Cash for Clunkers has now been over for an entire week, and the numbers are rolling in on the tremendous effect it had on the automobile sales industry. Many analysts are now criticizing the program for its shortfalls, and the inability of the program to send help where help was needed the most (American auto companies). However, from my perspective there were no pitfalls to the program, and more programs like this should continue to be developed to haul our economy out of the depths of hell.
My father has been a car salesman for the past twelve years or so, and the man is a spectacular story teller. He can turn your average car showroom tale into a comedic routine. The stories slowed in the past year to say the least. His remarks usually extended no further than to put another “bad day” on the list. Cash for Clunkers revitalized his spirits and of course…his stories. Everyday I would hear reports from him of a full showroom, and how many cars he had sold. This was tremendous for someone like him that could make a decent buck from a few sales. When the first billion dollars ran out in less than a week and the two billion dollar extension was announced I never heard him happier. I’m positive every other car salesman in America felt the same way as well. This is why the program was a success. Cash for Clunkers did not just let the major automobile companies feel the effects of the stimulus. It was the everyday Americans who saw their jobs at the car factories brought back, or the truckers who found themselves swamped with deliveries from all the car sales, or even the “low-life” car salesman who needed a little boost after a year of drudgery and despair who felt the stimulus shake up their lives for the better for a change. After an eight year time period when the only Americans who saw incentives from the government were those in the top 5% of income earners in the US, it was about time the middle-to-lower class man got a bone thrown his way.
Sure the program turned out to sell more foreign made cars (Toyota, Honda, & Nissan selling around 40% of all the cars), but the positive results should be spread worldwide. We rely now so heavily upon these foreign investors and manufacturers, and believe me they rely even more on US consumers, that average Americans don’t realize this economic downturn will only turn itself around with a worldwide return to prosperity. If American automobile companies believe they should have sold more cars than the Asian manufacturers I think they are crazy. The products American car companies are putting out are simply inferior and often over priced. It is the price they pay for keeping a majority of the labor within the US, which by no means is a bad thing don’t get me wrong, instead of outsourcing or simply moving their headquarters to cheap labor markets.
Now the true test will come as the program has ended and we will see if Americans will continue to trade in their older gas guzzlers for new “greener” automobiles. Or whether the Clunkers program will have such a negative effect on the car industry that it puts the industry worse off then where it started, which some analysts are proposing. I am going to say this will not happen. Because one of my father’s renditions from his Cash for Clunkers tales was centered on the fact that these dealerships had to turn away so many consumers whose cars simply did not qualify for the Clunker program. As one man tried to trade in a relatively new vehicle which got nearly 35 miles to the gallon, my dad had to turn the man away, “This isn't 'Cash for Dunkers', this is 'Cash for Clunkers'.” These same individuals will be back to trade in and buy new cars, with or without such a great incentive like the Clunkers program soon enough, and rest assured the car industry will climb out from under itself with all the other Americans who are struggling to make ends-meat right now.
