Will they extend the program indefinitely until the entire country goes bankrupt just to keep these dinosaurs afloat?
Perhaps rule that only hybrid cars can be sold after 2010 ? And then on to all electric vehicles ! That should annoy the oil producers imho The big 3 could turn into the 3 midgets if they don't get a move on
The funny thing is, people are replacing old Explorers with Corollas and Civics so most of that money goes to Asian auto-makers. http://jalopnik.com/5330995/ten-most-traded+in-and-purchased-cash-for-clunkers-cars-updated/gallery/
Cash for clunkers didn't help domestic automakers much. That was by design. Hussein has no loyalty to America, this is old news. In this case, domestic economic stimulation was faked in this C4C BS. All it did was trash American cars to buy new foreign cars. More service economy crap. More death to domestic manufacturing.
What will happen to Big 3 after "cash for clunker" expires? They'll go broke, just like the Government that tried to prop them up.
There is no Big 3 any more, at least not 3 American companies. Toyota has benefited the most from this program. Basically they are stealing future demand, so when the program ends sales will fall off greatly unless there is a huge ramp up in the economy. It is one big Madoff scheme. Ponzi got demoted after what Madoff pulled off.
Out of the top 5 selling cars only 1 was american, the ford focus, the only reason for this program was to save the auto industry. After the program is over with auto sales will still average under 10 million a year.
Umm, let us not forget that a lot of these "foreign" cars were built in the USA. And a lot of the "domestic" cars were built in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, etc. I remember a Consumer Reports a few years doing a report on one car category, that included these cars: Accord, Camry, Maxima and three similar "domestic" competitors (cannot remember! one was a Chevy...) All 3 "foreign" autos were built in the USA, and only 1 of the "domestic" cars was built in the USA. I got tired of the "domestic" cars and only plan to buy Honda or Toyotas starting about 5 years ago. They know how to build cars that do not become obsolete after 91,000-130,000 miles, like my 5 or so "domestic" cars did. I did all the recommended services, but their powertrains died anyway.
I imagine it will be similar to the employee pricing program that the domestics ran a couple years ago, right before their balance sheets blew up. The majority of customers attracted by the clunker rebate would have bought a vehicle anywayâprobably within the next six months. Now that those customers are no longer in the market and with the upcoming holiday season and winter months, most dealers will look like a ghost town. That goes for imports too. I'm assuming the economy stays relatively weak going into '10 and probably early '11. I think most agree it will.