Archive for the ‘cash for clunkers’ Category

When Edmunds.com released its report on the Cash-for-Clunkers program on Wednesday, saying it cost $24,000 for each vehicle that wouldn't otherwise have been sold, it must have expected pushback.

It may not have anticipated, however, a sharp retort from the highest office in the land: the White House. But that's what it got yesterday, via a pithy entry on the White House blog calling the Edmunds analysis "implausible" and "faulty".

It not only refuted Edmunds' contentions by citing a report from the Council of Economic Advisors, but accused Edmunds of releasing sensational Clunkers analyses solely to draw media attention.

The White House...

The Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) was proposed as a necessary and cost-effective way of stimulating the economy and the car industry when it was being debated this summer. Once it went into action, it proved hugely popular, needing emergency funding expansion to meet the demand. But what was the ultimate cost?

Turns out it was about $24,000 per car sold, or per clunker turned in, depending on how you look at it. That's about $6,000 below the industry-wide average transaction price--meaning the CARS program was about 20% cheaper than  buying the cars that wouldn't otherwise have sold outright.

Whether that's a good deal or not depends...

The Cash For Clunkers, or CARS, program was rather successful in collecting old, junky cars--but it's having a hard time getting rid of them. And that is translating into a lot longer--and potentially dirtier--process than had originally been anticipated.

Recycling the clunkers cars is one of the core tenets of the program, which was founded at least partially on the pollution reduction from getting so many old, inefficient cars off the streets. Its stimulus effect was certainly welcome by the industry and public alike, and now that the sales portion of the program is over, all that's left is the cleanup, but the recyclers are struggling to...