Transportation Department figures on the “clunkers” incentive, which offered consumers up to $4,500 when they traded in their older vehicles for more fuel efficient new models, showed on Wednesday that total sales amounted to just under 700,000 with $2.87 billion in rebates. …
According to the figures, Toyota’s “clunkers” market share was 19.4 percent, compared with its year-to-date U.S. share through July of 17 percent. Honda captured 13 percent of the “clunkers” market compared with 11 percent for the first seven months of the year.
Nissan accounted for nearly 9 percent of “clunkers” sales compared with a January-July share of 7 percent. Hyundai was the biggest winner with a 7 percent share compared with 3 percent for the year through July.
Ford’s “clunkers” sales topped 14 percent, compared with a 15 percent share for the year through July. GM reported 17 percent of “clunkers” business compared with 21 percent from January to July. Chrysler’s “clunkers” share was 6.6 percent, compared with 11 percent otherwise.
Over 600,000 used cars were destroyed in this process, and as Hot Air points out that will have a big impact on the parts business:
Like all government programs, the short term gains will be more than offset by the long term damage.Update: Commenter Daft Punk lists the top ten models destroyed in C4C:
- Ford Explorer 4WD
- Ford F150 Pickup 2WD
- Jeep Grand Cherokee 4WD
- Ford Explorer 2WD
- Dodge Caravan/Grand Caravan 2WD
- Jeep Cherokee 4WD
- Chevrolet Blazer 4WD
- Chevrolet C1500 Pickup 2WD
- Ford F150 Pickup 4WD
- Ford Windstar FWD Van
All of these are American models. Now, what happens to the companies that make parts for these cars? Under normal circumstances, people would replace parts as they fail while keeping the cars on the road. Suddenly, the after-market parts industry has 700,000 fewer cars for maintenance. And since Americans mainly traded American cars for foreign vehicles, that parts market will not bounce back for years.
Smooooooooth move.
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1 comment:
Duh! We here in America are dumb, dumber and really dumb which is think might compute into being plain stupid.
We get rid of American cars and for what? Foreign Vehicles which result in more profits for foreign markets, not the U.S.A. and we wonder why we have high unemployment, inability to find products made in the U.S.A., and finally a huge decline of the U.S. Dollar value. This Cash for Clunker program certainly hasn't helped us much, however, if it would have stipulated that it was only good on the purchase of an American made vehicle we just might have helped the American consumer out. I guess we might say this is just one more bungle for the Obama Administrtion in their rush to do something for the economy without actually thinking.
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