Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
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A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/22 for details.
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I can feed about 50 people with $10 worth of soup & bread. C4C $3 billion would provide one good meal a day for about 15 million people, for over 3 years.
C4C will be a distant memory in a month, for all but the few that got the handout.
Ain't that the truth! In fact, I think one of the worst things you can do to poor people is give them money. The wino or drug addict out on the street corner is only going to use it to get another 40 or hit or rock or whatever. And just look at how many lottery winners end up being broke after a few years.
Giving money to people who don't have the knowledge or discpline to handle it is just asking for trouble.
AND NOW.....
It's......TAA-DAA
C4R
I might actually try to jump on that one. I've been thinking about getting a new fridge for awhile. The one I have now, I got back in 2003 when my neighbor sold his condo and the new owner remodeled it to use as a rental. They just wanted that fridge gone, so I went over with a hand truck and hauled it across the parking lot from their garage to mine. I guess it dates back to the late 80's or early 90's, so I guess a new one would be more energy efficient.
Years ago, my Granddad used to have one of those old 1950's style refrigerators in his garage, the kind that kids could lock themselves in. We took the door off of it and threw it out in 1994. I wonder if today, an old relic like that might actually have some value? It still worked fine.
**EDIT: Okay, now I see that C4R link coming up as clickable.
Are you serious? This was a shifting of payouts from the welfare system to the tax system. Example: in 1994 single parent w/ 2 kids making 10K got 2,528 negative tax money in form of EIC. In 2009, the 10K earning would now be around 15K with inflation. Negative tax payout w/ EIC, refundable child tax credit, and making work pay is now 7.3K, or close to 50% as a negative tax rate.
Many of the "clunkers" that people got rid of still could get from Pt. A to Pt. B. I was thinking about buying a friend's old Dodge Ram and using it as a plow-truck; but now it's sitting at a dealer's waiting to be crushed. That seems like quite the waste.
BTW: he bought a fairly thirsty Honda Pilot w/his clunker. Paid cash. He would have bought a vehicle later this year without the program. He said it just pulled his purchase forward a few months.
LINK
But in the end, C4C is still a drop in the expense bucket, and is not worth the attention given to it by the alarmist media. It does make a good distraction from real problems, however - maybe that's why it was implemented to begin with...
I could go on about the abuse of EIC for days, but you are correct that this is not the place for that.
Had to buy a new washer early this summer when the old one wouldn't stop leaking. Bought our new refrig 2 years ago, so nothing needed there
Did it have the coils on top of the unit??? I remember my uncle had one of those.
If you don't spend it on highways, you can't just take it and use it for something else, and if Program A indirectly spends more money than Program B makes, that doesn't mean they are related to each other or that this was a deliberate intention. There's no "shell game" about it except in the way the deficit is presently IN A LUMP. That can be quite misleading, that's true.
Similar to calling it auto bailout or cash for clunkers.
Privatizing is often more expensive and less effective than having government do it. (Blackwater may be the poster child). IBM is all screwed up trying to take over social services in Indiana (WSJ). I'm always fighting Blue Cross and I can't call my congressman about them.
In topical news, our CEO keeps getting quoted about C4C:
"Beyond the Monday night closing time, the program has still left consumers with the sense that "it's OK to buy a car now," Cannon said.
"The main question now is 'How fast can everybody restock their inventories?'" he said.
Once that happens, Anwyl of Edmunds.com said he expects car prices to fall quickly. Automakers will need to start adding incentives again to get people to buy all those newly minted cars. Anwyl expects incentives of about $3,000 on average.
"I would wait until probably November," Anwyl said."
Clunkers: Dealers get ready for the 'hangover' (CNN)
No, it wasn't quite that old, as the coils were integrated into it. I do remember it only had one door though, with the freezer at the top and the fridge part on the bottom. They weren't totally separate from each other though. I guess they just figured out a way for it to make the upper part stay colder than the lower.
It was kind of a neat old relic though. I sorta wish we'd held onto it.
When I was a little kid, an old man who lived on our street had one in his garage. My dad was friends with this guy, and we'd visit now and then. That old machine interested me because of the noise it made. IIRC those went out of production around 1935 or so.
Huh?
Anarchist?
They are all "something for nothing" in a sense, or partly.
Specifying government aid programs only for the "deserving" is a very slippery slope, turns out.
1. Ford Explorer 4WD
2. Ford F150 Pickup 2WD
3. Jeep Grand Cherokee 4WD
4. Jeep Cherokee 4WD
5. Ford Explorer 2WD
6. Dodge Caravan/Grand Caravan 2WD
7. Chevrolet Blazer 4WD
8. Ford F150 Pickup 4WD
9. Chevrolet C1500 Pickup 2WD
10. Ford Windstar FWD Van
http://jalopnik.com/5344263/ten-most-traded+in-and-purchased-cash-for-clunkers-c- - ars-almost-over/gallery/
Have to give credit to GM, for being #9 on this list.
OK... it make sense to only pay the last two months of payments.... you would be resposible for returning the lease and making the last two payments. You should have picked up a check for the last two payments at time of delivery.
My understanding of the bill is if a business wants to trade a clunka they can only do it once under the business name . I did not experience any of that because mine were all personal owners of the vehicles being used for CFC.
(Amazed) and :confuse:
Why on earth did no one notice that the trade vehicle being used for CFC was in a business name. It was rule number one. Who ever was on the title will be on the title of the new vehicle. Which would not have made any difference to your daughter because she would have been in a lease and would need to be listed on the insurance as a driver.
What ever dealer you were working with had their head in the sand. I would wait and see what happens or contact a attorney. you should probably contact a attorney.
Now my concern is.... lets say you unwind the deal????? How was your clunka handled while on the dealer property? Was hit with baseball bats? Was it used in a game of bumper cars? Was the body or any parts inside the vehicle stolen or damaged? How is the paint was it dameged by people keying it?
Way to many problems here that the dealer should have seen before you took delivery. Now the rule states that they can pursue you in a court of law for the money..... but what do you really think is going to happen? I really don't know. to be honest I have been waiting to hear these stories because of the pain we went through to get things done right.
Best of luck!
GP
I would bet my bonus they didn't "play dumb".... I would bet on the fact who ever was handling the transaction was "DUMB"
GP
And, the program prompted "lower-middle- and middle-class owners of older vehicles to lever up on debt and depreciate assets at a time when these people should be shoring up their balance sheets in the face of rising unemployment," the analyst added.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-stock-market-sectors-buoyed-by-short-term-ai- d-2009-08-24
So anyone going to the dealers this weekend to see what it looks like?
I'm going to wait until the inventory levels build back up.
I am curious to see if the three car dealers who have my name and number will call me later in the week or next.
The feds are giving the dealers more time to file, since today's rush to beat the deadline crashed the computers (again).
Cash For Clunkers Drives Off, Dealer Filing Deadline Extended (Edmunds Daily)
they are much better than the domestic ones and even if they aren't, everyone thinks they are.
not only that, if your #2 gets a career out of it, they will pay more in taxes than they were fronted for their project, in the long run.
That's my plan too. I figure the dealers will be real hungry sometime between Thanksgiving and the end of the year, since I understand that is a slow part of the year for them in the best of times.
My wife's been bugging me to get something new(er) than what I currently drive. I think she's a little bit (well, maybe a lot) embarrassed to be seen in my '92 SE-R or '87 '325 :P . It's actually a nice position to be in, rather than having to fight with your SO about spending money on a replacement vehicle.
:sick:
I'm not surprised, considering my '76 LeMans probably does more serious off-roading than the typical 4x4 (I went off my gravel driveway and onto the grass this morning :P )
Most people probably buy 4wd vehicles because they thought they were cool, or thought they really needed them, but then it turns out they didn't. 4wd vehicles are often rated 1-2 mpg worse than their 2wd counterparts, so that makes them more desireable as a C4C trade-in.
And, like British Rover said, they made a ton of them, so that means there's a ton of 'em out there with owners just waiting to dump them. Heck, there's an F250 4x4 next door to me, with a for sale sign in the window. Only problem with it is that it wouldn't make for a very good C4C vehicle. For one thing, it's too heavy-duty, with a GVWR of 8600 lb. So I think it can only be traded for another heavy truck...forget about swapping this one for a Prius. Also, I don't think it has insurance on it, and the tag is expired, so I'm sure they'd ding you for the lapse in insurance. I wonder what kind of fuel economy a big brute like that would get, anyway?
I am not surprised in the least. It is the way the Feds do business. You submit 3-4 times and it goes through 3-4 levels of incompetency before they finally decide you are serious about getting what you are owed. Happens in Medicare continually. I will be interested on the statistics of dealerships that go bankrupt waiting for their money. If they were hanging on by a thread as many are it could be the straw. One salesman here claims they were getting paid right on time. He has not posted for a while so maybe he will update us on what he thinks now that the program is in the history books.
I do agree that many people had no need for a 4X4 especially in So CA. Yet a fellow worker that bought a new Tahoe every other year through his brother's GM plan found out it is a tough sell with only 2WD. It was the only Tahoe he had a hard time unloading after keeping it two years. That was all through the 1990s up til I retired in 2006. Now I would not count on it.
"The alarm bells on our nation's fiscal condition have now become a siren," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said. "If anyone had any doubts that this burden on future generations is unsustainable, they're gone — spending, borrowing and debt are out of control."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-08-25-white-house-deficits_N.htm
If a dealer is having that much of a cash flow problem, they can hunt for a loan against receivables like most other retail outfits do. And several manufacturers are floating them cash against their booked deals.
Amen. This is nothing new, though! We've been broke for decades, but this administration has definitely put some huge, super grip nails in the coffin. My great grand children thank you!
DEALERS: -- big story in my local paper....dealers are *very* happy to have had the business, but *very* burned out with stacks of paperwork and the delays. Some claim to be "brain dead" figuring it all out.
Some dealers did record sales, and once the dust settles, they should end up "happy". But for now, they are not pleased with the labor involved to process all these claims.
The only problem is that we are used to waiting on the manufacturer a lot of people get nervous waiting on the gov't but everyone I have ever talked to about gov't work says the pay period is usually about 30 days anyway. We haven't had to wait for 30 days for anything yet. That and in some cases dealers are waiting on double the amount of money they would usually be waiting on. Chrysler matched many of their incentives to the CARS rebates so each one of those deals has double the shortfall.
When I asked last week we had been paid on half a dozen deals but we really couldn't even get anything submitted until a few days after the program went live cause of the system crashing. I think we ended up with 91 clunker deals but 30 of those were done from Thursday to yesterday.
You're agreeing and validating a 3rd hand unsubstantiated 'truth'. Therefore with your further validation then the prior poster's statement, no matter how erroneous, must be accurate.
Now for the real truth. We were paid for our first 15 units 10 days after we filed them. As of now we have more C4C units booked than any other store in a 200 mile radius ...any make ...any brand. We were taking them in as late as yesterday. We are being paid slowly but regularly. Since we had the most inventory of any store in that 200 mile radius we were able to do more business than anyone else. We also have the most exposure of any store as a result of this huge volume.
We will be paid in due course and we will have the most profitable month in the history of the store. Currently we're sitting on 3 days of inventory instead of the usual 27-30 days of inventory. What's not to like?
Save this post.....there will be a C4C sequel soon. It was too successful not to be repeated.
Yes, the large makers are funding the 'clunker shortfalls' at the dealers either for free or at low rates. At any rate it's a tempest in a teapot as regards the cost. If the funding is available even at normal rates then $4000 for 30 days @ 6% p a is $20!!!
Yup, that's a $20 bill. That sounds like a tip for lunch.