More on (definitely moronic) cash for clunkers: Opposition mounts, and the view from outside America

Obviously, since President Obama announced his support for a cash for clunkers program here in the United States, many folks have weighed in on such a program, so we’re going to try and round up those responses here.

* First off, SEMA acted quickly to respond with a letter sent to the president urging him to reverse his stance on scrappage programs. From the letter:

Program supporters focus on a car’s age or fuel efficiency rating rather than its actual emissions or how much it is driven. SEMA has consistently warned against wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on a program that may produce an artificial spike in sales, but does not reduce emissions or increase fuel efficiency.

They then raise a number of points, many of which we’ve already covered in our opposition to scrappage programs, but it’s good to see them all collected in one place. One would hope that the president doesn’t immediately dismiss a letter from an organization representing a multi-billion dollar industry. (more)

* Another industry organization, the Automobile Aftermarket Industry Association, also expressed its concerns about Cash for Clunkers in a recent article in the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, a sister publication of Hemmings Motor News.

“It seems arrogant to destroy perfectly good vehicles with many more years of useful life just to entice consumers to purchase a car that they might not be able to afford,” said AAIA President and CEO Kathleen Schmatz.

(via)

* The New York Times’ Green Inc. blog reports on the wariness some environmentalists have expressed over cash for clunkers:

[Columnist George Monbiot] suggested that such programs have little to do with carbon-dioxide reduction, and amount to little more than “handouts for the car firms, resprayed green to fool the incautious buyer.”

Their specific concerns: that cash for clunkers could offer tax incentives for even more fuel inefficient vehicles, that increased car sales and production would result in increased manufacturing pollution, and that such a program diverts resources away from public transportation, thus encouraging people to drive even more than they do now.

* The New York Times also reports on today’s keynote speech at the New York Auto Show by VW president Stefan Jacoby, in which he backs cash for clunkers, which he calls “fleet modernization.”

* Granted, he’s most likely influenced by the success of Germany’s cash for clunkers program in increasing German car sales through this recession. But TTAC has been seen through Germany’s Abwrackprämie from the start.

UPDATE (9.April 2009): Looks like Germany has extended the program through the end of the year, enabling another 700,000 people to junk their perfectly useable, somewhat used old cars.
* Not all is rosy on cash for clunkers from foreign manufacturers, though. A representative from Mazda told us that his company opposes the American protectionism present in the current cash for clunkers bill, H.R. 1550. He even claims that it violates U.S. trade agreements as it’s currently written. Unfortunately (and understandably), Mazda seems more interested in amending H.R. 1550 instead of opposing it altogether.

* In Britain, Citroen has started their own scrappage program:

In the U.K., French automaker Citroen announced a scrappage – or as it is known in the U.S. “cash for clunker” – program. Citroen is offering an incentive of up to 2,000 Euros as a down payment on a Citroen C4 when a consumer trades in an older vehicle. Automakers have been pushing the British government for an automotive sales incentive plan or scrappage program but so far lawmakers have resisted.

* Yet Volvo has taken a different approach and has asked its customers in the April 2009 Volvo-i Driver newsletter whether they would support a car scrappage program in the UK.

The UK Government is currently considering following Germany’s lead in offering drivers a £2,000 (approx) incentive to scrap any car over 9 years old – money which could then be put towards a new or nearly new, more economical model. And at Volvo, we’d like to know your views on the scheme.

If you feel like telling them no, vote at this link, however much good it will do.

We’ll keep you updated on any other cash for clunkers news we come across.