Cash for Clunkers

[TJ_98370]

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An excerpt from a Market Ticker article is quoted below. Its is an encouraging prediction for those wanting a newer car that feel they missed out on Cash for Clunkers -- if you have any cash.....
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.....But "cash for clunkers" is now known to have massively pulled-forward demand and left a vacuum behind, as the most-recently posted auto sales were disastrously bad. This of course portends a resumption of credit contraction next month, never mind what may come from those who bought "clunker deals" but can't afford them. If you're looking for a new(er) car the best time to buy may well be in the late winter and spring of next year, when the lates have turned into repossessions and the lots are rather likely to be full of six-month-old cars with a few thousand miles on them clogging up dealer lots, destroying not only the poor fools who took on debt they can't afford but adding further punishment to new car sales (after all, why buy new when you can buy a six-month old vehicle at 30% - or more - off!).....
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[TJ_98370]

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This article has nothing to do with "Cash for Clunkers" and is barely related to the "Economy" but should be of interest to gearheads. I just recently learned about the HCCI engine. GM is reportedly close to production. If it really does get a 15% improvement in fuel efficiency, we may be seeing alot of these things around in the near future.
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[Lake Hills Renter]

[WestSideBilly]

[redmondjp]

[rose-colored-coolaid]

[WestSideBilly]

I'm sure you've noticed that as soon as people are around a police car they suddenly "behave" - drive the speed limit, signal, hang up the cell phone - and just as quickly resume their bad habits once the police car is out of sight. People know how to drive, they just don't practice the good behavior unless the threat of getting a ticket is imminent. But if you start someone off driving in such a way that they're forced to use the good behaviors, more of those habits will stick.

The reason for my drastic suggestion is that the system doesn't work. New drivers get relatively little time with instructors, and in my experience many instructors are not that good of drivers, much less teachers. They then drive around with their parents, most of whom are also not very good drivers, and in most cases have been "teaching" bad habits for their child's entire upbringing. Driver's tests are what, 20 minutes long? There's no way to measure driving comprehension in 20 minutes (other than abject failure).

[rose-colored-coolaid]

[WestSideBilly]

No. Other than red light cameras, at least.

Too much of a financial incentive to abuse cameras/ticketing, which is already problematic.

[TJ_98370]

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This story really should not be a surprise to anybody following CFC news. Sales numbers were available last August indicating that full size pickup trucks were the best sellers.
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So a few months and Freedom of Information Act requests later, it turns out that more than anything else, Americans used the wildly popular "Cash for Clunkers" stimulus program to hustle the government into buying them new trucks. The most common trade in the program was one Ford F150 pickup truck for another.
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The single most common swap — which occurred more than 8,200 times — involved Ford F150 pickup owners who took advantage of a government rebate to trade their old trucks for new Ford F150s. They were 17 times more likely to buy a new F150 than, say, a Toyota Prius. The fuel economy for the new trucks ranged from 15 mpg to 17 mpg based on engine size and other factors, an improvement of just 1 mpg to 3 mpg over the clunkers................