Cash for Clunkers Program

All across the nation, consumers who were originally quite enthusiastic about the federal “cash for clunkers” program are increasingly feeling disappointed and let down. Expert analysts say that this program is going to fail in its expectations to reduce harmful gas emissions as well as potentially stimulating the depressed economy.

However, the facts are quickly emerging that the new rules instituted by the cash for clunkers program will only help in a very minor way the fuel economy and will instead cost the consumer much more than he or she would have originally wished or wanted. While the Obama administration is hoping to increase the sales of automobiles over the next several weeks by offering rebates, many experts say that his “CARS” program, or Car Allowance Rebate System, will only sell cars that would not otherwise be sold.

In fact, according to certain well respected websites and sources, this new program will only stimulate the purchase of roughly 50,000 cars that would not have otherwise been bought. Doing the math properly would then yield the fact that the $1 billion dollars invested in the program would be spending roughly $20k to help facilitate the purchase of each car.

The government is in essence, according to expert reports, paying consumers to do something that they would be doing anyway. The environmental impact of the program is fairly negated as well, since it limited by the amount of funding and the fact that consumers are only going to be buying cars that they were going to anyway.

However, official groups such as the Consumer Federation of America have been describing the program as something which will basically be good for consumers but will have a negligible impact on the environment.