‘Clunkers’ Program Hits a Speed Bump

It’s a bad idea, more sub prime temptation upon those who can least afford a car payment.
Clunkers was a stupid idea in the first place.

wakeupmaggy – GREAT POINT – Why don’t we put Barney Frank in charge so he can tell us everything is pefectly fine – the BAM – GOVCO car loan bail out! Great Point!!!!!!!!!!!

youve got to be kidding me….soooo because i make 59k a yr (before the taxman cometh ofcourse) i would not be able to access this program…glad i dont need to anyway, as my 98 sube gets 24combined mpg according to the gov’t bigwigs. still, this looks ominously like someone is trying to kill this program before it gets extended.

I’m for anything that will kill “Cash for Clunkers” what good is it doing anyone? It’s not helping American industry as much as the import car-makers. I have nothing against imports, I’m just saying. It makes no sense. Anyway, I don’t think CARS was for the economy anyway, it’s an environmental thing more than an economy fix. Heck maybe I missed something and that was the idea all along.

Rita,
Actually, the typical millionaire in the US does drive an older used car. Most of the people you see on the road with new BMWs, Mercedes, and Audis are not affluent; they just want to look like they are. I’m not saying all of the wealthy in this country drive clunkers, but there are a fair number who do. Just look at Sam Walton driving his old pickup truck until the day he died.

No seriously, millionaires don’t have clunkers so this is a moot point. To qualify for this program you have to have owned and insured the vehicle for a year-how many people do you know with high incomes that drive cars with a trade-in value less than $4500? They don’t and therefore wouldn’t use this program anyway.

I find it UNBELIEVEABLE that we ever had this program to begin with…Where is Al Gore on this program that damages the environment??? I was shocked to learn that the Cash for Clunkers program requires that every car BE COMPLETELY CRUSHED and no parts can be removed from it!! Useable Tires become trash…can’t save a seat or a bumper… must be crushed !! This is pure craziness and certainly not environmentally sound…next, we are going to see a bill to remove the toxic waste this program causes !

For each clunker, we borrow $4000 from China (that our kid will have to repay) to buy a car from Japan (thereby sending the $4000 over there). Does this make any sense? Why are we stimulating the Japanese economy with our taxes?

What of the waste from destroying the clunkers? The videos of dealerships burning out the engines by removing all the oil and fluids and destroying them- how are we benefiting the environment by doing that?
Sure, they’re clunkers but do we have to destroy them in this fashion, throwing off even more toxins into the air? Are we recycling any of these parts?

2 years from now, We will have the Goverment bailing out the Car buyers, after all the Automotive companies are taking advantage of them.

Dear Idiots in Congress,
If money is flying out the door too quickly (It is), reduce the payout per automobile.

Maybe there a are a few out there driving clunkers, but I live in an affluent neighborhood and don’t know of anyone who would qualify. Most drive cars that either get more than 18 mpg or their car is worth more than $4500. If they are driving an old beater, than they want to and wouldn’t want to use the CARS program to buy a new car anyway.

I just saw on the news that because of the cutbacks and GM, etc. if the 2 billion went in now, people wouldn’t have a choice because there aren’t many American cars out there available. All the money will go to Toyota and Honda, and yes, some are built here too. My 13 year-old Chevy isn’t eligible because THEY say it still gets 24 mph, what it got when it was new. No way.

I can’t wait until these clowns run my healthcare!

I guess this means I will be unable to trade in my 1987 Porsche 911 Turbo for a new Ford Focus

Remember when we conservatives used to joke about the government buying cars for people? It’s come to pass.
I can’t wait to see how many people default on these auto loans, and then see the Democrats blaming the car companies.
I cannot wait.

So does this mean we have to bring our tax forms to the dealership to get our clunker deal? They have sufficiently killed the program-it was already bogged down in paperwork, this should kill it for good!

Don Stewart, “spokesnan” needs a spell check. (End of article)
Pay now or pay later… if people can’t afford the cars without this program, this is no different than “easy money” in the housing bubble – pushing forward demand from tomorrow to today. My advice is use the ‘cash for clunkers’ program via the poor saps using it. Wait about 8 months after all these cars get repo’d.. then go grab a deal.

A completely disgusting program. Steal from one and give it to another for luxuries no less.
Cash for clunkers: It’s our form of representation.

Ken,
Let me EDUCATE you! The bill is for ANY vehicle that meets the MILEAGE definition!!!!!!! People are getting rid of their ’07 vehicles and getting BRAND NEW ONES!
Did YOU know that HUMMERS are on the list of RECOMMENDED buys? The list is from the government. It was on the Drudge report!!!!
You are SO uninformed, it is laughable!!

I hope they kill this bill. I am in the car business, It kills the wholesales of cars and because they takes 250,000 out of the market which creates a inflation because used cars prices will sky rocket, it kills all the mechanics that would work on the older cars , it kills use car lots because there won’t be enough cars to sell, it kills detail shops, paint shops, most of the Clunkers would have resold over and over and now it kills smog shops it already has caused unemployment at the Auto autions because sales are off 35% they laid off 1/3of employees, and it kills sales of new cars in the bad months in oct nov dec jan and beyound because they would have bought in the next 6 months! For every government action to make people feel good, it destroys people business, it hurts the little guys who aucually work for a living! More unemployment when car dealers that would worked on some these cars lay off mechanics, in oct nov dec they will lay off sales people, Service writers, staff, lot boys, detail workers the list is endless. It kill state coffers because these cars could have been sold 2-3 times which is sales tax, and most new car warranties cover everything so the loose for three years parts revenue sales tax. this list could go on for pages the destruction people lives by government interventions. Yes New cars store love it but where will the be in three months no oner comes on the lot. 500,000 more cars off the road if they pass it, and another .5% unemployment!

I don’t think it’s a ploy by Republicans to block the bill when the amendment was offered by … TOM HARKIN.

Yeah, health care reform now. Let’s let these bumbling idiots get their hands sticky with something that matters more than ditching a used car. That makes perfect sense. It’s sure to be better than the Passport fiasco, Katrina, USPS, Amtrak, and Medicare.

How long till we get a Government program to pay the payments for these vehicles when the buyers can’t afford to make them.
Wait aren’t we already doing that by bailing out the banks so they can lend money borrowed from China to consumers and then adding additional money borrowed from China to bail out GM and Chrysler then use more money borrowed from China to subsidize C4C trades in to the Dealerships that take them in.
So why should money borrowed from China also make the consumers payments?

$50,000 isn’t a lot of money. Thus if you make $51,000 you can’t get a “cash for clunkers”? That’s is discriminatory.

Funny, I thought this was an environmental program designed to increase the fuel efficiency of the American fleet.
Turns out, it’s just another wealth transfer. Watch the pigs line up at the trough.
No thanks.

The only people who can get the deal are people with money already.
Good Point Paul…I thought of this very thing the other day.

Hey on the upside. There sill likely be a lot of decent used repos on the market for people like me in a few months.

“The only qualification is that the car being traded in gets less MPG than the car being purchased. i.e. trade in your 07 Suburan XL for a 2010 Lexus SUV Hybrid. Get trade-in plus an additional $4,500 from Uncle Sam!”
It doesn’t work that way at all.
Your clunker has to get 18 MPG or less combined AND the new car has to better the clunkers MPG by at least 3 MPG (or is it 4 MPG?) for the $3500 credit and by 10 MPG or more for the $4500 credit.
You don’t get trade in value from the dealer PLUS the cash-for-clunker credit. You get the cash-for-clunker rebate OR you can trade in your clunker. If the trade in is worth more than $4500 then you trade in the car. It’s simple, other than the government is unable to run the program.
The new car can’t have a value of more than $45,000, so that rules out almost the entire Lexus SUV line.

Yawn! Off to send my Congressman and Senator a love note expressing my disapproval. They are both democrats so I am sure clip art will be involved.

Ok – let me get this straight.
So far, there’s been $1,000,000,000 alloted for the “clunker” program and there have been 23,000 cars put through it. Now they’re out of out of money.
My math isn’t all that great, but as far as I can figure, this comes out to $43,000 per vehicle.
Figured another way – $1,000,000,000 divided up at $4,500 per car would mean that 222,222 cars could theoretically enter the program.
Where’s all this money going?

“My friend and his wife make $ 110,000 between them and own their home outright (No mortgage!)and they just bought a new truck using the stimulus $4,500 dollar rebate!… they are very responsible and hard working people, very good with their money, but still, don’t think they should get $4,500 bucks on the taxpayer!”
Guess what? Your friends ARE the taxpayer! Look at it as they got some of the money back that they paid into the system in 2008. It’s their money, not the government’s money.

And to the person saying that the dealers pay trade-in value plus the government incentive. Yes this is true, but the engines must be destroyed, which seriously impacts any trade in value.

Another stupid ploy. The reason cash for clunkers was in-acted was to get anybody who can afford to buy a car to get off their wallets and buy a car to support the industry. This was never suppose to be a welfare hand out. Stupid stupid stupid.

Millionaires don’t have clunkers-are you kidding me!!!
Posted by: rita sipe | Aug 6, 2009 6:11:54 PM
Rita as Mike points out, I’ve been out of college 29 years and I’ve owned 3 cars in that time. That $4500 is MY tax money.

Well my refrigerator is kind of clunky and I’d like it replaced. How about “Financing for Fridges”? “Dollars for Dishwashers?” “Allocations for Air conditioners”? “Monies for Microwaves”? Shall I go on? Where does this lunacy end? Do people really think the government has money to give away??? Hellooooo, anyone out there remember that it’s not their money, it’s OURS?????

Democrats hate anything American, especially American cars. The Cash 4 Clunkers program gives them an excuse to shred American cars while allowing drivers to use taxpayer dollars to buy foreign replacements!

“And to the person saying that the dealers pay trade-in value plus the government incentive. Yes this is true, but the engines must be destroyed, which seriously impacts any trade in value.”
That is absolutely not true. We just bought a car through the program and I thought the same thing. The dealer set us straight.
The clunker will be scrapped so there is no incentive for the dealer to give you anything at all for the car in addition to the CARS credit because the dealer can’t sell the trade at retail or wholesale. They may TELL you they’re giving you something more for the trade but they’re just tweaking numbers to make you feel good, as car sales people tend to do.

The Democrats are beclowning themselves once again with this idiotic program.

The Democrats and the Obama Adminstration are out of control. I am not a Republican but I will vote that way in the future because these clows are idiots.

So @ $50,000 you are considered “rich”?
Who cares of if those who can afford a new car get the rebate? They are the ones supplying the tax money that the government is handing out! I say, let them recoup what they can before the government gives it all away!

Boy am I glad I got my car clunked early!
I waited all summer to see if that program hit, and sealed the deal. I am not rich, nor poor, just a middle of the road guy supporting a family and working my tail off. Needed a new car anyway this year or next. Timing was perfect, so is my credit, strike while the iron is hot.

I am a millionaire and I drive a 92 Subaru Legacy Wagon with 192,000 miles — bought it new. To young people: drive a clunker, maybe you can retire at 52 years of age like I did (cheap car and great mileage for 17 years, it adds up).
Of course my car doesn’t qualify for this program because it gets 29 mpg highway. So, let’s reward those who have made bad decisions, not those who bought a good vehicle to start with.
Lunacy!

Obama now defines “Rich” as making over $50,000.00 per year. The Federal Poverty Level for a family of four is $22,050.00 per year. This means that ALL the people who are in between are now Middle Class and will be targeted by the Obama Administration for an increase in Taxes to pay for his Multi-Trillion Dollar deficits. Congratulations, SUCKERS!!!

Our elected ones are useless…..what a joke they are. We need a third party.

What happends to the car industry when this program ends??? Can you say “HUGE SALES SLUMP”?…which will again paralyze the auto industry…Another brilliant government “I JUST WANT TO HELP YOU” moment.

making over $50,000 does not make one a millionaire………..government idiots

The Republicans have no say on this procedurally – the Dems have 60 votes, os they can pass whatever they want. This is all about stopping the clunker deal to give the Dems a black eye politically.
If they pass the amendment – the deal to keep the program alive is dead. Imagine the news – “They can’t even extend the program ’cause they want to limit who can get the cars”. Win for Republicans.
If the amendment fails – The Republicans can say “we’re trying to reign in spending & make this deal available to more Americans who DESERVE it. The Dems want their fat-cat buddies to be able to get their rebates.” Win for Republicans.
Folks in the White House must be livid. They are the new “gang who couldn’t shoot straight”.

So someone who makes 45k is going to be helped to buy a car costing 16k. Nice. Didn’t we already do that with the housing?

What about donations to charities?

The average person can generate 75W of power over an 8 hour period. Stop wasting money on cars and get everyone taking government assistance to ride a pedal powered generator 8 hours a day. Just the 34million on food stamps could generate 2.5GW an hour for the 8 hours they pedal. It’s green energy, It’s healthy for people on government assitance, and the taxpayer will get something back for their taxes -> free/reduced cost electricity. It’s a win-win-win.

Yeah, right, because people with incomes under 50K really should be taking on more debt in this day and age. Now my tax dollars are buying new-cars-for-welfare.

effectively a tax increase to people between 50 and 250 k.

Too late!
I just took delivery of my new Ford yesterday!
I made $232,000 last year, but if you want the car back, you’re going to have to come and pull it out of my cold dead hands…

The estimate is that 250,000 “clunkers” will be destroyed as a result of the first $1B program. The average value of these “clunkers” to the poor or the 3rd world or the disabled would be at least $1000.
Thus we are destroying $250,000,000 in value that would otherwise would have found its way into the hands of the poor or disabled that can’t possibly afford a new car.
And the Democrats are suppose to be compassionate? They are suppose to care for the poor? Yea. Sure.
Way to go, Dems! The world is now a quarter of a billion dollars poorer. And by borrowing the money from overseas and paying it back with interest, all of us are even poorer still! Good job!
Soon you will have all of us begging for the scraps from your table and terrified we might offend you by pointing out the truth.

If $50,000 makes me rich…where the heck is my butler…and jet plane…
And govt. want to run health care…really…really…they can’t even run a simple rebate program…

The biggest mistake of the Cash For Clunkers bill was that fact that in the bill the is NOT a stipulation that it is only redeemable with the Big Three. I mean, after all, 2 of the 3 took bailouts, wouldn’t it make sense that if the Govt is itching to spend more money that they would funnel the potential buyers willing to trade their clunker in back to the Big Three? That’s just poor management IMHO. But, as much as I hate to say this, our beloved country has become one giant land mass of mismanagement. After all, that’s the whole reason why we are in this mess in the first place!

Put a stake in the heart of this already stupid idea – borrowing money we can’t repay to buy a new car most people who traded in a real clunker can’t afford anyway. This program needs an early retirement before real damage is done. Half the money is going to foreign car dealers. Only a Congress person could be surprised people lined up for $4500 and desperate dealers are no doubt taking full advantage of the gullible borrowers as well. This recession won’t end until we get a new Congress and a new President – buckle up folks!!

I just heard that the entire cash for clunkers program will save the amount of gas that american’s use in 4 hours…. so whats the point,you might as well driver bigger and safer cars

So your telling me someone with an income of $30,000 a year is going to go out and buy a $24,000 car? Where are they going to get financing? If so are we going to have a long list of bank defaults in the car market the next 6 months?
The cars traded in for Cash for Clunkers are immediately destroyed.. So even if you are dirt poor, or your kids have just got their license.. you will have no chance of buying a car for under 7 grand.. And should you blow an engine on your 1995 model vehicle you won’t find any used parts.. You are stuck with a new engine..
And then kill business for the non-franchised car dealers who can’t participate in the cash for clunkers program. Absolutely silly.

I thought the point of the program was to get gas-hog cars off the road, not to help those that “make less than $50,000″ — a clunker is a clunker. The dems HAVE GOT TO STOP screwing the middle-class!

Cash for Clunkers was/is a terrible in spite of its ‘success’.. It doesn’t encourage buying American cars keeping Americans working and it forces the consumer to buy a new car instead of the choice of something pre-owned which means paying more and having 5-6yrs of monthly payments. In addition when the program ends at some point, the drop off in car purchases will be very dramatic because the the consumer is now conditioned to expect a $4500 cut off the price of a car..

What a boon. Short term good for new car sales but what about next year. How many used car small business owners is the program going to run out of business? Not good for the environment at all when it takes more energy to manufacture a car than is saved. Throwing money at a situation doesn’t solve everything. The more the government meddles the more…..

Millionaires don’t have clunkers-are you kidding me!!!
Posted by: rita sipe | Aug 6, 2009 6:11:54 PM

Oh good, now everyone coming into the showroom I work in has to pass a means test? Do I insist everyone brings in a W-2??????? Just how, in the name of all that is holy, do I verify this? And BTW Senator Harkin, is there a means test for corn subsidies?

This program seems to prey on the people that do not need to take on any additional debt. The people that make less than 50k should most likely not take on debt for a new car. The car will likely depreciate almost the amount of the rebate as soon as they drive off the lot.
Unless they can pay cash and have a very secure financial position I would always advise people to buy a car that is a few years old and has depreciated a bit.
If only there was a recent precedent for the government pushing people into buying something on credit that they cant afford!
Do you think there will be a auto bubble that leads to a large percentage of people defaulting on these loans in a few months?
It also seems to get people into the mentality that we need to look out for how to get ours from the government. I am afraid that this will disrupt the normal market and cause people to make bad decisions, because they need to get their deal while they can.

“i.e. trade in your 07 Suburan XL for a 2010 Lexus SUV Hybrid. Get trade-in plus an additional $4,500 from Uncle Sam!”
Not so, you get no so called ‘trade-in’ the 3500 or 4500 is all you get. The dealers cannot resell the old car, the engine has to be ruined and it has to be destroyed.

all these programs do is control everyone’s behavior. we’re all robots.

We cannot afford the payments on a new car and we make over 50K. A few years ago in New Orleans and big cities the government offered $100 if citizens turned in a gun, then the guns were melted down and we were one step closer to gun control. Today, our old reliable cars are being “recycled” and destroyed. Where will we get parts for our old suburban? These new cars can’t even pass a bumper test, and we have to give up being safe as we drive down the road. This is no different from Cuba or communist governments.

Has SANITY left the planet ? My God…what have we become…. Conservatism is common sense defined…
Liberalism is common sense denied…

I think the Republicans are actually brilliant on this one. Too bad it passed. This would have been a very simple lesson in economics for the Dems. If you limit the clunker cash to those earning under $50,000, you may have a hard time finding people who can actually afford a new car. Therefore, no stimulus to the economy. Larger wage earners with cash burning in their pockets keep the economy moving. Unfortunately that’s the way it works.

This program will be an even bigger joke if this amendment is included. So, only broke people will qualify for the program…should they be buying new cars to begin with?

The CARS program is a sham. I’ve been shopping for a new car for the past few months and since the ‘clunker’ program is in place there are no longer any deals to be made. For an instance — last month I was looking at a Chevy Traverse at a local dealership. I was able to talk the dealership down to $25K. I visited the same dealership two weeks ago and the price is now $28.5 with a ‘clunker’ rebate.

I say set the minimum income at $250,000 per year. These are the people who pay the bulk of the taxes. Our millionaire son and daughter-in-law have two clunkers; they don’t want their teenage kids riding around in non-clunkers! The $50,000 people can’t afford the new cars anyway.

I wish Obama would have required the program be limited to the purchase of American Cars. We did just Buy GM. Now we are paying people to buy a HYUNDAI Obama has no business sense.

So… someone who makes $50,001.00 is a millionaire?

No tax hikes for families making $250,000 or less. Now clunker money for those only making $50,000. One minute program is to stimulate car buying and help clear the inventory, now a program to help moderate income families buy a car. It’s coming – the middle class are going to get the shaft again.

Guess that’s what happens when you rush legislation through without studying it.

It was only a matter of time. The program’s not really meant to get gas guzzlers off the road — it’s to placate those who vote a certain way!

It’s amazing how little most people understand about the population of this country who are truly wealthy. So many sit there and vilify a group of people they know absolutely nothing about, and their self-righteous ignorance is the primary reason why they will never achieve that demographic themselves.

To rita-sipe who thinks millionaires don’t have clunkers. I know three who do. I have a very comfortable neighbor who had his clunker towed to the entrance of the dealer. He got it and it huffed and puffed (barely) into the dealership to qualify. At least we are entertained as the country is going into hock. What next, Pelosi on food stamps?

$4,500 for people that pay ZERO federal income tax for a new car
$8,000 for new home buyers
Too bad I’m the idiot that worked hard, finished school, applied myself, got promoted, saved, paid my bills, and bought a house!
What the hell was I thinking back then?

I am so happy that my tax money is now leaving my pocket so someone (I do not know) can get $4,500.00 of FREE MONEY to get a car and then have that money go to Japan and ultimately back to the gazillionairs in China.
I just realized that I am working for the company store.

If the media were in an alternate universe and support Republican causes, the headline would be ‘DEMOCRATS VOTE TO GIVE CLUNKER $$$ TO THE RICH!’
Of course, there is no such universe.

I’ve heard that it takes the energy equivalent of 1,000 gallons of gasoline to produce one new car. So, if we add another $2B to this program, we are wasting another 444,444,444 gallons of gasoline. This program will only help destroy the environment!

why am I paying for anyone’s car? No one paid for mine.

Dumb program that takes tax dollars from the poor and gives them to people that can actually afford a new car of which 4 out of 5 are foreign. Another unsustainable artificial mini-bubble that will result in decreased sales down the road. Silly really, and we are destroying decent assets that are paid for only for our citizenry to take on more debt. Why politicians?

I wrote the original cash for clunkers program for the Senate in 1979. In a nutshell, it was a variable and increasing tax credit that increased based on the difference in mpg of the car traded and the car purchased. The minimum was $100 for a 1 mpg difference, to $9000 for a 30 mpg difference. Foreign made cars only partially participated in the plan. There was much more, but that is the basics. The problem with this plan is there is no incentive for the purchaser to greatly increase their mileage, and no incentive for the mfg to increase theirs. With the variable credit, there is an incentive on both sides.

It may sound like a good idea, but what about all of us who have no jobs?
Is it fair we cannot take advantage of a good deal?
I have a clunker I would love to turn in, but having no job, I do not qualify for a loan.
Plus I just watched on CBS news that now the cash for clunkers is such a huge hit, the dealers are now raising all the prices.
How is this helping out any of the people who really would like to take advantage…i.e. the jobless?
Hopefully once the jobs start up again, the government will be nice and let the rest of us people be able to get a deal too.

If one assumes that this is being done in part to reduce CO2 and ‘help the environment’ then the logic is pretty blasted questionable.
It COST a lot of CO2 (energy) to build every one of those cars. It costs a lot of energy to build each of the new cars. For each car scrapped, a new one must be built, thereby expending all the CO2 involved in the process. You scrap valuable vehicles who’s continued use would avoid the additional CO2 necessary to create a new car, and you are likely wasting more CO2 right there than would ever be made up by the gain in mpg difference between the two cars.
On top of that, you scrap valuable used vehicles that people WHO CAN’T AFFORD A NEW CAR even with the clunker program could move up to, and that may well be more efficient than the older vehicle they would get rid of. Tell me the logic there? The program forcibly takes tax dollars from citizens who never got a say in the program, to give to people who can afford new cars while discriminating against people who are too poor to afford those new cars. Plus you are also removing the very used vehicles that would be a step up for those poor people from the market.

The only qualification is that the car being traded in gets less MPG than the car being purchased. i.e. trade in your 07 Suburan XL for a 2010 Lexus SUV Hybrid. Get trade-in plus an additional $4,500 from Uncle Sam!
Posted by: The Explainer | Aug 6, 2009 6:15:38 PM
—————————-
Actually the vehicle has to be less than 25 years old (what sense does THAT make??), must be drivable, and for a car, get less than 18 mpg avg EPA est mileage. Then the amount you get depends on how much more the car you buy gets over the mpg of your trade in. Trucks and SUVs have lower mpg requirements and lower mpg difference between trade in and new also.
Key point: You do NOT get trade in value on your car plus the clunker amount. You only get the clunker amount. Plus whatever incentives the dealership is offering.
Note, apparently there is a HUMMER that qualifies as an acceptable new car in the program. Oh, that is one other limitation on the program, the new car you get can’t cost more than $45,000.
Still, to me, the whole thing seems pretty illogical, twisted, and unfair to many folks both private individuals and in business. (and no, I’m not and nor have I ever been involved in auto related industry)

Ummmm…. We The People are Uncle Sam! WE ARE PAYING FOR THESE PEOPLE TO GO BUY CARS!….. THE BILL WAS STUPID AND WAS CONJURED UP BY A 31 YEAR OLD KID RIDING THE COAT TAILS OF HIS PARENTS.
RINO!!!!!

If one assumes that this is being done in part to reduce CO2 and ‘help the environment’ then the logic is pretty blasted questionable.
It COST a lot of CO2 (energy) to build every one of those cars. It costs a lot of energy to build each of the new cars. For each car scrapped, a new one must be built, thereby expending all the CO2 involved in the process. You scrap valuable vehicles who’s continued use would avoid the additional CO2 necessary to create a new car, and you are likely wasting more CO2 right there than would ever be made up by the gain in mpg difference between the two cars.
On top of that, you scrap valuable used vehicles that people WHO CAN’T AFFORD A NEW CAR even with the clunker program could move up to, and that may well be more efficient than the older vehicle they would get rid of. Tell me the logic there? The program forcibly takes tax dollars from citizens who never got a say in the program, to give to people who can afford new cars while discriminating against people who are too poor to afford those new cars. Plus you are also removing the very used vehicles that would be a step up for those poor people from the market.