Cash For Clunkers Is Coming To An End, What’s the Verdict?

It sounds like a great idea.  Bring in your crappy car and we will give you money towards a new one.  Well sometimes great ideas aren’t so great, and sometimes they are.  The Cash for Clunkers program (which by the way, I love the name very catchy) officially ends this Monday at 8pm EDT.  The original ending date for the program was going to be Labor Day.

So why the early ending? According to the AP,

the administration needed to put a halt to the program to avoid surpassing the $3 billion funding level. Consumers were on pace to exhaust the program’s coffers in early September and dealers have complained about long delays in getting reimbursed for the car incentives.

It seems the program, though running out of money, has had a positive impact in the auto industry.

the program provided at least a temporary jolt for automakers. GM announced plans to rehire more than 1,300 workers and automakers have been paying overtime to boost production. Hyundai recalled 3,000 workers in Alabama.

“At a time of great economic distress, cash for clunkers has stimulated increased production by domestic automakers, putting thousands of idled workers back on the job,” said Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich.

All in all I am glad this program came about, and hopefully this “jolt” will continue.  American auto workers have been hurt hard by the quivering economy.  I am originally from Dayton, OH and we are a GM town.  My dad and many parents of fellow classmates worked in the GM factory.  Now, because of GM going broke all hell is breaking lose.  People’s health insurance is being taken away (retired people included) and too many other things to count.

Hopefully this program does what it set out to do and we will see the great effects in due time.  But I’m still afraid I’m living in a sunshine and rainbows never never land.  Hopefully time will prove me wrong.

So now I ask you, What’s Your 2 Cents?