Uncle Sam wants to buy your car

Who could have guessed a year ago that we'd see a cash for clunkers style bailout?

The government has given billions of dollars to automakers who need to sell more cars. Now, Congress may soon offer motorists money to buy new vehicles. The idea behind the proposed program, called “Cash for Clunkers,” is to get millions of aging gas guzzlers off the road and replace them with fuel-efficient cars. If approved, the program would provide vouchers up to $4,500.

This is getting just plain weird.

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shopping at a junk yard near you

Who else is running over to the junk yard and quickly buying anything that runs and gets bad gas mileage to get the $4500 bucks?

Those yards where the decorations are rusting cars/trucks up on blocks are going to have all of their lawn ornaments stolen with this kind of deal.

Yeah, but on the other hand

It's probably a great economic stimulus for Chinese made Zap cars, if done right and the voucher can only be spent on an automobile that gets better gas mileage. $4500 will buy you a perfectly reasonable Zap NEV for the wife to take kids to school and go shopping in (no freeway or rural travel though).

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Maximum jobs, not maximum profits.

I think that this is the start of a great idea

but there needs to be financing component to it, and the government needs to make sure that there are new vehicles available at an affordable price.

I would like to see the government guarantee the purchase of a number of new vehicles, and then sell them at a discount to the people who turn in older vehicles for scrap.

These aren't going to be hybrids, they are going to be smaller vehicles like the new Chevy Cruze.