Don’t call them slow. It’s just that their base philosophy hinders their judgment.
I speak, of course, of the media
It sounds like such a good deal.
Devise a program that takes gas-guzzling older cars and trucks off the road while simultaneously stimulating sales of new cars. Give federally supported inflated credits for trade-ins. Spend $1 billion, or $3 billion, and Greater Detroit will live again.
The only problem is, say independent used car dealers, the program is eliminating the supply of moderately priced vehicles – transportation cars, go-to-work cars, survival cars.
Clunkers maybe, but those clunkers have long supported a niche among dealers and a niche among buyers.
Fewer cars means higher prices. Fewer cars means tougher times. The unintended consequence of the “Cash for Clunkers†program is taking the used-car business into waters perhaps as choppy as those faced by new car dealers at the height, or the depth, of the latest recession.
“It’s harder to find the cars we’re looking for – under $10,000,†said Gary Johnson Jr., whose family owns GT Auto Sales on South Tacoma Way. “It’s harder to replace them. They’re not getting traded in to the new car dealerships. We’re not getting the trade-ins, and we’re not getting them at auctions.â€
I’ve seen this point brought up by folks such as myself at sites across the leftosphere.
The reaction from leftists is either “So what.” or “Tough shit.”
Part of the lack of empathy seems to come from their belief that the people who can’t afford a new “green” car should just be riding public transportation. The other group splits it between that and their disbelief that someone would want a used car.
I actually got one guy to admit that his first car was bought for him, new from the dealer, by his parents. When I explained that that just doesn’t happen to everyone, he acted stunned. I was waiting for an accusation along the line of “parents who wouldn’t buy their children a new car just don’t love them enough to buy them a safe, modern car”.
My first car cost $800 in 1988. I talked the guy down from $1000. If you try to buy below $2k these days in the Seattle metro area you’re lucky if the thing will run long enough to get it home/to the shop and it sure as shit won’t pass the state’s emissions testing.
I pity the kids whose first year of getting to drive to school will be the 2009/2010 school year. Their selection will be diminished and they’ll get less for their dollar. Ain’t government great!
We’re the Government: We don’t care. So you have to.
I’m usually the first to laugh at the conspiracy theorists, but I’m not so sure this is an unintended consequence. It ties in too neatly with the Watermelon’s (green on the outside, red on the inside) hatred of automobiles and the independence that goes with them.
It’s totally intentional.
Take away the cheap cars and you have to bus it, hoof it, or bum rides. Bam, instant captive audience.
My first car was a 1978 Dodge Aspen I got for $150. It was rusty, beat up, and the transmission shift collar had slipped so it liked to pop out of gear at odd times.
Come to think of it, I did not pay more than $500 for any car I owned until I was in my 20’s. Of course, few of my cars lasted more than a year before I’d beat them to hell and back, but I learned how to drive a wide array of vehicles, I was able to wreck those vehicles without being overly concerned about the damage to them, and I developed an impressive shade-tree mechanics skill set that serves me well to this day.