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U.S. car dealers and their perspective customers are racing to meet a Monday deadline now that the government plans to end the popular Cash for Clunkers program, which offers rebates of up to $4,500 to car buyers trading in older, fuel-thirsty vehicles.
You'll see "We extended Cash for Clunkers" promotions starting any minute now, if such promotions haven't already started. Trade in your old piece and we give you $4500 for it!!! Rocket science here. The only difference is, instead of destroying a car, it's going to be re-sold. And of course, the promotion won't be "Government Approved" (TM). A lot of automakers were advertising $4500 back for models that didn't qualify for the program anyway.
In other words, another gimmick will surface. A lot of cars didn't qualify, so the program didn't directly influence the owners of these cars. Associated sales gimmicks may have, and may continue to.
Last edited by 43north87west; 08-21-2009 at 09:09 AM..
It does stand to reason that new car sales, at least of the cars like the Focus that were frequently picked for "clunker" replacements, is going to fall off, at least for a while, I think the people who wanted to get one now have one.
Although it's always risky to make predictions, especially about the future...
I went to my local Ford dealer thinking about turning in my 1997 E-150 Van with a 4.6 v-8 engine. Was told I could get a F-150 or a small car. Price for the F-150 is around $22,000. The saleman told me all the dealers went up on all the new vehicle prices before the program started. So I'm not really saving alot of money after all. I have decided to keep my van and it has only 70,000 miles on it and because I don't use it very much anyway.
From what i saw dealers were dealing at the first but as sales went up they stopped giivng deep discounts . Its just the markets and I know people who got very good buys on their small cars when they cated soon enough.Saw some getting 8000 off sticker altogether with a 500 value trade in.
Seems some dealers were making customers sign an agreement that if the dealer did not get paid by the government the customer would be liable for the $4500!
In England they had a similar program going, $3500 if the car was over 10 years old.
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