The House quickly approves another $2B for "cash-for-clunkers" car rebate program; the Senate...

The House quickly approves another $2B for "cash-for-clunkers" car rebate program; the Senate isn't expected to take it up until Monday. The White House says if you were going to buy this weekend, the program's still on.

Comments

[Teutonic Knight]

Leigh7157 - - -

Yeah, absolutely, you're correct. This is the beauty of the community - - - correcting my mistakes. Here the oversight occurred in the logic and perhaps not in the computation. BTW, I have neither a math degree nor any math publication, just a lowly engineer working at a cubicle.

So at ~$300M a year it would most likely take another 10 years to pay for itself. Not such a bad deal though considering the other benefits.

One wild thought:- What if all the $768B TARP money is spent on Cash for Clunkers. By extrapolation, then, roughly 250 times more of the savings would be ~ $75B a year. Do this for ten years our national debt could be brought down to Zero! Why not? The Saudis and the Greedy Bankers won't be happy though, but who cares, really?

TK

On Jul 31 04:47 PM Leigh7157 wrote:

> Am I missing something? - would not the savings be the difference
> between the 30mpg and mpg of car traded in. Say 20 mpg for example.
> So the savings would be the 10mpg difference of $300M dollars a year.
>

[Leigh7157]

Am I missing something? - would not the savings be the difference between the 30mpg and mpg of car traded in. Say 20 mpg for example. So the savings would be the 10mpg difference of $300M dollars a year.

On Jul 31 02:16 PM Teutonic Knight wrote:

> This sounds like a good deal and rare deed by our Congress. Let
> me work out the maths here.
>
> Assume that a total of 750,000 new cars will be sold with the trade-ins.
> This assumption is credible as the ceiling of the funding is now
> $3B, 3 tmes of the original 250,000 cars estimate to program's end
> in November.
>
> Let us say that for each of these new cars on the road, they will
> run an average of 12,000 miles per year, which is a conservative
> estimate, granted that in general I believe Americans "usually" drive
> more than 12,000 miles a year. However, this estimate does not
> take into account that there would be more than one car in each family.
> Then for each year, these 750,000 cars will log 750,000 x 12,000
> miles = 9 Billion miles.
>
> Assume that the price of gas would average out something like $3/gallon
> across the country throughout the year. Personally I don't believe
> alternative energies will rise up and depress gas prices any time
> soon. So $3 a gallon seems to me to be reasonable.
>
> Now also assume that each of those new cars will average 30 mpg.
> I could not give substantiation but had to pick a number off the
> sky.
>
> Thus, each driven mile would cost 10 cents. Multiply 9 Billion miles
> with 10 cents give $900M dollars of savings a year.
>
> Bear in mind this saving is real! We are a net importer of oil.
>
>
> There are of course other tangible and intangible benefits such as
> green, jobs, cash flow, etc., etc.
>
> So it wouldn't be long, after several years, that the $3B will be
> re-couped. This sounds a good deal. Would anyone check my maths?
>
>
> TK

[HiSpeed]

So the govt is encouraging folks to take their paid-for car and bribe them $4500 to get themselves back into debt by buying a new car that they really don't NEED, but want.

Isn't this the kind of fiscally-irresponsible nonsense that contributed to the financial mess that we're currently trying to get out of (people buying stuff they really don't need with money they don't have)?

[Teutonic Knight]

This sounds like a good deal and rare deed by our Congress. Let me work out the maths here.

Assume that a total of 750,000 new cars will be sold with the trade-ins. This assumption is credible as the ceiling of the funding is now $3B, 3 tmes of the original 250,000 cars estimate to program's end in November.

Let us say that for each of these new cars on the road, they will run an average of 12,000 miles per year, which is a conservative estimate, granted that in general I believe Americans "usually" drive more than 12,000 miles a year. However, this estimate does not take into account that there would be more than one car in each family. Then for each year, these 750,000 cars will log 750,000 x 12,000 miles = 9 Billion miles.

Assume that the price of gas would average out something like $3/gallon across the country throughout the year. Personally I don't believe alternative energies will rise up and depress gas prices any time soon. So $3 a gallon seems to me to be reasonable.

Now also assume that each of those new cars will average 30 mpg. I could not give substantiation but had to pick a number off the sky.

Thus, each driven mile would cost 10 cents. Multiply 9 Billion miles with 10 cents give $900M dollars of savings a year.

Bear in mind this saving is real! We are a net importer of oil.

There are of course other tangible and intangible benefits such as green, jobs, cash flow, etc., etc.

So it wouldn't be long, after several years, that the $3B will be re-couped. This sounds a good deal. Would anyone check my maths?

TK