CARS rebate program

www.cars.gov Anyone planning on doing this? I am looking in to trading in my husband's old truck as the clunker and also trading in my van to get a new little fuel effiecient sedan to take with us to Germany next year. The truck isn't worth much so the money that we would get through the program would pay of the negative equity left on our van. We're upside down by about $3k at the moment on the darn gas guzzling van.



The truck, however, is currently sitting in my car port with a bone dead battery. It has been hooked up to a booster for about 10 minutes and I am just now getting interior lights to come on but the engine just click click clicks when I try to start it.

There was a long article on this in today's newspaper, seems like an excellent deal if you meet the criteria.

You must have had the car on the road for a year, not sure if the one you are trying to start qualifies? It must have been registered and insured for at least one year prior to the trade in.

They refer you to the on line Kelly Blue Book to see if you car is more valuable than the alllowance.
Of course, I can't find today's article on line. :rolleyes:

Blue book on the truck is $2,500 but without A/C or working windows there is NO way we could sell it for that here in Texas. We would be lucky if some poor schmuck would pay $1.5k for it. We bought it last June and have kept up with insurance and registration the whole time.
The articles I am finding say that if the new vehicle gets at least 10 mpg better then you qualify for the full $4.5k :)

So I went out and did a few errands, came back and now I easily found today's article. :rolleyes:

http://www.projo.com/projocars/conte...8.24ee734.html

Sounds like you should pursue this, from what you wrote above!

I'm thinking you should be able to haggle the price of a new vehicle down by $4500 anyway if you go at the right time of year. Shoot I got over 3000 off of a brand new Cobalt without having to trade in a darn thing, just because the new ones had come out and dealer wanted to clear out old stock.

My father in law used to own a car dealership and said only a few people would actually benefit from this clunker cash-in. He explained all the ins and outs and nit-picky criteria and said it's not worth it for most people. For one thing, I think you have to trade in towards a new car. First off, dealers aren't going to give you much wiggle room on the original price of the new car, since they know they are gonna give you 4500 total off regardless. If you figure in normal trade-in value of your used vehicle, you would probably be able to haggle them down for the difference in price anyway.

Also think of how many people out there are driving "clunkers" because that's all they can afford to operate. If they do cash-for-clunkers they may get a decent price for their heap, but they still have to deal with years of payments on a new car.

Just do all of your research before jumping on this. There are a lot of little details that may make it less of a deal than it appears at first.

Correct me if I'm wrong please, but this is how I understand it. I already called the dealer and they are participating and would gladly take both cars.

We owe $9k on the van. They would give us $6k for it leaving us still owing $3k. They would then give us $4.5k for the truck leaving us with a CREDIT of $1.5k towards the purchase of a brand new car. Right??

All of us own Camrys, we are good. I put in $42.00 and drive three weeks with that everyday. I honesty don't know why people still buy those huge SUV's what is the point?

Oh I am on the same page about SUVs.. I just don't get it. We are looking at the Chevy Aveo or Cobalt which are rated at 27 and 28 combination mpg, respectively.

yeah but you could probably haggle 1500 off the price of a new car anyway. Besides if you trade in, you will probably still owe more on the new car than you currently owe on the van. Of course it all depends somewhat on what you are trading in and what you are looking to get. And just how badly you want to thin out the driveway, LOL.

I don't remember all of the points my father in law was making but they made sense at the time. We were just shootin the breeze, so don't take what I've said as gospel. I could be incorrect on a few things since I'm not parting with either of my cars any time soon, therefore didn't need to understand all of it.

BTW, my 07 Cobalt automatic gets about 32mpg now that it's broken in properly. Decent car honestly. I wanted an Aveo until I browsed some internet forums where current owners were not exactly reccommending them. Granted that was a couple years ago....

Well we are moving to Europe in the spring and are only allowed to bring one car. This seems like our best option at this point because in today's economy I doubt we would be able to sell the van for more than $6k to a private seller anyway.
Thanks for the input! My husband is calling up one of his coworkers to go in with me when it comes down to negotiating the price for my van trade in and negotiating the price of the new Cobalt:D 32 mpg sounds GREAT. We plan on doing lots of driving while we live in Europe and have been told that we will have our gas rationed. Our van is rated at 20 combined mpg.

Your gas won't be rationed, you'll just have ration coupons for buying gas at AAFES gas stations, where you won't pay local prices.

You'll have the option to buy gas on the economy, which is more expensive, in addition to the gas you'll be allowed at AAFES, which is a pretty generous amount, IIRC, just not enough make any money selling the gas on the black market.

ahh that makes sense. HUbby's sponser didn't explain it at all. It would still be nice to increase our mpg by 10mpg, right?:D

Think about it....if you're upside down on the van, you're not really saving anything by doing this.

Besides, you're losing MORE money when you figure in the immediate depreciation on the new car. (roughly 30%)

You're really losing far more buying a new car than you would lose on the gas mileage.

Would they be better off buying a new car once they get to Europe than buying a new one now, and having to ship it to bring it with them? Just curious ...

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Originally Posted by Marigold2

All of us own Camrys, we are good. I put in $42.00 and drive three weeks with that everyday. I honesty don't know why people still buy those huge SUV's what is the point?

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Agreed!

My step son is going to look into this for his truck. It's a beast, I hate it, it might get 10 mpg.

My husband's truck is rated at 15mpg combined, but I doubt we ever got much more than 10 on it. Hunk of junk. It is a pretty green color though:D

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Originally Posted by Karen

Would they be better off buying a new car once they get to Europe than buying a new one now, and having to ship it to bring it with them? Just curious ...

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The military pays to ship our car back and forth. If we were to buy a car over in Europe with the intention of shipping it back to the US when we come back we would have to have it altered to US specs, which could easily run in the $10k range. It's just easier to bring a US spec car over there with us....
Or so we have been told.

BMW, Audi, and I believe Mercedes and Volvo have programs where you can buy a US spec car through AAFES while in Europe, pick it up at their factory, and ship it back to the US when your tour is over.

Another thing to consider is the space factor in a Cobalt or similar sized vehicle. 2 kids, adults, stuff for the kids, clothes, etc......

If you're going to travel around Europe, you should at least do it in something that's going to be remotely comfortable.

Why do people buy SUV's/pickups etc?

Find me an economy car that will haul wood, building supplies, and get up a road that is at best miserable in the winter and I'm there. Until then, however.........

Any car or truck traded in under the Cash for Clunkers program IIRC will be crushed. The vehicles will not be resold as affordable options for poor people, and they will not be stripped for parts for resale so poor people can keep their vehicles on the road. Cash for Clunkers could kill off alot of automotive hobiests if cheap parts dry up because cars are crushed and not recycled.

I hope the CfC law gets more people to by foreign made vehicles, as the original intent for the CfC law was to get Amaricans to help save GM, and Chysler by buying more American made vehicles.

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Originally Posted by blue

I hope the CfC law gets more people to by foreign made vehicles, as the original intent for the CfC law was to get Amaricans to help save GM, and Chysler by buying more American made vehicles.

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Not going to really debate this, but isn't that a little cynical?

As to why people buy SUV's. Here in this part of Ohio they buy them for the status not for hauling wood. I can see owning a pickup in the country but in the burgs it's just silly. Some of my neighbors here have Hummers. :rolleyes::rolleyes: It's the Dr and lawyer and business owner, it's the soccer mom married to the Dr who drives the big Escolade. If you come to were I work and look at the parking lot you will see either all imports, BMW, Lexus, Mercedes or you will see the Escolades, Hummers and the huge SUV. Soccer mom gets out with her cell phone and bob hair cut her designer purse ready to spend another day shopping and driving the kids to lessons or practice of some kind. They are not worried about the money or the economy or the planet.

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Originally Posted by Lady's Human

BMW, Audi, and I believe Mercedes and Volvo have programs where you can buy a US spec car through AAFES while in Europe, pick it up at their factory, and ship it back to the US when your tour is over.

Another thing to consider is the space factor in a Cobalt or similar sized vehicle. 2 kids, adults, stuff for the kids, clothes, etc......

If you're going to travel around Europe, you should at least do it in something that's going to be remotely comfortable.

Why do people buy SUV's/pickups etc?

Find me an economy car that will haul wood, building supplies, and get up a road that is at best miserable in the winter and I'm there. Until then, however.........

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If someone wants to drive an SUV, an International pickup, whatever, I don't really think it's anyone's business but the person driving it.

A 2007 Hummer driving on the highway at 55 MPH pollutes less than a 1970's economy car does while it's sitting parked in a driveway.

A Hybrid car uses more energy in production and causes more pollution from production than will ever be saved by driving it, but somehow they're "green".

Diesels, the most efficient engines available, very popular in Europe, can't be sold in the US for the most part because they don't meet EPA standards......?

Get the politics and the knee jerk reactions out of this, let science and physics be the guides, and a lot could be fixed.

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Originally Posted by Lady's Human

If someone wants to drive an SUV, an International pickup, whatever, I don't really think it's anyone's business but the person driving it.

A 2007 Hummer driving on the highway at 55 MPH pollutes less than a 1970's economy car does while it's sitting parked in a driveway.

A Hybrid car uses more energy in production and causes more pollution from production than will ever be saved by driving it, but somehow they're "green".

Diesels, the most efficient engines available, very popular in Europe, can't be sold in the US for the most part because they don't meet EPA standards......?

Get the politics and the knee jerk reactions out of this, let science and physics be the guides, and a lot could be fixed.

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I couldn't agree more.

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Originally Posted by Scooter's Mom

Not going to really debate this, but isn't that a little cynical?

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Not at all cynical, IIRC the original CFC did not include new foriegn made cars and trucks in the program.