Cash For Clunkers- I was unaware

[Finnster]

Originally Posted by JThiessen

Ok, gotta take offense to that comment. Lotta other reasons for people to have vehicles that qualified other than "being a dipshit".

IMHO, the reality of it is that the intent of the whole program was to get gas guzzlers off the road, period. A by product of it was that it helped the auto manufactures somewhat.
I have a hard time believing someone was dumb enough to dump any vehicle worth 30K for the 4500. Consider me an internet skeptic on this one.

Let me qualify that statement a bit, then I'm going to drop it as I don't want to start a political argument.

I am referring to those who bought some huge car they didn't need/could not afford primarily to drive themselves to work, and then started complaining when it cost $100 last year to fill w. gas, and now dumped it at a big loss to trade into a more efficient car. I do think the overall structure of this program rewarded irresponsibility. Why can't I trade my car in for $4500 to get a new commuter car? Because I bought a reasonable car to begin with. It would be more fair to open the prog for everybody and not limit it based on silly reasons, of which it will have negligible carbon impact due to the wastefulness.

As said, I bought a new (barely used really) xover SUV in Dec for a steal as I have 2 kids now, and really needed a bigger car for trips as our current cars just don't fit all the kid junk (let alone our dogs) you end up hauling around to go anywhere. I did keep my current beater to drive to work and rack most of the miles up on as the other is too expensive and wasteful just to drive one person off to work. There are times you need a bigger car or truck, but its hard to feel sympathy for those that didn't plan well, but got rewarded for bad decisions and hardship.