I posted this on another thread but it’s highly relevant to this type of program:
It’s the fallacy of the broken window. A thug breaks a window in a store. The store owner buys a new window. Presto, the economy has benefited because the glass seller has a profit. Should we go around breaking windows (or destroying cars) to help the economy?
NO!
The storeowner would have bought something else with the money for the window, say a new accounting program to make his life easier. He would have had the window and the new accounting program and been better off, while his spending would have been the same.
In this case a new car is sold and an old car is destroyed. The tax money to overpay for the old car and destroy it could have been spent on something useful — so the economic effect would be the same — and we’d still have an old car on the road for people that can’t afford a better auto.