No shocker really. remember what I said about creating artificial demand? the longevity and awareness of fuel-efficient cars has lasted shorter than I would have even predicted (2 months) http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/2d134318-aecb-11de-96d7-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss&nclick_check=1
Well, look on the bright side! The government destroyed 700k or so cars that could have been on the used car market!
You are right that the demand is soft - because everyone that wanted one pretty much got it when the big incentives were offered - but making the leap from that to the idea that awareness of fuel efficient cars disappeared makes not sense - this is a leap of logic that just does not make sense. Since the incentives did not help the gas-guzzlers - it is not a surprise that their percentage during the C4C was down. The real success of the awareness can not be calculated immediately - only within a year or two...
the total savings in global warming from the clunkers were cancelled out by the Obama's trip to Copenhagen to pitch for the olympics! huzzah!
...when no one remembers this program. like I stated, fuel efficiency awareness is caused by the price in fuel, not because the government gives a one-time unsustainable subsidy on it.
Detailed look at the numbers actually looks pretty encouraging. Other than the C4C months - this is the largest number of companies that increased their sales compared to a year before for quite some time: http://www.autoblog.com/2009/10/01/by-the-numbers-september-2009-post-c4c-were-all-alright-edi/
GM has themselves to blame. I wanted to buy a truck this weekend, but GMAC was being stingy on their financing. I was even willing to put a decent amount of cash down, but they said no. Screw them. (And yes, I was just going to upgrade from an 07 to an 09 and add a few options.)
I'm guessing GMAC is still waiting to recover C4C cash. From what I've read, dealerships are very low on financing bankroll due to a slow recovery of C4C money as well as lower movement on the used car side due to destroying the clunkers. I'm guessing you would get a great deal on cash-only in this environment.
You mean the government can't just decide which markets to artificially create, and then have a sustainable market? Get outta here!!
I don't want to talk about cash for clunkers anymore after hearing some of the cars that morons gave up to participate in this program. I don't want to get into it but some of them were great cars. Gone forever thanks to some kenyan and his buddies.
WHAT WILL WE DO WITHOUT THOSE CARS HOLY BUTTFUCKING SHITCHRIST WHAT WILL WE DO WITHOUT MORE FUCKING CARS?!?!?! god.
Yeah, they made more cars because of this bullshit. Next time someone designates a building as a historic building why don't you go burn it down? I am talking about cars that people probably only put 2000 miles a year on, they must have been left wing nutjobs to turn in a 87 GNX buick for this shit. I am still happy overall as this means more new cars with insurance for me to fix, I feel bad for the independent repair shops that will lose out on fixing these older cars. Oh well, sux for them.
Well, those cars destroyed has driven up the price of all used autos. Who buys used autos? Poor people. CFC stuck it to those people who need the most help.
