Cash for Clunkers: Winners and Losers

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by manasecret

And that's just one charity in Houston. Why oh WHY did the gov't have to make the cars undriveable??? Why not just immediately donate them to charities?

Not to get partisan, but ask Pres. Obama's environmental advisors. Half of the goal of this program was to get gas guzzlers off the road, so they opted to destroy many perfectly good cars rather than have them go to charity or even sell some in bulk to developing nations to help defer some of the costs of the program.

Economically, while this has been a temporary boon to car sales, this is also hurting used car dealers, repair shops and many believe even retail as many people have opted for the large purchase, reducing their available funds for smaller ones.

The funniest part is, the companies this was supposed to help, (GM and Chrysler) still took a bath on the deal...