Cash For Clunkers Bites Back: 20% Of Leases Under Program Now Seeking Rescue From Contract

Who leases a car for 5 years?

anyone who wanted to use the CARS program, that's who -- the program stipulated you had to lease for AT LEAST 5 years to use the rebate.

Regardless of my political beliefs, or if I supported this particular program or not....I can say definitively that NOBODY other than the ignorant people who signed up for a FIVE YEAR LEASE TERM are to blame for the horrifically upside down position they are in.

Anyone knows that if you finance a vehicle purchase without putting almost the entirety of the purchase price down, you are upside down from the time you drive off the lot. Lease's are therefore meant as an alternative for people who wish to turn in the vehicle's frequently, every 24-36 months, and re-lease another in most cases. A 5 year lease is truly one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard of.

If any of these people want to cry "poor me" I lined up to take a hand out from the government, then decided to apply it towards my car acquisition in the most ignorant manor possible, they need to look in the mirror.

I certainly understand if things have gone bad financially for some of these people since their purchase, and they are now having difficulties with the payments. Most of us are seeing that to some degree or another, but I would have no patience or tolerance for anyone who had the gall to then blame it on being upside down as a result of their poor and ignorant decision making.

Ok, stepping off my soapbox now....:) Thanks

Working for an Acura dealer, we had 3 transactions for CFC. With that said, we have several dealers in our autogroup, Honda and Nissan along with others. The problem I had with the program, is that "sheep" were walking into the dealership with a POS to trade in (under the programs guidelines) but were not asking for anything off the sticker price!?!?! Other dealers I talked to said the same thing. The dealers were getting checks for the trade-ins and people were buying their cars at MSRP because they thought they were getting such a "great deal" under the programs guidelines.
As for someone taking out at 5 year lease.......wow...you have EVERY RIGHT to be upside down. These are the same people that weren't asking for discounts on the car to begin with.....how idiotic!!

jsell, I doubt most of those people would have chosen a five year lease had it not been the government mandated minimum term in order to get the rebate. I think a five year lease is a terrible idea too, but that's the way the program was structured.

If I remember clearly Toyota buyers would be the majority of the people losing there cars..... to bad oh well.

Bought a new 2009 Pontiac G8 GT (only option is leather) in July 2009 for $26,080 after GM incentives. No cash for clunkers rebate on that. Current KBB trade-in value is actually $20 more than I paid for the car a year ago and the car has 10k miles on it. I am absolutely being 100% honest with you on this. Look it up for yourself if you doubt me.

Shredmo,
Kelly trade-in value on your car in excellent condition is $21,950--that's not bad depreciation but not a gain in value either. You may be looking at retail values which a dealer will never give you and you probably can't get for the car selling it yourself.
BW

KBB excellent trade is $26,100; car IS excellent w/all records. Used retail is $32,030; $600 less than window sticker, FYI. Perhaps you looked at the 6 cyl. model?
If you do Edmunds TMV, the car is valued at ~$22k which I agree is probably more accurate. Just sayin'.

BW, just looked up a base model 6 cyl, that is what you picked, as the price is an exact match. People were paying $20,500 for these new when I bought my V8 car. If you had added this bit of info, it would have further proved Badgewhore to be incorrect.

HA HA Toyota drivers got to give up there POS !

when you need a magazine to tell what a good car is there is something wrong