Cash
for Clunkers greenlighted; rev up the car buying frenzy
June
19th, 2009
By Barbara
Kessler
Green Right Now
Congress has approved what will be a big bonanza for
car buyers — not to mention car dealers — with the
“Cash for Clunkers” bill that cleared the Senate on
Thursday.
 Once
signed by President Obama, who pushed for the law, car
buyers will be able to get up to $4,500 toward more
efficient new vehicles (like the Honda Insight shown
here) when they trade in their aging gas guzzlers (or
even just their aging cars that get so-so mileage). Cars
must pre-date 2002 but not be older than 1984 models.
Ironically, this generous program would not be
available had it not been for the short-sighted American
car manufacturers who made so many gas gulpers, their
heedless American customers and also the torpid economy.
None of those players gets chastened or overhauled or
even pinched in this deal.
Consumers, in fact, get rewarded for not paying
attention earlier. The forward-thinking person who
bought a Civic years ago can’t trade it in now because
they get good gas mileage!
Ironies aside, the Clunkers law should help get some
high-emissions vehicles off the road: Clunkers have to
get 18 mpg or less to qualify as trade-in candidates.
The new car or truck you choose to replace the clunker
must provide an improvement of 10 mpg to qualify for the
$4,500 voucher. If you improve your mileage by
just four mpg, you would qualify for a $3,500 voucher (which
is just about the weeniest of requirements, indicating
that this is really all about triggering new car
purchases and not so much about improving the Earth’s
atmosphere.)
There are likable aspects to this bill. It helps
people with old cars that aren’t worth much, and in
this economy, that’s apropos. In other words, if your
trade-in is worth more than $4,500, then it doesn’t
qualify for the program, and you probably don’t need
the help anyway. Keep your fancy-pants aging gas guzzler,
you, you, SUV person!
And with all this sad news about car dealers losing
their dealerships, tanking Michigan towns, and idled
factories, this law will spread some dollars around.
Rather like George Bailey handing out a few needed
dollars to the savings and loan customers, instead of
letting the whole system crash.
And yet, it feels like once again we’re shopping to
save ourselves.
For more info on the Cash for Clunkers program, visit
the website.
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