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any PSer bought a new car under the cash for clunker program?

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Dancing Fire

Dancing Fire

Super_Ideal_Rock
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Apr 3, 2004
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this is a good deal wish i had a car to trade-in. this 3 billion dollar is well spent by our government instead of giving it to the auto Co. hope we get a $500 for old frig program
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cuz mine is 22 yrs old.
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I personally worry about this program. I thought it was great until my DH and I got to talking about it. Mark fears that people who have older cars and no payments may take full advantage of this....but get caught, similar to the mortage bubble, with payment they haven''t budgeted for or cannot afford in the long run. What if someone looses their job after just buying a new car? Our economy is still settling. He thinks that in the next year or so the repo rate will go up. I mean, $4,500 is a nice chunk of changes on a DP for a new car...but if you were to get a 30,000 SUV or van, your payments are still going to be over $300.00 per month--that''s a lot for someone who hasn''t had a car payment in a long time, you know?

I just hope people aren''t getting swept up by the "little" numbers and are paying huge attention to the bottom line. I''d for someone to loose their car.
 
I would take advantage of this program if I had an old car, and I would have paid cash for this new discounted car... but I don't currently own any car that I can trade in.
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Didn''t this program already get pulled by the government? I am pretty sure I heard that somewhere that it was going to end REALLY soon...
 
Date: 8/1/2009 8:29:06 PM
Author: IloveAsschers13
Didn''t this program already get pulled by the government? I am pretty sure I heard that somewhere that it was going to end REALLY soon...
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The funds have already been exhausted, problems are ensuing the dealership as they are having problems getting reimbursed by the government now.
 
My car is eligible at 16 mpg
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and we actually spent a good half day crunching the numbers for a new Smart ForTwo. They''re also running a special for $99/month payments, but the APR is not as good as we could get from our bank, so we would do it through there instead, which would mean letting go of the cheapo monthly payment deal... that combined with increases to our car insurance, unfortunately it just doesn''t make sense for us right now. I''m bummed, it would have been a good opportunity to retire my gas guzzler.
 
Yeah. Great. Cash for your old car. Woo-hoo.

Can you tell I work in a dealership by the excitement in my post?

Trust the feds to implement a program they haven''t thought out thoroughly, or funded completely, or even made clear and definite rules, restrictions, and procedures for dealers to follow. Well, they did - - but they''ve already had to change the rules, restrictions and procedures. And find more funding. Off to an auspicious beginning. Absolutely.

And so far, they haven''t started paying the dealers for their costs. We have to drain the fluids, seize the engines up, get them ready for salvage, and contact a salvage company. Time consuming, and not cost effective for us. Neither is the submission of 20 separate pieces of documentation needed for the reimbursement on just one of these deals.

Yeah. Great. Cash for Clunkers. Woo-hoo.
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My nephew did, and I thought it was great. he was driving an unsafe car with horrible gas mileage that broke down constantly and was costing a lot on repairs. Because of the economy he wasn't able to get the type fo jobs that had been available just a couple of years before, so finances have been tight and the emergency and unexpected nature of the repears has been stressful. And he's been worried his car troubles would affect his attendance at work, and there is so much competition these days for jobs that having your car be the reason you lose your job is just terrible. He got a very fair amount for his car and bought a nice, SAFE and most of all dependable new 4 door small sedan. And while he's making payments on it, he's improving his credit to boot, so that he can buy a home in the next couple of years. I think making car payments and improving your credit is much better than making emergency repairs to a car with no future. Overall, a huge win win.

I know there are concerns over this and other programs, but for him and others like him (my niece was in a simlar situation, though she's still in school and working two jobs, and she's thinking about doing this too and we are encouraging her to) I think it's been a postive program.
 
Doesn''t the old car have to have 18 MPG or less? Too bad for me because my 1993 Honda still gets a wahoo 22 MPH....
 
My mother just bought a new car with the CFC program. She and my father had an old truck that they used to take trash to the dump and haul leaves, etc. She traded that in and combined the rebate with a rebate from the car manufacturer, credits from their GM card and a few other things and ended up with a new Chevy HHR for $10k (MSRP was $22). So it worked really well for her.
 
My husband is thinking about it. His current truck (1990 Toyota Pick-Up) gets about 16 mpg but it only has 135k miles on it and it runs great. We're about to close on a house so the timing is not great, but hopefully I can convince him to go for it.

Some of the deals are awesome-I know GM, Ford and a few others are offering to double the credit you get which would make a huge difference on a $20k car. And a local Toyota dealership is offering $4500 off a new or Certified Used Toyota whether you have a clunker or not, which makes me wish I had a need for a new (and by new I mean Certified Used Toyota) car! However, I barely drive my car since I got my scooter, so it makes absolutely no sense for me to do it.
 
Date: 8/1/2009 11:59:28 PM
Author: musey
My car is eligible at 16 mpg
14.gif
and we actually spent a good half day crunching the numbers for a new Smart ForTwo. They''re also running a special for $99/month payments, but the APR is not as good as we could get from our bank, so we would do it through there instead, which would mean letting go of the cheapo monthly payment deal... that combined with increases to our car insurance, unfortunately it just doesn''t make sense for us right now. I''m bummed, it would have been a good opportunity to retire my gas guzzler.
Click to expand...

Slight threadjack...Musey, your car insurance would be higher for a smart than your current car? I think I remember you have a Jeep or something? I find that surprising.

I am also super tempted by the Smart offer, and the program in general since DH has a big truck that I HATE that gets a measly 11 MPG, which makes it expensive as h3ll to drive anywhere anyway.
 
Date: 8/2/2009 12:05:18 AM
Author: HollyS
Yeah. Great. Cash for your old car. Woo-hoo.


Can you tell I work in a dealership by the excitement in my post?


Trust the feds to implement a program they haven''t thought out thoroughly, or funded completely, or even made clear and definite rules, restrictions, and procedures for dealers to follow. Well, they did - - but they''ve already had to change the rules, restrictions and procedures. And find more funding. Off to an auspicious beginning. Absolutely.


And so far, they haven''t started paying the dealers for their costs. We have to drain the fluids, seize the engines up, get them ready for salvage, and contact a salvage company. Time consuming, and not cost effective for us. Neither is the submission of 20 separate pieces of documentation needed for the reimbursement on just one of these deals.


Yeah. Great. Cash for Clunkers. Woo-hoo.
20.gif
Click to expand...

I bought a new vehicle 2 days ago, and unfortunately my old car didn''t qualify as a clunker. We were talking to the finance guy about the program, and he basically said it was a pain in the butt to process. I got the impression that he really didn''t like doing the paperwork for them.
 
I just returned home from a ride in the new MINI my carpool buddy bought through the cash for clunkers program. Sure beats the (very) old Caravan he traded in on the MINI!
 
Date: 8/2/2009 4:02:14 PM
Author: Miscka
Date: 8/1/2009 11:59:28 PM
Author: musey
My car is eligible at 16 mpg
14.gif
and we actually spent a good half day crunching the numbers for a new Smart ForTwo. They're also running a special for $99/month payments, but the APR is not as good as we could get from our bank, so we would do it through there instead, which would mean letting go of the cheapo monthly payment deal... that combined with increases to our car insurance, unfortunately it just doesn't make sense for us right now. I'm bummed, it would have been a good opportunity to retire my gas guzzler.
Click to expand...
Slight threadjack...Musey, your car insurance would be higher for a smart than your current car? I think I remember you have a Jeep or something? I find that surprising.
Click to expand...
My insurance will be more for anything new vs. my 11-year-old Jeep. A new Smart would be nearly three times the blue book value of my car, which by itself would bump up our insurance costs.

My husband switched from an eight year old Ford Taurus to a three year old Prius in December, and our insurance jumped up of course. It's not about the type of car in our case, but the value of it.
 
Sorry, Musey, that was a dumb question. Ah well
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Date: 8/2/2009 12:05:18 AM
Author: HollyS
Yeah. Great. Cash for your old car. Woo-hoo.


Can you tell I work in a dealership by the excitement in my post?


Trust the feds to implement a program they haven''t thought out thoroughly, or funded completely, or even made clear and definite rules, restrictions, and procedures for dealers to follow. Well, they did - - but they''ve already had to change the rules, restrictions and procedures. And find more funding. Off to an auspicious beginning. Absolutely.


And so far, they haven''t started paying the dealers for their costs. We have to drain the fluids, seize the engines up, get them ready for salvage, and contact a salvage company. Time consuming, and not cost effective for us. Neither is the submission of 20 separate pieces of documentation needed for the reimbursement on just one of these deals.


Yeah. Great. Cash for Clunkers. Woo-hoo.
20.gif
Click to expand...


i have nothing to do with the car industry, your post sounds right on to me. i agree this may be something nice, if it was funded by real cash, not the national debt, and it was better planned. tax payers can not afford to subsidize cars after all we already have. that means i won''t be applying for this program.
 
FI just did this on Saturday. He traded in his unsafe ''93 ford ranger and was given $4500.00. He bought a brand new Hyundai Accent and ended up getting a $1500 rebate for that. So he got $6000.00 off a $15,000 car. This program was excellent for a lot of people.
 
Date: 8/3/2009 10:59:12 AM
Author: Miscka
Sorry, Musey, that was a dumb question. Ah well
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Click to expand...
Actually no, you inspired me to actually look up the numbers... because my husband was just assuming that our insurance would bump up with the Smart (by an prohibitive amount), which I didn't realize, I thought he'd actually called and asked. So out of curiosity, I looked into it and found out that it would go up by a whopping $120/year
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not much in the grand scheme of car insurance, especially with the coverage we have.

So now we're back in "maybe" territory
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and I've spent most of my free moments today perusing a smart car forum to learn all I can about them. It's still just a maybe, but maybe's better than no!
 
yay!!! So jealous. DH and I were in definite "YES" for a smart car, got approved and everything through the dealers, but then we found out that DH''s Dad accidentally let his insurance lapse for a month (DH is in grad school and that was the "help" his parents offered), so now we are ineligible for CARS, even though DH bought the car and paid it off on his own years ago. Ugh.

So, what that means, is that you need to do it and post pics and tell us all about it!
 
musey, I forwarded a link to my husband about that SmartCar deal. Very intriguing! We both love those and a friend of mine has one and loves his. Please keep me posted on what you end up doing!
 
Date: 8/3/2009 12:26:39 PM
Author: girlface
FI just did this on Saturday. He traded in his unsafe ''93 ford ranger and was given $4500.00. He bought a brand new Hyundai Accent and ended up getting a $1500 rebate for that. So he got $6000.00 off a $15,000 car. This program was excellent for a lot of people.
Click to expand...
My DH also traded in a Ford Ranger, but his was a ''98 with 180,000 miles. Honestly, the gas mileage wasn''t that bad, because it was a manual and he is a conservative driver, but the air conditioning no longer worked, it desparately needed new tires, and the transmission could have gone at any moment. He got $3500 towards a new bare-bones Chevy Colorado (he has to have a truck). Including the Chevy rebate, it cost $11,800, which is actually $400 LESS than he paid for his Ranger in 1998!

People can say whatever they want about the program, but all I know is that the trade-in value of his Ranger was only about $600. This one was a no-brainer for us.
 
I''d do it, if my car were eligible. My ''92 Nissan 240sx gets 22MPG, though
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. 193000 miles and still ticking.
 
Date: 8/3/2009 8:29:28 PM
Author: thing2of2
musey, I forwarded a link to my husband about that SmartCar deal. Very intriguing! We both love those and a friend of mine has one and loves his. Please keep me posted on what you end up doing!
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Will do!! We rarely get this deeply immersed in a decision process without going ahead and taking the plunge, so it''s looking pretty good right now... I''m trying to remain slightly doubtful so I don''t get my hopes up
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crossing my fingers!
 
Date: 8/2/2009 10:08:40 PM
Author: musey
Date: 8/2/2009 4:02:14 PM

Author: Miscka

Date: 8/1/2009 11:59:28 PM

Author: musey

My car is eligible at 16 mpg
14.gif
and we actually spent a good half day crunching the numbers for a new Smart ForTwo. They''re also running a special for $99/month payments, but the APR is not as good as we could get from our bank, so we would do it through there instead, which would mean letting go of the cheapo monthly payment deal... that combined with increases to our car insurance, unfortunately it just doesn''t make sense for us right now. I''m bummed, it would have been a good opportunity to retire my gas guzzler.
Click to expand...

Slight threadjack...Musey, your car insurance would be higher for a smart than your current car? I think I remember you have a Jeep or something? I find that surprising.
Click to expand...

My insurance will be more for anything new vs. my 11-year-old Jeep. A new Smart would be nearly three times the blue book value of my car, which by itself would bump up our insurance costs.


My husband switched from an eight year old Ford Taurus to a three year old Prius in December, and our insurance jumped up of course. It''s not about the type of car in our case, but the value of it.
Click to expand...

My car is eligible at 16 mpg
14.gif
and we actually spent a good half day crunching the numbers for a new Smart ForTwo. They''re also running a special for $99/month payments, but the APR is not as good as we could get from our bank, so we would do it through there instead, which would mean letting go of the cheapo monthly payment deal... that combined with increases to our car insurance, unfortunately it just doesn''t make sense for us right now. I''m bummed, it would have been a good opportunity to retire my gas guzzler. [/quote]

Slight threadjack...Musey, your car insurance would be higher for a smart than your current car? I think I remember you have a Jeep or something? I find that surprising. [/quote]

My insurance will be more for anything new vs. my 11-year-old Jeep. A new Smart would be nearly three times the blue book value of my car, which by itself would bump up our insurance costs.


My husband switched from an eight year old Ford Taurus to a three year old Prius in December, and our insurance jumped up of course. It''s not about the type of car in our case, but the value of it. [/quote]


I just traded in a 2000 Olds Alero with a Kelly Blue Book value of $1500 for a 2010 Chevy Equinox. Our insurance premium only went up $60 a year.
 
well apparently new funding has been added but I won''t be joining into this program and encouraging more subsidizing and adding more to our national debt already-
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I like Dave Ramsey's "Clunkers for Cash" program. Drive a clunker and save your cash.

My sister just participated in this and bought a brand new Equinox what she considers a deal ($22K). I just saw the exact same vehicle she bought, just 2 years older and with 18K miles on it for half the price.
 
Date: 8/5/2009 11:05:46 AM
Author: NewEnglandLady
I like Dave Ramsey''s ''Clunkers for Cash'' program. Drive a clunker and save your cash.


My sister just participated in this and bought a brand new Equinox what she considers a deal ($22K). I just saw the exact same vehicle she bought, just 2 years older and with 18K miles on it for half the price.
Click to expand...

Did she buy a 2010 Equinox? I just bought one last week. I was going to buy 2009, but I hated the interior of it. The 2010 has been totally redesigned inside and out and is sooo much nicer.
 
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