Cash for Clunkers, AP Photo - Toby Talbot
Earlier this year the Obama administration approved the stimulus bill. Along with such things as $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, a program dubbed “Cash for Clunkers” was borne. Cash for Clunkers was designed to get cars with low fuel ratings off the road and in their place get newer, more fuel efficient vehicles in their place. The program offered a maximum of $4,500 in the form of a rebate when you buy a car that meets EPA fuel efficiency criteria, while trading your old “clunker” in.
Since announcement of the program, many new car buyers have sat on the sidelines waiting for the program’s inception. A study performed by Hyundai Motor America found that at least 38 percent of potential new car buyers in the United States know of the program and 11 percent of car buyers are delaying trading their clunkers until the program kicks in.
This means that as many as 100,000 car sales were lost each month due to buyers waiting for program start. With US auto sales at their lowest level in over 26 years, when the consumer held off purchases, both the industry and the economy suffered.
The program wasn’t enacted until July 24th, just six days before the writing of this article, and yet the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has now made changes to fuel efficiency ratings of over 30,000 models spanning the past 25 years.
What it could mean for new car buyers is a bigger bite out of their wallets due to a smaller helping hand from Big-brother. Stephen Calogera, a columnist for egmCarTech, sited a CNNMoney reader as writing in to say that “the combined fuel-economy rating for his 1987 Mercury Grand Marquis was 18 mpg when he checked before July 24 - making the vehicle eligible for the $4,500 rebate. However, when he checked on Saturday, he found that the fuel-economy of his car has been raised to 19 mpg - one more mpg than previously stated, making him ineligible for the CARS program.”
The EPA said of the change that it’s a wash, the numbers of car models that had the MPGs raised equals the umber of cares that had their MPGs lowered.
So before hitting the dealership for that new Maserati, Gradturismo S, do yourself a favor and check out the new figures at Cars.gov.
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