BrianGarst.com

Car sales way down:

Edmunds.com reports that “September’s light-vehicle sales rate will fall to 8.8 million units . . . the lowest rate in nearly 28 years, tying the worst demand on record. After the cash-for-clunkers program boosted August sales to their first year-over-year increase since October 2007, demand has plunged. In at least the last 33 years, the U.S. seasonally adjusted annual rate has only dropped as low as 8.8 million units once — in December 1981 — with records stretching back to January 1976.”

Following the fake success of the “cash for clunkers” program, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that new car sales have plummeted.  One of the criticisms repeatedly registered against the plan was that it would, among other things, merely capture future sales that would have been made anyway. A nice government handout can successfully entice people to go for that new car a little bit sooner than planned, but it has had no significant on car sales or the economy as a whole, and a dubious environmental impact at best.

cash for clunkers