A couple of weeks ago, both Editor Brendan Coffey and I wrote about the U.S. government’s Cash for Clunkers program. We received a lot of comments from readers and some of the most insightful are printed below. Some of our readers brought up great points that neither Brendan nor I discussed and I want to share them with you here.
If you missed either of our articles, you can read them here, here and here. And if you haven’t shared your view on the Cash for Clunkers program yet, do so by commenting below. Thanks to everyone for writing in!
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The Cash for Clunkers sound nice, but to my thinking, it’s just another bailout for the auto industry with your money and mine. And it just doesn’t set right with me that it seems to be covering all makes of cars. Japanese; Korean; German; French? A heck of a lot that is doing to promote American industry!
W.O.
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The problem with this program is that it rewards the people who bought those clunker cars. Plus, Edmunds discovered that they fudged those top 10 results. It is actually Ford and Chevy pick-up trucks that were the best sellers! And the program was first initiated in Germany, which the press never mentions!
A.
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I believe that most people have forgotten how much raw materials it took to manufacture the clunkers and the new models. Perhaps it fits into the equation.
P.S.
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Enjoyed your story about your vehicle. I’d like someone to look up this information. How much fuel is used by each usage sector in the U.S. or by U.S. entities? Not coal, but fossil fuel (gas or oil).
Airlines
Military
Trucks for moving/delivering goods and services
Education sector–school buses
Passenger cars
Power plants–if use fuel/oil, not coal
Etc., etc., etc.
I think with the U.S. having 15,000 airports and a huge military that personal passenger vehicles are a drop in the bucket!!!! A waste of money again. And a short-term fix only. Only those who can already afford to buy a new vehicle are using this program.
Plus, why can’t D.C. figure out that the reason this CARS program worked is because it was money in peoples’ pockets … and not welfare. We do know best how to spur the economy! Trickle down does work.
K.R.
San Marcos, Texas
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It seems really odd to me about how the U.S. citizens gripe and complain about our economy but yet so many of them turn around spend money on foreign vehicles. DUH. Come on people keep your money at home.
M.
I have read several negative comments concerning cash for clunkers. I think it was one of the best programs ever. Stimulated the economy, and got ineffecient vehicles off the road. I also recently purchased a new Honda. The dealership that I used had many employees, and there wasn’t a single Japanese there that I saw. All the employees that I saw were Texans just like me.