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Yes, Obama's Cash for Clunkers program is definitely one reason used cars are in increasingly scarce supply-- and much pricier than they used to be. But another reason relates to something liberals despise: "trickle down" economics or, in respect to the increasing scarcity of used cars, the fact that low-income used car buyers do better when wealthier Americans (those who can afford new cars) do better. The reason used cars have gotten increasingly scarce and expensive is the subject of a Wall Street Journal article, "Amid New Car Boom, Used Cars Are Gold." Its observations are illuminating: The shortage of...

"Well, I want to tell you something: Hurricane Obama -- this irene. Whatever this Irene is going to cost us, it pales in comparison that has been the Hurricane that is the Obama administration. "The Obama administration, the Hurricane has cost us far more. And Byron York, while I was gone, great story, fabulous story on the source of all this deficit spending under Obama. The $4 trillion that they're spending. Everybody's focused on entitlements and he correctly points out it's not entitlements that have busted the budget here. Entitlements are known, the spending in entitlements. "What's been added to...

SHANGHAI — China has announced a plan to pay up to nearly $2,800 for old vehicles headed to the scrap heap, in a move aimed at perking up slumping sales in the world's largest auto market. Vehicle owners can get subsidies of between 11,000 yuan-18,000 yuan ($1,700-$2,800) for old farm vehicles, city buses and heavy trucks, said a notice issued today by the finance and commerce ministries. The plan coincides with reports that China's vehicle sales fell by 14 percent in May from the month before after years of mostly double-digit growth. China's auto market surged to become the world's...

If you've tried to buy a used car recently -- a lot of people are finding it hard to get what they want. There is something of a used car shortage going on. News 10NBC found out there are a number of factors why there are fewer used cars out there. One is -- more people are holding onto their new cars longer but also, there are fewer rental cars coming on the market and fewer people are leasing vehicles so therefore -- fewer of those cars are out there. Joan Kamisch is trading her 2000 Chevy Lumina for a...

Tell everyone you know! This government with its "Cash-For-Clunkers" program has deliberately ruined automobile transportation for the poor. Lower middle class and poor individuals nationwide simply can not find reasonably-priced cars to buy in which to transport themselves to perform necessary functions of life, ie: work, school, groceries, healthcare visits, etc. because the cars they can afford are gone. The price of gasoline has skyrocketed and all smaller cars with reasonable gasoline mileage have gone up so high in price the poor can NOT afford to buy them. Some folks are already beginning to ride bicycles to work (really). What...

Victor Dial writes in today’s WSJ, Ou Est Le ‘Cash for Clunkers’? Not surprisingly, the idea of subsidizing new cars came from France. You probably wonder who’s Victor, and what does he have to do with cash-for-clunkers? Most Americans wouldn’t know it, but the Cash for Clunkers model originated in Europe in the mid-1980s. I was in charge of sales and marketing for Peugeot at the time, and the government-incentive idea was co-developed by my company, Renault and the French government. Merci beaucoup for that beaut, Vic! Now, here’s what happened: the automakers wanted a handout, and the labor unions...

Bang! Pow! '60s-Style Batmobile Replicas for Sale by Claudine Zap • September 28, 2010 DC Comics has officially licensed Fiberglass Freaks to re-create, down to the flame throwers (working, natch), the futuristic car that the Caped Crusader drove in the 1960s TV series. For $150,000, you too could keep Gotham City safe. Or at least look really, really cool while sitting in traffic. Each car frame is built around a 1970s Lincoln Town Car. And only eight of these hand-crafted beauties roll off the factory floor each year. Company founder Mark Racop has been perfecting the design pretty much his...

After wasting $3 billion with the Cash for Clunkers program President Obama and his administration decided to take cash from the American people by selling them the government’s old cars. GovSales.gov has been holding auctions where the public can buy the federal clunkers. As of today 249 trucks and semi tractors are available for auctioning, 248 cars and SUVs. You can bid for the Obama clunker on the picture here. Here are more examples of the federal government clunkers for sale: 1969 AM General M540, 1973 AM General M35A2C, 1985 Chevrolet CD30903, 1968 Ford F600. Maybe the President made...

<p>By now, the only defense Democrats can mount of the Obama stimulus programs is that the economy would have been worse without them. There's no way to disprove this counterfactual, but now we have some empirical evidence other than 9.6% unemployment and 1.6% growth.</p>

One of my sons had a car accident recently. The car was totaled but fortunately no one was injured. There was only basic insurance coverage, so we started the new (used) car search. Being male and somewhat into cars, this was a challenge that I savored. The eternal hunt for a good car deal is something that is fun in some ways. It is an opportunity to cast lots against the system, trying to find proper transportation by being a hunter-gatherer of the 21st century. Now, I am first to admit to being a bottom feeder when it comes to...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The nation's top automakers reported disappointing sales Wednesday, resulting in the worst August for industrywide auto sales in 27 years. According to sales tracker Autodata, U.S. new vehicle sales fell just short of 1 million vehicles, a drop of 21% from a year ago, which included Cash for Clunkers. That federal program created a sugar rush of sales by dangling an incentive of up to $4,500 in cash for buyers who traded in older gas guzzlers for more efficient models.

Everyone with a brain knew what would happen. Unfortunately, those controlling Washington, D.C. these days are of questionable intelligence. What am I talking about? Obama's 'brilliant' Cash-for-Clunkers program.

Thousands of people who leased cars last year as part of the Cash for Clunkers program are having second thoughts and are trying to get out of their leases, reports LeaseTrader.com. The program provided up to a $4,500 rebate if a person signed at least a five-year lease for their car. A year later, that money has long been spent and people realize they are stuck with the car for four more years, says John Sternal, LeaseTrader.com spokesman. "I think it's Cash for Clunkers remorse," Sternal says, whose company helps hook up people who want to trade out of their...

Okay, I've seen a lot of whoppers in my time, but the Cash for Clunkers legislation (CFF, colloquial for Car Allowance Rebate System) takes the cake. And today's CPI report reiterates the net welfare-reducing impacts of CFF on the economy. I present my case in three parts, but skip on down to point three if you want to see the gist of it. First, the cars that should have been scrapped were unlikely scrapped; better put: the bottom of the distribution of environmentally sound vehicles are still on the road. Why? The trade-in value for any given vehicle that qualifies...

The Car Allowance Rebate System certainly helped carmakers sell more cars this summer than they would have in this troubled economy. But six months later, there's evidence that some "Cash for Clunkers" buyers have a higher repossession and late payment rate than the average consumer. According to CNW Research, the repo rate among high-risk CARS buyers is more than twice that of the same category of consumers that didn't utilize the program. Of subprime buyers who used the government-funded program, nearly 5 percent have had their newly purchased vehicles repossessed. The same group of buyers who didn't use the program...

January 04, 2010, 0:00 a.m. Will the American People Finally Revolt?Federal indulgence and incompetence are too vast to catalogue. By Deroy Murdock Where is Nelson Mandela when we need him? In an especially memorable moment in Clint Eastwood’s fine new film Invictus, South Africa’s first black president (exquisitely portrayed by Morgan Freeman) inspects his first official paycheck. “This is terrible,” Mandela says. He decides he earns too much money and subsequently donates a third of his salary to charity. Thus was born the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. Mandela’s humility and fiscal restraint would be as exotic in the nation’s...

PICTURE GALLERY: Car Show Models These Girls Make A Living Posing In Front Of The World's Hottest Cars [Pics in URL]

A deadline looms for businesses to glean usable parts from hundreds of automobiles. Last summer's Cash for Clunkers program has clogged auto salvage yards with a glut of trade-ins that are too damaged to drive but too good to be sent directly to scrap. The less glamorous side of the auto industry is having trouble digesting the byproducts of the buying frenzy that put nearly 700,000 new automobiles on the nation's roads -- and took the same number off. The future of millions of usable auto parts is in limbo as a critical deadline looms this winter under the federal...

<p>The most common deals under the government's $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program, aimed at putting more fuel-efficient cars on the road, replaced old Ford or Chevrolet pickups with new ones that got only marginally better gas mileage, according to an analysis of new federal data by The Associated Press.</p>

WASHINGTON – Billed as a way for the government to put more fuel-efficient vehicles on highways, the popular $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program mostly involved swaps of old Ford or Chevrolet pickups for new ones that got only marginally better gas mileage, according to an analysis of new federal data by The Associated Press. The single most common swap — which occurred more than 8,200 times — involved Ford F150 pickup owners who took advantage of a government rebate to trade their old trucks for new Ford F150s