As I see it,it did a couple things. 1. It scrapped out some decent used cars & really messed up that market to some extent. 2. It took taxpayer money from some who didn’t need a new car or couldn’t afford one & helped others into a new car. Why should one taxpayer’s money be helping another into a new car?
Used cars got more expensive in the wake of Cash For Clunkers and stayed there. It’s very hard to find a decent car for less than $5K or so now, and the good, reliable ones run around that price even with 200K miles on them.