Cash for Clunkers! $24,000 each...

[Larry Gude (Premo)]

Cash for Clunkers costs taxpayers $24,000 per car - Oct. 28, 2009

The Cash for Clunkers program gave car buyers rebates of up to $4,500 if they traded in less fuel-efficient vehicles for new vehicles that met certain fuel economy requirements. A total of $3 billion was allotted for those rebates.

The average rebate was $4,000. But the overwhelming majority of sales would have taken place anyway at some time in the last half of 2009, according to Edmunds.com. That means the government ended up spending about $24,000 each for those 125,000 additional vehicle sales.

Can't wait until The Won runs health care!

[PsyOps]

So this gubmint has proven itself with this and efficiently managing the swine flu vaccine. We're off to a good start.

[port air]

It would be true if they had actually spent the money in that manner. But since this is an "it would have happened like this", it is still speculation. Forecast were actually lower for this year due to the pull back by consumers and the $4,000 moved more people back in the mix.

[Aerogal]

I wonder how all those people will feel when they realize the govt rebate is taxable income?

[chernmax (Premo)]

The Government will do better with Healthcare, trust them!!!

[Danzig]

Originally Posted by Aerogal

I wonder how all those people will feel when they realize the govt rebate is taxable income?

The vouchers are not treated as taxable income. Think of the voucher value as taking the place of your trade-in value.

[MMDad (Premo)]

Wirelessly posted (Change we can believe in!: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows CE; IEMobile 7.7) 320x240; VZW; Motorola-Q9c; Windows Mobile 6.0 Standard)

Originally Posted by Aerogal

I wonder how all those people will feel when they realize the govt rebate is taxable income?

It isn't taxable income.

[awpitt]

Originally Posted by Larry Gude

Cash for Clunkers costs taxpayers $24,000 per car - Oct. 28, 2009



Can't wait until The Won runs health care!

I saw that this morning. They were also talking about how Edmunds' conclusions were based on a lot of assumptions that are in dispute so that $24K per car figure may or may not be accurate.

[Larry Gude (Premo)]

Originally Posted by awpitt

I saw that this morning. They were also talking about how Edmunds' conclusions were based on a lot of assumptions that are in dispute so that $24K per car figure may or may not be accurate.

Sure. The administrations point of view is NONE of those cars would have been sold absent the plan. Edmonds position is based on their intimate historical knowledge of the industry.

Pick who you trust on this issue.

Cash for clunkers could not have been a dumber idea had a bunch of stoned college kids come up with it while watching porn in the student union.

[awpitt]

Originally Posted by Larry Gude

Sure. The administrations point of view is NONE of those cars would have been sold absent the plan. Edmonds position is based on their intimate historical knowledge of the industry.

Pick who you trust on this issue.

Cash for clunkers could not have been a dumber idea had a bunch of stoned college kids come up with it while watching porn in the student union.

I don't buy the Admin's claim either as their claim is just as extreme as Edmunds' claim is.

I'd put the figure somewhere in between.

Edmunds basing it on a comparison of sales of luxury cars and other vehicles not included under the clunkers program and guessing how that relates is a stetch at best. A quarter of a million cars were sold in the first four days alone and Edmunds says a vast majority of sales would've happened anyway? Again, that's a stretch. I agree that there are sales that would've occured with or without the clunkers program but no where near the extent that Edmunds claims.