Sorry to break it to you AUH20, the ENTIRE program is a giant fraud. You are sucking up capital the rest of us have saved to put to use in other areas. Instead, that capital was robbed from us by the government to provide incentives to other people to go further into debt AND destroying a perfectly good asset at the same time. And if the government isn't taxing us to produce this money, then it is further enslaving our progeny with additional mountains of debt and higher inflation.
The government would have been better off having people dig ditches and fill them in again. At least that wouldn't destroy good assets. But that wouldn't have paid off the UAW and the ditch diggers union isn't a particularly strong voting bloc.
Our government is criminally insane.
I notice that nobody can refute my assertion that a lot of the “examples” of how this program is a nightmare are just total lies or exaggerations. Trading in a car with 24 mpg on another with this program? Lie. Trading in “practically brand new” cars on this program? Lie. Dealers not getting paid? The program has only been in effect for ONE WEEK. Will some not get paid? Maybe,but probably not if they follow the rules? But complaining because they haven’t been paid one week into the program? Get real. They still are accepting the clunkers, also, so they can’t be TOO worried. They will follow what their corporate headquarters tell them to do if they don’t listen to stupid rumors. I did have problem with one dealer - they actually asked me to give THEM a check for $4500 until they got paid from the government, then they would give me my check back. Yeah, sure, I’ll give you that- they said “well, we won’t cash it”. They had no answer when I said OK, I won’t sign it. This dealer actually called me the next day and said I could come in and not have to write a check, it was satisfying to tell them I bought at a dealer in the next town. As to some people saying I used their tax money to buy my car, well that’s right. If you drive on an interstate highway you use MY tax money, if you rely on our military to provide protection for our country you use MY tax money, etc. etc. I’m glad my car qualified for the program, I wish I could use it again for one of my other cars.