Cash for Clunkers Rant

Now I know I haven't written about the CARS program (aka Cash for Clunkers) before today because I was hoping I would be wrong and it would do some good. Of course I don't agree with the government giving money to individuals to turn in their cars and buy more fuel efficient ones but I was desperately hoping something positive would come from it and I would be wrong....... too bad I wasn't.

Anyway, what everyone is talking about today is how wildly successful this program has been seeing that funds ($1 billion) were expended in 4 days (more or less). If the goal was to use that money as fast as possible, then yes it was a resounding success (too bad this is the way most people think). But really the goal was to provide a financial incentive to people who are driving older cars to turn that car in and buy a new, more fuel efficient car. An additional hope for this program was to help GM, Chrysler, and Ford move their inventory (a neat marketing trick from GM's management aka Obama).

There are two major issues with these goals the first problem being with getting the old cars off the road. It takes a lot of energy and effort to dismantle and crush a vehicle. You have to dispose of all the plastics, recycle every possible component, and dump the rest in a landfill. This entire process uses massively more energy than can be saved by a marginal increase in gas mileage. Also, let's not forget that a huge amount of energy also went into building the new car that person is going to buy (an even higher amount if it is a hybrid, the production process for hybrid batteries is grossly environmentally degrading which is why I have no respect for any hybrid driver for it shows their utter lack of intelligence or willingness to research a major investment. A real environmentalist does not drive a hybrid). So there are two huge energy usages in the creation and destruction of the cars and the trade off is a small (like 5mpg) increase in gas mileage. That does not make sense to me and what I would really like to know (and trust me, the government did not research this before they initiated this half cocked program) is how long you would have to drive a vehicle that gets 5 mpg more in order to balance out the energy costs associated with the destruction of the old vehicle and the creation of the new one?

Second major issue: helping domestic auto makers. It makes sense to me that the US government (which has a vested interest with GM) would like to keep domestic manufacturers afloat, they would like some return on investment like any investor with a pulse would. So we would expect that the numbers would show that the cars bought with money from the CARS program would mostly be made by GM, Ford, and Chrysler. Well the numbers are in!!!! But guess what, O! won't share them with us. They would rather us commit to giving them another $2 billion for a Round 2 of the program before releasing the figures (what happened to transparency?). WHO ARE YOU KIDDING? No one in their right mind would buy a car from any of those companies when their respective futures are so uncertain? Who would buy a car with a ten year warranty if the company can't promise it won't go under in the next 6 months? And let's not forget that American cars are generally sh*t anyway (some of my friends own American, sorry guys but your cars rank somewhere between gum on the bottom of my shoe and my flaking skin as a result of my latest sunburn).

This is like telling your parents that your grades are low because they don't let you stay out late enough on school nights and if they would just let you stay out until 2am instead of midnight, your grades would go up (I use metaphors because most people are too dumb to understand what I'm actually saying..... and I think I'm really clever).

So let's let this program die. The money is going to foreign companies when the intention was to keep to here. It is probably going to be detrimental to the environment in the long run. And it uses our money for it all. So please just stop.

^ Credit Nate Beeler for this cartoon. Nate, you often brighten my morning. Thanks so much.

(This was reproduced without his written or implied permission, please don't sue)

Update!!!

Here is a list of the top ten cars turned in to the government under the CARS program and it proves my point about American cars being absolute crap (I have to admit, I did love my first car to death and that was a 1997 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I still miss it today)

1. 1998 Ford Explorer
2. 1997 Ford Explorer
3. 1996 Ford Explorer
4. 1999 Ford Explorer
5. Jeep Grand Cherokee
6. Jeep Cherokee
7. 1995 Ford Explorer
8. 1994 Ford Explorer
9. 1997 Ford Windstar
10. 1999 Dodge Caravan

Here is a list of the cars bought under the CARS program. Honestly, it isn't as bad as I would have thought but it still ain't pretty.

1. Ford Focus
2. Honda Civic
3. Toyota Corolla
4. Toyota Prius
5. Ford Escape
6. Toyota Camry
7. Dodge Caliber
8. Hyundai Elantra
9. Honda Fit
10. Chevy Cobalt