"Yes, the program is ending because of its success, and the continued fear that it will run out of money. A good measure for success for a government program if there ever was one."

Um, what?

Somebody explain that to me, please.

That tag "LOL F*CK" just made my day!

You will also know that the health care bill is a success when you are given a dull butter knife and a band-aid so that you can remove your own appendix after it ruptures.

@The-Lone-Gunman: Well, I would agree with that being a well thought out government program because it is one without an infinitely large blank check. The prevailing theme of our government, for all its wonderful successes, is to not actually write bills for the future, consider limiting a program, or risk cutting any payouts, bailouts, or handouts for risk of losing votes. Yes, this program has left me shaking my head in confusion, has disabled hundreds of thousands of operable vehicles, and has amounted to a paid-for advertisement for the government's own company, but at least we saw it through while only throwing good money after bad one extra time. My low standards for being impressed have been thoroughly met.

@The-Lone-Gunman: I think Laura was being sarcastic in that remark. I personally will think of it as a success when they finish paying the car dealers what they are owed.

In 6 months to 1 year the car repo companies will also consider this bill a success. This thing will just keep giving.

@thelushie: They? You mean we ... the taxpayers? We helped buy new cars for everyone that participated in the program. Ironic 'cause I don't even own a car.

@Riddar: I don't really see the problem in taking low mileage cars off the road.

Perhaps the auto industry will learn the lesson that a great majority of the potential car-purchasing public apparently think that new cars are $3,500 to $4,500 overpriced, and use that knowledge to modify their business model.

HA HA! Hooo boy, I do crack myself up sometimes!

@The-Lone-Gunman: I was assuming that she was being sarcastic. I really hope she is.

*obligatory health care reform remark*

Oh wait, someone beat me to it...I love how a car program can lead to that.

At any rate, I do see this as a success. They set a budget, they stuck to it, and the seemingly accomplished their goal -- to take a bunch of low gas mileage cars off the road and replace them with cars of much better fuel economy.

I find it funny that most of the people having a negative reaction to the fact that this is ending now, also have a problem with government spending in general. Had the program kept going, I'm sure there would have been complaints about how much the government is spending, how they're not setting limits on how much the program is costing taxpayers, etc etc.

"This program has been a lifeline to the automobile industry, jump starting a major sector of the economy and putting people back to work," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.

It helped sell off the overstock that would not have sold any other way... not sure how it has put people back to work though. With the program over car sales are going to drop like a stone again.

The typical cash-for-clunkers deal involved an older model SUV or truck from a Detroit automaker traded in for a car that was more likely to come from a foreign automaker than a domestic one. The federal government said the new vehicles typically improved on the fuel economy of the clunker by more than 9 m.p.g.

I'm surprised nobody has bitched about this last part yet.

@sir_pantsalot: Get out of here with your partisan hackery. Two posts in a row, good job!

@antisane: Or how about the fact that the average MPG of cars bought with cash for clunkers money is still only 25mpg, which is awful.

@Riddar: I guess my question is if it saved a bunch of gas and stimulated the economy (even at the expense of tax-payers), then its done its job.

I guess the question is, was it worth it? How much net savings in fuel did we create? What was the stimulative (word?) effect of the program?

Of course we have consider how much a gallon of gas really costs to the consumer- not just the price at the pump, but the entire cost. Meaning- all the wars, subsidies, foreign aid, terrorism threats and losses, environmental damage, etc. that we collectively pay per gallon of gas.

@sir_pantsalot: Jou talkin' 'bout dem commies up in Washeengtun? Goddamn sonsabitches, dey'll take mah helthcurr over mah dead bodee!

---

The LAUDED and BENEVOLENT status quo in all it's glory...

From the horse's (doctor's) mouth: [www.latimes.com]

Related: [articles.latimes.com]

@sir_pantsalot:
My girlfriends dad said the same thing. His predicition is that in 6 months, you will see a large amount of "new" cars up for huge discounts after being repo'd.

Whats sad is that while this is a success, I've seen 2 examples, one being my own mother, who tried to buy a used car and the dealer refused to sell it because this program was working for them, and they wouldn't make as much money off the used car vs selling her a new car. She went to another dealer, got a better car for 3k cheaper. Just happened last week too lol.

I think you mean "they set a budget, tripled it, and seemingly..."

1 billion became 3 billion, after all.

@antisane: I think most users here understand that even though Toyota is a foreign automaker, much or most of the supply to the US is produced in the US, employing thousands of people. I think most or all of Michigan still refuses to buy anything but the big 3 and that's fine if you want to support the local workers but it's somewhat erroneous to do so because you think foreign companies' cars are foreign made. Autoworkers in Michigan are just as American as autoworkers in Louisiana working for Toyota.

@antisane: GM has stated they're upping production to keep up with demand, putting mechanics back to work at least...

@G.O.B.: Come on!: Mocking people with accents. Classy.

@pecan 3.14159265: The gloves are off when it comes to trolls.

Woo hoo! Back to buying cars with their own money!

I got TWO.

My work truck and the old family sedan.

The work truck is used on weekends to haul manure and other crap and the old family sedan was being used by the oldest teen daughter.

I got me a spiffy cross-over minivan thing for the truck and a nice full size family sedan that was just a few bucks under the upper $ limit.

Paid cash for both vehicles because I actually have $ in my savings account to do something like this. No repo man in my future.

Nice $9000 extra credit. The work truck was worth maybe $500 on the used truck market. The old family sedan was worth $900. Damn right I will take the $9000 credit.

I got mine. Good luck getting yours.

@outlulz: Neither do I. I do see a problem in using billions of dollars in tax money to do it.

I WOULD have used cash for clunkers if I hadn't of sold my car 1 week before final rules were announced...

oh well.

@outlulz: Why don't you buy low milage cars and take them off the road, then?
Or do you mean "I don't mind using other people's money to take low milage cars off the road?"

@G.O.B.: Come on!:

that is a 6500 dollar suit he's wearing, you know.

@henrygates: look at the bright side - we didn't adopt the japanese program. after you buy the car, you have to pay for a mandatory inspection every 2 years after the 3rd year. the cost of this inspection is rumored to increase over time. then there's an annual tax based on the weight of your car, as well as mandatory insurance (that seems to be like an mandatory "uninsured driver" insurance).

total cost is estimated between 70,000 - 200,000JPY annually (~$750 to $2,100USD). & that's in addition to their gas tax & the sales tax when you purchase the vehicle.

now, i live in a state with vehicle property taxes (CT) & i have to admit - our tax supports driving & maintaining older vehicles since it's based on the car's book value. perhaps a better system would be to factor in the age of the vehicle to incentivize new vehicle purchases.

@StanTheManDean:

You could have given your daughter the work truck...

I sincerely doubt that any boy would try to put the moves on her when the back of the truck smells like horseshit.

@downwithmonstercable: Too bad it ends on monday then, they'll just create a bigger stockpile of Cars in like a month when this thing is over and people stop buying again.

@Parapraxis: You don't know teenage boys all that well do? They'll roll around in horse shit if it will impress a girl.

@antisane: how about this? it got people buying again. that, by itself, makes the program worthwhile. it's how the original stimulus should have been structured: "go buy shit & we'll give you money", not "here's money, pretty please buy some shit with it".

the truth is, there's a whole lot of people out there that aren't any worse off than they were 2 years ago, but they've tightened their belts considerably for no other reason than fear. & that's making a crappy retail sector even worse. getting these folks in a new car is a good start. it won't save the economy single-handedly, but it may just get them to joyride to the strip malls in their new buggie this fall.

@Parapraxis: oh, i dunno. a chick that drives a truck is automatically 10x hotter than her non-truck driving twin.

i don't make the rules, i just play by them.

@Parapraxis: Or, scarily enough, she'd only attract the kind of boy who's excited by it.

@G.O.B.: Come on!: So, let me get this straight. Cigna "death panels" bad. Gov't (monopoly) "death panels" good. Is that right?

Is it really the case that the program is "successful," or rather, that it was constructed in just such a way that the auto dealers could game it to their own advantage?

I'm not sure what they expected to happen. It was natural that the sudden wave of applications, when the program went "live," would crash the servers. It was natural that, when each dealer stacked up several weeks' worth of sales in advance of the program, than rammed them all through at the same moment, that the program would run low on funds. It's natural that, since the dealers all "front-loaded" and gamed the program and caused all these problems, that payments would only just now be trickling out.

And it's natural — I suppose — that, having done all of this, some dealers are now complaining, just a couple weeks into it, that they aren't getting paid fast enough, and like children, are pulling out of it.

Let's be honest. When has government ever started any kind of online program that wasn't easily swamped at the start? And since when did government ever pay its bills quickly? Why is any of this really "news" to anyone?

@socalrob of the 24 and a half century: And let's not forget that there will be a decline is sales in the coming months. You CANNOT manufacture demand.

@Aristotle-or-PlayDoh: If it reduces the country's dependence on foreign oil then it is a matter of the government to do so. I don't like the US being a slave to Arab oil wells.

Or did the program accelerate a lot of car purchases and now that the program is over, the market for cars will go back to where it was, which was mostly nowhere? GM brought back around 1300 workers. It they can keep them busy, then the program was a success. If they get laid off again, then we just spent $3 billion to get some old cars off the road.

@Aristotle-or-PlayDoh: Lets be completely honest here, by "other people's money" you mean Generation Y and Generation Z's money. Generation X and the Baby Boomers have all ready wiped out their funds and are passing it onto their kids.

@rickn99: True, but the fact remains that they didn't let it just become a blank check.

@The-Lone-Gunman:

"Success" = the government can hand out $3 billion in free money (well, actually it can't; almost none of the car dealers have actually been paid) to people who bought arguably irresponsible cars at some point in the past. Pretty low measure of success, but hey, what do I know? I bought a car that got good mileage, and a mortgage I could afford. What a sap!

The country's in the very best of hands.

What I dont understand is that before GM was taken over by the goverment the best selling cars were foreign cars. So, Then obama introduces "cash for clunkers". I bet Toyota along with Honda and the others did real well with that program!

@outlulz: "If it reduces the country's dependence on foreign oil then it is a matter of the government to do so."

Really? I don't remember that part of the Constitution. Care to reference it for me?

@t-r0y:
The other example relates exactly to what you said. A gentleman in line at the bank was very loud on his cell phone. Said he went to a local Toyota dealership to buy a used car and got an offer from them. 2 days before he was to go buy it he recieved a call from them saying that due to the government program they were short on inventory and the price of this car went up $1800. He told them that "You weren't selling cars last month, and you wont be selling them next month. So (*chain of expletives*)" and yes he said them in the bank line LoL.

@ohenry:
Me: Honey, look what I got at Best Buy.
Wife: Did you spend the $100 I gave you from our budgeted funds?
Me: Well, no. I actually spent $300 and put it on the credit card.
Wife: You !@#$#!%#@#%!!!!
Me: What? At least I didn't charge up the whole limit!

Why don't we have those conversations with our government?

@mac-phisto: It didn't get people buying again. It simply displaced demand. There were people who heard about this program when it was announced with the Economic Stimulus and held off to see what would happen. There were also people who had plans to buy a car in the next year or two and moved those plans forward due to getting a couple extra bucks off.

We had a valley leading up to this peak in demand and then next valley over the next year or two is going to be very deep and very dark.

The worst part is that you can certainly expect more propping up the bubble. You can only hit the smack so long before you have to go through the pain of detox.

@LastVigilante: hahahahaha, you win :)