Cash for Clunkers Success

[Riot]

Originally Posted by JJP

Just wait to see auto sales 6 months from now, or a year down the line. They will be down. People who were considering getting a car (those who qualified) just bumped up the purchase date to take advantage of the free money. Rob future sales to prop up current sales. Another bandaid solution.

That doesn't make any sense to me. Car sales have been way down. People were waiting, holding off to buy cars. All this did was unleash the pent-up waiters that hadn't bought in the last few months, encouraging them to go ahead and jump into the economy.

I don't see any reason to assume these were "future" buyers. Why do you also assume that car sales will dry up in the next year?

BTW, "cash for clunkers" programs were used last year in several European countries. That's where the idea came from. Worked just as well as it did here. Subsequent sales didn't dry up. Which countries economies are turning around before us?