Ford, Toyota, Hyundai and Honda are the big winners in the Cash for Clunkers program

September 2, 2009 – 11:31 am – No Comment

The Cash for Clunkers program seemed to be a hit for those automakers while others got left behind. However, the problem will come up over the next few months when no one is purchasing autos through the fall. Even with clearance specials that come out at the end of the year, automakers and dealerships will likely not see the volume that they saw over the past month.

Thanks to the program, sales of cars and fuel efficient trucks in August increased almost 30% from just a month earlier. The program also led to the first increase in year over year gains since October 2007. That means that August 2009 car sales were greater than August 2008 sales.

Like I said in the past, the program will undoubtedly leave the dealerships wishing for business for some time after the program ended. Now there are thousands of new cars on the roads and people are still going to try to make their cars go further. This will only lead to an even greater slowdown in auto sales in my opinion.

Cash for Clunkers did one thing right, it led to less emissions coming out of fuel inefficient cars. And when I think of clunkers I imagine a black smoke cloud coming out of the back of the car as it putters down the road. This program helped clear some of those cars off the road. The amount of carbon emissions that won’t be in the air anymore is also a pretty big deal when you start thinking about the entire program as well, which is what I thought was the main point of the program.