Where are the old cars going to end up? in latin american countries? good idea!

5,500 is rediculis on a 45,000 on a newcar for the rich. half of america dont make that much money a year.better of to increase wages in america then we will not have this problem high paying jobs is the plan not high paying ceo.

This mess is not far from over.  People are going to have a different outlook of life,

less materialism, less consumption, less debt, less credit card use, less changing of

cars.  So, the overall outcome will be a slower and inferior standard of living.  On the

other hand, since the U.S. is the largest single consumer society, the people of

other poor countries are going to suffer more because their job opportunities are

going to get weaker, and those poor people are going to slide into poverty and

grave unemployment.  This financial crisis came from nowhere without any warning,

nobody knows the beginning and the end, but only God knows exactly.

Is the CFA assuming that consumers taking advantage of this credit (assuming consumers would buy such cars and take advantage of this credit) will simply be buying replacement cars rather than additional cars or initial cars?

What is such an assumption based on? If it proves to be wrong and people are buying a second/third/etc car then won't that INCREASE gasoline and therefore oil consumption?

Or will there be something in place to make sure the credit would only go to people buying replacements? What sort of resources (paperwork, people) would that require?

And how much oil would really be conserved/saved/whatever if these are new cars? How much oil is used to on production lines? To ship materials? Etc.

This idea just seems so......dumb.

With the ability to obtain loans/credit getting harder, what difference will the extra cash make.  Would this also screw up the values of the older vehicles, so not only can I not finance a new car,  the price of a used replacement could possibly be inflated.  I own older vehicles because they have style, mine are not in great condition, seldom used, but am always improving them, and supporting the Automotive Parts Replacement industries in the process.   I don't see where "recycling" them to a foreign country and turning them into a new Import vehicle will benefit one damn American auto worker.  How can anyone guess what number of these new replacements will be built by American auto workers?  As far as fuel consumption goes, I moved closer to my work to cut down on fuel costs.

Fools, Knaves, and the like are missing the point.   Everything they are doing now, is to restore the prior economic status quo.   There has been a paradigm shift that makes that impossible to accomplish.  The automobile has long been the financial ruin of way to many people.  I must agree with several points well made here.  The average cost of an SUV, or decent non econobox is more than the annual salary of those supposed to buy them.  The FICO extortion system has not been a system to determine credit risk so much as to make sure that the financiall lenders could charge exorbiate rates to those least able to afford them.  Even the Fool, Alan Greenspan who helped orchestate much of this made that very statement several years ago.  So they have in effect, set themselves up for major losses by their own practices.

Now with massive unemployment and huge declines in business across the board, the credit scores of millions have now dropped them into the ranks of those no longer able to qualify, (if in fact they really want to now) for those outrageous prices.  Couple this with the disgraceful bank depreciation, that renders that shiny new car about fifty percent less immediately upon driving from the lot.  

Do yourselves a favor for the long term of your family.  Resist this next round of stupidity, and save as much as you can.  Hopefully in a bank that will remain solvent.

I said this 10 years ago!  "How can we compete with $6.00 a day wages from other countries"?  Both administrations and past presidents never address how this was going happen! We were told, "The free market would solve the job issue".

Why wouldn't  a lot of companies would move job overseas?  Well guess what!

I don't want to get into "I told you so"!  I just thought, we had smarter people in high positions that run our country.  Todays job market says it all! Try to find made in the USA! If you destroy the blue collar jobs. all that buy now pay later catches

up to you.  How much income do you need to make to buy a $40,000 car?  $6.00

a day hardly buys bus tickets!

And where in heaven or on earth is the government going to get MORE money it doesn't have?    

In the short term, Congress must realize people have gone broke, and perhaps the American people don't find it necessary to blindly trust again. We as a people may not want to keep giving bailout money to thieves.

For once its important for the government to take a real good look at what has been occuring. The American dream turned into the American night mare. People have lost the ability to retire. People have lost jobs. People have lost confidence in banking and bankers. And Wll Street is a big joke.

 If President elect Obama has to give up his Blackberry, then I suspect I can give up using a credit card. Its all in the interest of National Security!!!

WAKE UP AMERICA, THE LOSS OF JOBS WAS DUE TO AMERICANS BUYING IMPORTS.WE CAN SPEND ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD TO GO TO WAR OR EXPLORE SPACE AND BAIL OUT THE BANKS,BUT HELP THE AUTO WORKERS SEEM TO BE A VOODO, WHATS UP WITH THAT. AMERICANS BETTER WISE UP AND START SPENDING HEIR MONEY ON AMERICAN MADE PRODUCTS OR SIMPLY DONT BUY. LET CREATE MANUFACTURING JOBS AND BUILT IN AMERICA AGAIN FOR EVERYTHING. HANG THE CORPORATE THIEVES AND RESTORE OR PRIDE