As a co-architect of the federal Cash For Clunkers (CFC) program and advisor to various congressional offices on the issue, it is gratifying to see how quickly it has been adopted by the American people. CFC achieves multiple goals -- it stimulates auto sales while increasing the efficiency of the U.S. fleet.
Congress passed the program in June of this year and it went into effect this past weekend. The $1 billion has now been used up in one week! That translates to more than 250,000 guzzlers and pick-up trucks traded-in for more efficient cars.
In the original bill, HR 520 and S. 247 the sponsors were aiming for higher efficiency gains. Those gains got watered down in the compromise bill of HR 2751. Now that it is clear how popular this program is I urge Congress to re-up the program with increased miles-per-gallon gaps between the vehicles traded in and bought.
The Cash for Clunkers program in Germany initially received 1.5 billion euros and when that was used up received another 3.5 billion euros. That translates to a $6 billion CFC program for a country with a much smaller market than the U.S.
Prior to the CFC program, automakers were selling cars at an annualized rate of 9.5 million vehicles for 2009. That compares with sales of more than 15 million cars only a few years ago. CFC will boost auto sales if we continue the program.
Given the dire state of the automakers in the US and the need to move away from oil before it spikes back to more than $100 per barrel we should add billions to this program.
American have voted with their feet and their wheels - they want to dump their clunkers and get more
efficient. They want to do their part to stimulate our economy - now it is up to Congress to do its part.
UPDATE - The house passsed a bill giving the program an additional $2 billion of funding. Unfortunately, they took it from the renewable energy loan guarantees. We should take the money from TARP - not from clean energy. Now the focus is on the Senate who was not consulted by the House before the House left town for weeks of vacation while consumers are feeling the pinch.
The author is Chairman of SmartTransportation.org
Follow Jack Hidary on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jackhidary
Scenario:: The ecomomy goes into the toilet
Solution:: Imediately throw money into the failing banks that pay them their paychecks
Scenario:: Taxes on the wealthy are looking to go up
Solution:: Demand that this must not happen calling it "Redistribution of Wealth" yet secretly laughing because they just did that putting the poor americans money into the banks that pay them. If questions arise on the subject label it as "Too big to fail"
Scenario:: Someone finnally realized that just handing out $300 for nothing, or paving and reconstructing airports that no one really uses doesn't stimulate the economy,but if you help them buy more fuel efficient cars it will! LIGHTBULB!
Solution:: Drag your feet, piss whine and moan that this isn't going to be effective altho it has already proven itself. Start making up reasons why this isn't going to make the U.S. better like "They are not buying cars that are MORE effcient so we don't see why we should continue funding this"
Because ::
You can't have a use for a private plane Pelosi, if you don't have good enough private air strips all over the country.
Everyone else in the U.S. had health coverage, they would be just as good as you, yet we pay for your damn health care you morons!
If you actually stopped and thought about what you senators and congressmen do on a daily basis to the american people It would closely resemble rape,
Low in 1999 at $1.25
High in 2008 at $4.05
Average gas price *$2.80 per gallon over last 10 years.
Gas Mileage Average of Clunker 15.8 mpg.
into *100,000 miles = 6,329 gallons of gas purchased in life of the Clunker.
6,329 gallons x $2.80 a gallon is $17,721 for Clunker spent by consumer on gas.
Lets say Gas Mileage Average of New Car bought at 25 mpg.
into 100,000 miles = 4,000 gallons of gas purchased in the life of the New Car.
4,000 gallons x $2.80 a gallon is $11,200 for New Car spent by consumer on gas.
$17,721 - $11,200 = $6,521
That's a savings to the New Car Consumer of $6,521
x 250,000 cars sold = $1,630,250,000 total gas money and consumption saved in a little over 2 weeks.
The US spent $1B
And has delivered 630,250,000 millions in savings to New Car Buyers and has delivered 1B in incentive to auto dealerships, parts manufacturers, and auto makers creating jobs while lowering demand on gas, and lowering overall emissions and pollutants dramatically. The profits made by the Auto companies from selling 250,000 new cars at an spit-ballpark average of $20,000 per car at a 10% margin is half a billion dollars.
for complete article see http://www.christianmatthews.com/christianmatthews.com/newsmatthews/Entries/2009/8/3_just_the_gas_man.html
If you look at the German Cash for Clunkers program, it has received more than $6 billion to date since February. We are a much larger country and so should think about funding to at least that level.
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/01/beijing-to-drivers-stop-driving-we-pay.php
Anybody ever worries that the Austrian import in California is slashing SCHIP which serves poor kids? What color are those kids, BTW? Obama or Bush, some things just don't change.
consumers are voting to go with vehicles that will cost much less to operate.
pls check the data before you criticize the program.
i really doubt congress and senate will move to quickly on this program, it is not war, or the banks,
and it is becoming obvous we need a revamp of congress and senate, to help out the president cause those guys are totally complicit in this and yes timmy needs to go, or get some ovesight,
he si too much busienss as usual
As far as the “Cash for Clunkers” it would absolutely the right thing to extend the program. But take the opportunity to raise the bar on the mileage requirement. And by all means let’s “buy American”.
Politicians --- sit up and take notice. Let’s move on health care, alternative energy sources, and lots more. We are ready.
http://www.frtv.org/2009/07/auto-industry-cash-for-clunker/
1) It should be extended - maybe transfer TARP or 95% of the stimulus that has been untapped.
2) It should be applied to AMERICAN MADE CARS ONLY - just like Germany did in narrowing a similar program to German cars. I do not consider cars whose "final assembly" occures in USA from Asian made motors and transmissions to be American cars.
3) MPG needs to be adjusted for age of vehicle; my 13 year old Pontiac just slightly missed the mark. But it does not get the same mileage it got when brand new - no way, no how.
One example I saw was the Camry Hybrid vs. the Fusion Hybrid.
The Toyota is assembled in Kentucky while the Ford is assembled in Mexico.
The Ford gets better MPG though. So do you discourage the better fuel efficiency to encourage the domestic assembly? I don't know how their parts compare in terms of country of origin though, but they likely both have significant foreign content (e.g. the NiMH batteries as well as other parts).
How about a replacement of older, non-energy star appliances, air condos, water heaters, furnaces, etc subsidy?
There are still program in various states for getting a rebate to buy more effiicient appliances. check with your local utility.
Kudos on the program's success. Anyone thinking there's no "pent up demand" for new cars in the US better think again ...sell 'em at a good price and people will line up to buy.
But --- next time try to 'architect' a program lasting more than four months and one which can be re-funded, reasonably, as necessary.
Ands don't let those congressional republicans ... from southern states with import car and parts plants ... try to ruin the bill. They almost killed it this time; they're on a mission to destroy Detroit ... and with it the UAW.
Steve Parker
Huff Post automotive blogger
I’ve heard countless stories of people with 20 year old cars that get 10 miles a gallon (regardless of what fueleconomy.gov says their mileage "should" be), who hoped to trade in those cars for a hybrid, getting 20 or more additional mpg than they're currently getting. Yet you disqualify those cars (because of The Chart), while okaying transactions where a trade-in that gets decent mileage is given a voucher to buy a new car that gets only a relatively small increase. Shouldn’t the goal be to get actual gas guzzlers off the road while stimulating sales of new cars that get seriously great mileage?
Why not create a method for dealers to test the real mpg of the trade ins (it's not to much to ask dealers to do something for all the new biz our tax dollars are stimulating for them) -- thereby qualifying the real clunkers -- then weight the subsdidy to a greater degree against the mpg of the new car -- which should be a lot higher than you're currently allowing.