Cash for clunkers program Dangerous????

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by MrIcky

Cash for Clunkers is a large part of why Ford and Chevy finally had a good month last month.

It's probably the first thing that the Gov't has done from a financial stimulus point of view that has actually stimulated any finances.

It's a little sad on some vehicles I guess, but I wish they would have done this instead of some of the other half baked stimuli they attempted in January.

I wouldn't give a few days worth of the program credit for boosting the total monthly sales figures. There were around 30k cars sold with the program, divide that up by market share and it might be 6000 at GM and Ford over the course of 4 days ... thats nothing compared to total volume sold. Plus a bunch of those sales would have been made anyways, not all, but who's gonna turn down an extra few grand on trade in?

The real test will be August.

[MrIcky]

Originally Posted by DGthe3

I wouldn't give a few days worth of the program credit for boosting the total monthly sales figures. There were around 30k cars sold with the program, divide that up by market share and it might be 6000 at GM and Ford over the course of 4 days ... thats nothing compared to total volume sold. Plus a bunch of those sales would have been made anyways, not all, but who's gonna turn down an extra few grand on trade in?

The real test will be August.

Why not? GM's Sales Analyst did: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=a3PfAN0nL3Is.

Local dealers are saying in several news reports that this has significantly improved small sedan sales.

A Ford spokesman stated was on a radio interview and he stated Cash for Clunkers has been a huge help as well (I think that was Fox). I can't find the radio quote online- but he was very specific on the boost Cash for Clunkers provided.

***Edit, found it: George Pipas, Ford's top sales analyst says:

"I think probably this is the greatest one-week energy conservation program that may have come out of Washington or anywhere else," said George Pipas, Ford's top sales analyst.

Without the clunkers program, July sales probably would have been about the same as June, Pipas said."

*****************

Also: GM estimated that Cash for Clunkers boosted industrywide sales by 118,000 vehicles (source: CNN) so it's a lot more than 35k units.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090803/.../us_auto_sales

[DGthe3]

Ok, but compared to June Fords sales were up 10k units, GM was 13k, Toyota was 43k, Honda 14k, Nissan 12k, and Chrysler 21k. Thats a total increase of 113k vehicles (maybe more or less due to rounding).

I'm just following info that I've found regarding cash spent in June. 110M spent does not equal 100k cars since the minimum rebate is $3500. There is some lag between trade in and government rebate, but I doubt it is hundreds of billions of dollars. Its impossible for me to get consistant data on this, the more I look the more varied it becomes.

[MrIcky]

I just read random internet quotes and regurgitate them so I feel smarter.