It seems that people are never satisfied.

Apparently, that is the lesson that is to be learned from the success of the program, Cash for Clunkers.  This program has delivered on all of the intended goals, from promoting economic activity to getting old vehicles that are inefficient off of the road and replacing them with new cars that are fuel-efficient.

One of the most common complaints has been that the Car Allowance Rebate System is just simply compressing the sales of consumers who would be purchasing over the next several months, cramming all of those vehicle sales into the months of July and August.  Many analysts, such as George Augustaitis who is from CSM Worldwide, predict there will be a precipitous drop-off in car sales after CARS ends, which will be followed by very slow sales for months to come.

Although we will just have to wait and see if this is going to be the case, this analysis fails to acknowledge that one of the main goals of the Clunkers program was to give car shoppers a nudge toward vehicles that are fuel-efficient, and the program has been extremely successful in that regard.  By the time the program ends, 750,000 cars will have gotten replaced with vehicles that get 5-10 mpg if trends continue on the same path.  It is unlikely that car shoppers would have made a leap that was this environmentally conscious without the CARS program, especially since gas prices are currently reasonable.  Let’s face it, a lot of old cars that were always calling for auto road service are now off of the roads.