Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Cash for clunkers......... the postmortem

So how did that cash for clunkers program work out for the poor?
In her search for a cheap, used minivan for her and her husband, Krissy Dieroff has visited seven dealerships across Berks and Schuylkill counties in the last week, but to no avail.

"There's not much to pick from, and the ones we do find are overpriced," said Dieroff of Auburn, Schuylkill County, while browsing the lot of a city dealership on Monday.

Dieroff blames the shortage of inexpensive used cars on the federal cash-for-clunkers program, in which almost 700,000 used vehicles were traded in for newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles, and then scrapped.

Those clunkers were the cars Dieroff and her husband, Jason Boyer, would have been shopping for, they said.

"I saw the cars they were putting in the junkyard, and they were better than what we're driving now," Boyer said.

Some local used car dealers specializing in vehicles priced $5,000 and under agreed that there are fewer inexpensive vehicles available.


Q. Who could have predicted that outcome?
A. Someone who sounds an awful lot like me.

More......

5 comments:

RightRunner said...

So what, Gordon. I got mine...from Obama's stash!

Luv,

A happy new car owner

becbeq said...

I'm sending this to every dang liberal (hi mom!) to whom I theorized that this would happen. Nyah-nyah I was right. Doesn't do these folks a bit of good...

gordon gekko said...

One of the primary ways we can help the environment is to recycle.

Anyone who's from a big family knows that the primary source of recycling comes in the form of "hand me downs".

Car purchase is a form of recycling.

Tearing up old cars so that piles of crap can stay on the road just bastardizes that recycling food chain.

Anonymous said...

Not to mention the fine folks who manufacture the replacement parts.
Bitter Bartman

Cars4Charities said...

Cash for clunkers didn't just hurt the poor, it also hurt car repair shops and charities that rely on the proceeds from car donation.