After all, the number of cars taken off the road under the C for C program is miniscule compared to the number of used cars in this country.
You don't need to take a large fraction to increase prices, esp. when the actions are focused on a subset of the market. CfC focused on many of the cheapest cars and removed them from the market. It might not affect the market for higher end new cars much, but it impacted the lower end buyers (and also auto repair shops)
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...Jeff Cline, owner of Perinton Automotive Center, 20 Jefferson Ave., said there are two sides to the issue. He said the program took a lot of good cars off the road, but they belonged to people who were his customers.
“The other thing that it’s done is it’s really raised the used-car market up in price overall,” he said. “I think it’s hurting people who are already hurting. There’s a shortage of used cars.”...
mpnnow.com
Berks dealers say federal clunkers program has made cheap, used vehicles harder to find
Dealers say program has made cheap, used vehicles harder to find
By Mike Urban
Reading Eagle
In her search for a cheap, used minivan for her and her husband, Krissy Dieroff has visited seven dealerships across Berks and Schuylkill counties in the last week, but to no avail.
"There's not much to pick from, and the ones we do find are overpriced," said Dieroff of Auburn, Schuylkill County, while browsing the lot of a city dealership on Monday.
Dieroff blames the shortage of inexpensive used cars on the federal cash-for-clunkers program, in which almost 700,000 used vehicles were traded in for newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles, and then scrapped.
Those clunkers were the cars Dieroff and her husband, Jason Boyer, would have been shopping for, they said.
"I saw the cars they were putting in the junkyard, and they were better than what we're driving now," Boyer said.
Some local used car dealers specializing in vehicles priced $5,000 and under agreed that there are fewer inexpensive vehicles available.
readingeagle.com
‘Clunkers’ raises prices, hurts poor
By Dana Beyerle
Times Montgomery Bureau
Published: Thursday, September 3, 2009 at 9:28 p.m.
Last Modified: Thursday, September 3, 2009 at 9:33 p.m.
MONTGOMERY — The popular Cash for Clunkers helped new car dealers, but it is dramatically raising the price of relatively inexpensive used cars, hurting the poor, dealers say.
The Car Allowance Rebate System, commonly called Cash for Clunkers, took 690,000 operable cars out of the market that is beginning to reflect effects of the shortage.
A smaller supply of used cars in the next six months will affect the auto-parts market that lower-income drivers and hobbyists rely on to keep their older cars running.
Ronnie Watkins, a Ford dealer in Gadsden, said he told his car buyers not to even attend a recent auto auction for used cars because prices have gone up.
“I bought 20 Ford Fusions from a wholesaler about three weeks ago,” Watkins said. “This car has now gone up over $1,000.”
Greg Peeples is general manager of Leigh Automotive Mercedes-Benz dealership in Tuscaloosa.
“Prices are up, and there is definitely a shortage of used cars,” he said Thursday.
Peeples said because so many new cars were sold in Cash for Clunkers and only slowly are being replaced, dealers needing more used cars are finding them going up in price.
At this time of year, when the model year changes, used-car prices usually go down.
“What is going to happen at this dealership and dealerships throughout the country is used cars are in short supply by taking 700,000 out of circulation,” Watkins. “It takes away from the ‘buy here and pay here’ lots.”
Cash for Clunkers promised incentives of up to $4,500 for new car dealers who took older, less-fuel-efficient cars as trade-ins for more fuel-efficient vehicles. The trade-ins are destroyed even if they’re drivable.
Many of the trade-ins were 10-year-old or more sport-utility vehicles that still had a couple of years of service left in them for someone who needed a car for a couple of thousand dollars...
gadsdentimes.com
Cash for Clunker’s Charity Squeeze
By Edward Niedermeyer on August 17, 2009
Charities have been some of the loudest opponents of the Government CARS stimulus, voicing fears that it would cause car donations to plummet. “It varies by market, but there’s been an 11 to 12 percent drop compared with last year,” Volunteers of America VP (vehicle donations) Jim Hartman tells Reuters. “We started seeing it right away in July.” VOA and The Military Order of the Purple Heart each typically receive 40,000 to 50,000 vehicle donations a year. Purple Heart estimates its C4C losses at $105 million over 24 months...
thetruthaboutcars.com |
