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Post by Original Admin on Aug 15, 2009 17:13:09 GMT -5
Over here - our wise and superlative government has recently introduced a scheme where we get 2000 pounds for our old cars (detail im not so sure about).
I am wondering what this "cash for clunkers" is, has our soppy UK government copied something from the US?
What is "cash for clunkers"?
Cheers Mark
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Post by texaswoodie on Aug 15, 2009 17:41:09 GMT -5
Same thing Mark. If you have an old car that gets rotten mileage, you can buy a new one that gets good mileage and they will pay you $4500 for your old one. That is if you meet all the requirements and send them pictures of your latest colonoscopy. Who copied who, I don't know. Government is the same all over the world.
Curt
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 15, 2009 18:03:25 GMT -5
Mark, *L* Don't know which doofus is copying which but it's actually worse than what Curt has stated. Actually, the dealer gives the new car buyer from 3500 to 4500 off the price of a new car that fits the governments requirements. Many of the new cars are indeed kind of gas guzzlers like Chevy pickups etc but most are not anyway. Said money is being taken from the working taxpayers of course or being billed to future taxpayers in the form of national debt. Then, the car dealer fills out five hours worth of claim forms and sends them to the government which apparently, in many instances, denies their claims and leaves the dealer holding the bag and resubmitting form after form hoping to be repaid. It's a great deal for a new car buyer as they are getting a government subsidized new car and so the government ran out of money for the program and had too few people to service the program. They then had to hit the taxpayers up for a couple billion more and three times the new government workers for the program. But heck, what's a couple billion more and a new government bureaucracy huh?...Mel
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chassroc
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Post by chassroc on Aug 17, 2009 7:52:55 GMT -5
Similar program mark..probably modeled after a successful German program.
I'm upset because I'm a responsible citizen who has always purchased fuel efficient vehicle.
As a result I dont get the $4500 off the vehicle I just purchased.
True story, I'm at the dealers a few weeks ago and I'm asking the salesman for an angle to see if I can buy someone else's inefficient auto and claimmy $4500 as a trade-in. The Saleman tells me he doesn't know much about that program or understand it too well. Oh yeah! Like any car salesman in this country has no knowledge of anything that makes it easier to sell cars, unreal!
Charlie
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grayfingers
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Post by grayfingers on Aug 17, 2009 18:55:38 GMT -5
Perhaps the German scheme is not totally successful...I would bet this probably will happen here as well. www.ft.com/cms/s/0/070713fc-81fd-11de-9c5e-00144feabdc0.html"Criminals are buying up tens of thousands of German cars meant for the scrapyard and exporting them as they profit from and subvert a government scheme intended to bolster the sale of new cars, a German police trade union has warned.Some 5 to 10 per cent of cars that have been supposedly written-off have instead been transported to Africa and east Europe, it added."
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Post by texaswoodie on Aug 17, 2009 19:02:48 GMT -5
I had no idea stupidity is contagious.
Curt
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grayfingers
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Post by grayfingers on Aug 17, 2009 19:05:21 GMT -5
Yeah, guess it is Curt.... The fuel savings are pretty much nil... news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090805/ap_on_sc/us_cash_for_clunkers_pollution"Compared to overall carbon dioxide emissions in the United States, the pollution savings from cash for clunkers do not noticeably move the fuel gauge. Environmental experts say the program — conceived primarily to stimulate the economy and jump-start the auto industry — is not an effective way to attack climate change. "As a carbon dioxide policy, this is a terribly wasteful thing to do," said Henry Jacoby, a professor of management and co-director of the Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change at MIT. "The amount of carbon you are saving per federal expenditure is very, very small."
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Aug 17, 2009 19:37:26 GMT -5
Well, as expected, Obama has gone public and says the cash for clunkers program which started with about 300 voucher reviewers, then proposed a thousand, now says he's adding "thousands" of new voucher reviewers and crowing about how many jobs he's creating. Guess he figures temp jobs for voucher reviewers is really cool. Forget taxpayers fund these new make work jobs in a taxpayer funded new car subsidy *cough* " Automaker/autoworker union bailout program". Give yourself a pat on the back Mr President. You've created another stupid out of control growth government program. You should be oh so proud. NOT!....Mel
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chassroc
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Post by chassroc on Aug 18, 2009 8:34:11 GMT -5
Man the critics are everywhere!
let's give something a chance before panning it.
In a plan like this there are lots of unscrupulous people looking to take advantage of you and me...so Obama's plan has fraud checks in it, requiring the dealers to keep good records and claims to be rejected that are obvious attempts at fraud. Then you guys whine that dealers have to wait awhile to get the money from this! be real people.
Most of you are against the notion of climate change and deny its existence, then try to use it as a reason to pan "Cash for Clinkers"...unreal!
My main reason to be against it is that it rewards bad behavior (of the people in this country who drive gas guzzlers) not the good behavior of those who dont...but it is obvious that we've got to change the behavior of the irresponsible, not the other way around.
true story: just a few years ago..when I worked in Boston, there was a guy who lived out of state and bought a new Big Chevy SUV to drive to Beantown every day...alone. I asked him why he chose to do this...his reason was that he sometimes drove his son and his friends to sports practice and needed the biggest vehicle he could find. If this seems like rational behavior to you , I apologize for my insensitivity.
Charlie
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grayfingers
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Post by grayfingers on Aug 18, 2009 8:45:24 GMT -5
Charlie, Point taken. However, though I do not subscribe to the global warming myth, I also believe in being responsible in dealing with the environment. Though I do not believe we are the primary cause of any perceived climate change we do need to be responsible in our use of resources.
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Post by akansan on Aug 18, 2009 9:09:31 GMT -5
I wasn't against the program when it was announced. I found it a little naive, but I wasn't against the program. My truck, which would technically qualify for the program, is worth 2.5x the value at trade-in than the government would give me. This program got older "gas-guzzlers" off the road, but no recent vehicle.
The more recent news of used car lots and parts dealers struggling with inventory, the more recent news of additional billions of dollars thrown into the program, that's aligned me more with those against the program. It's a perfect example of an exercise in non-clear, non-long term thinking. It was marketed as a way to get gas-guzzlers off the road and save the environment. In reality, it was a way to throw additional money at the struggling automarkets...and created two other separate struggling markets as a result, both of which directly impact the true demographic that the government was supposedly trying help with the program.
As an upside, my truck is now worth 8-10% more than what it was at the start of the summer...
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Post by texaswoodie on Aug 18, 2009 9:26:01 GMT -5
I wouldn't trade my pickup for a Preeass no matter how much the government wants me to.
Curt
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