Fix the total EFFUP his Predecessor left for him.

By the way the BUSH Administration also practiced Wealth Redistribution, they took from the poor and stuffed the accounts of their Super Rich Buddies.

Then turned a blind eye to other Super Rich Buddies fleecing the less well off.

1) Tens of Billions of Tax money spent on Military Contracts and Consultants (Who the F*@k do you think ownes/major share holders/on the board of these companies ?

2) Enron and other examples of Buddies of BUSH Fleecing innocent shareholders and investors.

Sorry Mate, you gave the Idiot 8 years to destroy the economy and did not see it comming, but in just over 7 months you can see so clearly that OBAMA is on the wrong track ?

LJ745 You are exactly right. Couldn't have said it better. I tried boosting you 50 times but the sight would only give me one.

lj:

"Studies have shown that Roosevelts New Deal likely extended the depression by 7 years rather than helping bring it to an end. The way to end a depression/recession is to give the people their money back and let them do with it as they choose."


can you cite those "studies?"

sounds like pure propaganda to me. how could FDR "give back" money to people who HAD no money or jobs? he CREATED hundreds of jobs which simply did not exist, making it possible for people to FEED themselves and their families instead standing in soup lines.

001, only 3+ more years to go so keep on smiling. Keep on using this so-called auto enthusiastic site to display your political orientation. What do you suggest, do nothing during the crisis? Or are you implying that the stimulus program should have been made available only for American cars? Is that the position of the Republican party, I thought Republican was into minimal gov't and free trade? I would think that getting rid of old uneconomical cars and replacing them with fuel efficient cars in some way help the environment and decrease our dependence on oil. And what do you say to those people in Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, etc. that make those Toyotas and Hondas?

It's sooooo funny how many people on here calculate the real benefit/consequences of this program.... ie;, they DON'T.......

YES, this will sell more cars. YES, this will create more American whatever (jobs, wealth, security etc....)but..........once the money runs out...... THEN WHAT!!!!!!!!

We tried this crap 3 years ago- remember? The big 3 offered 0% financing AND.........CASH BACK!!!!.......to buy an American Car??!!! Everyone smart said that will destroy profits- and guess what??? IT DID!!!! so....when 2008/09 rolled around those earlier incentives KILLED the Big 3 and thye took it in the shorts. And now you think a quick infusion of Gov't cash will fix the problem???? Are you that naive??? Until American cars make AND promote quality, sexy designs NOTHING will change....!!!!
Obama can throw a quadrillion dollars towards the clunkers but until we actually make ALLLLLLLL our models compete with the rest of the world we will always be behind!!!! This hasn't changed since the late 70's people- get a clue!!!!!!

This program should have said that only cars built in AMERICA by AMERICANS can be bought. Makes no sense that we'd give money so we can buy cars by foreign companies built by foreigners.

WOW !

What's a "Hinda Civic?"

Ok,
1st. Its not the Asian's fault that they're ranking high, but its the garbage "3"'s fault that their product sucks that's why people don't buy it.

2. As far as the CARS program goes, it did two things only. Allowed people to get rid of their old big cars and bought new smaller ones for a better price. And the other thing is helped the manufacturers make MORE money in this short time on TOP of the bailout money that was given to them.

Helping stimulate the economy? keep jobs? that's all bull crap, no economy nor jobs are stimulated for a period of 3-4 weeks.

If they keep adding billions of $s to this stupid program, it tells you that this is nothing but a scam!!! There must be people out there benefiting from this government grant and they want to keep it coming.

For God's sake reduce our deficit, stop piling on top of it. It has been ONLY 7 months for Obama being a president, and look what he has done to the country, in ONLY 7 MONTHS!!!! God have mercy on us we still have 3.5 years to go, if not another term.

This is not the first program of its kind. In 1992, former President George H.W. Bush developed his own "cash for clunkers" plan, touting it as a market-based approach to environmental policy. Another such program proved to be a huge success among consumers across Europe after it was introduced in late 2008, although halting the incentives has turned out to be much more complicated than introducing them.

This is what happens when you elect a president who is not an American. he doesnt care about america.

He dosent like the current america. Remember CHANGE!!!!

lol at all the economic "geniuses" who've lambasted this program.

say the average new car purchased cost ~$20,000. the gummint's $4500 is barely one-fourth the price. the balance still has to be paid by the buyer. so the gov't gets FOUR TIMES the economic stimulus for each dollar invested!

that's far better retutn/effect than the "investments" to bail out detroit, wall street, the banks, etc. etc.

i guess the whiners are expert in Bushonomics, where the more money you LOSE, the better "leader" you are! LOL!