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Posted
Sep 24 2009, 10:15 AM
by
Des Toups
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Now that the government has finished writing the Cash for Clunkers checks, it’s released a final breakdown of the models sent to the crusher.
Among the 700,000 or so vehicles removed from the roads were 39 cars barely a year old – six Dodge Avengers alone and 10 Mercury Grand Marquises alone. Lest you believe gas-sucking domestics were the only victims, 3,595 BMWs, 2,532 Lexuses and 5,342 Mercedes met their makers as well. But not a single Hummer was ditched.
Among the more exotic machinery cast off in return for a voucher worth up to $4,500
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Posted
Aug 07 2009, 03:49 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from James Limbach at partner site ConsumerAffairs.com.
The nation's auto dealers are seeing cars fly off the lot thanks to the government's "cash for clunkers" program, which is getting an infusion of $2 billion, compliments of you, the taxpayer.
Figures released by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration show there have been 245,384 dealer transactions as of Aug. 7, for a total of $1.03 billion in rebates.
NHTSA figures from Aug. 5 showed Michigan leading all states in requested voucher dollar amounts with $44.4 million, followed by California at $39.9 million. Bringing up the rear was Wyoming with just $533,000.
The government says cars purchased under the program are, on average, 21% above the average fuel economy of all new cars currently available, and 63% above the average fuel economy of cars that were traded in. This, officials maintain, means the program is raising the average fuel economy of the fleet, while getting the dirtiest and most polluting vehicles off the road.
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Posted
Jul 30 2009, 01:06 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
More than 19,000 gas-guzzlers have been traded in -- and an equal number of new cars with better gas mileage purchased -- under the federal "cash for clunkers" program in its first week. To track daily how fast the $1 billion in the cash-for-clunkers fund is being spent, you can find a gauge here. (Wait a few seconds and it will appear.)
"It's definitely great for people who're getting $4,500 for a car that's maybe worth only $400 or $500, and it's good for us because we're getting a lot of traffic," George Gambino, general sales manager for Bay Ridge Honda, told the New York Daily News.
Also, USA Today reports that most people are using the program to buy new vehicles with respectable gas mileage. Very few are buying full-size pickups and vans.
This all sounds great, both for cash-strapped consumers and the nearly comatose auto industry. (Ford told The Detroit News that sales are up sharply.) So how do you go about trading in your hunk of rust for a new vehicle under this plan?
It can be complicated -- for instance, the eligibility of 164 cars changed at the last minute -- but nothing you can't handle.
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Posted
Jul 10 2009, 05:26 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
When an ever-vigilant MSN Money editor alerted us to a story about how hybrid cars can save you money, our immediate thought was, Say what?
In fact, we had a post here this week from our friend Jim Wang of Bargaineering, who called the decision to buy a Prius an "emotional" one. Jim compared the purchase price of Toyota's popular hybrid with the Smart Fortwo. The Prius gets slightly better gas mileage but costs $22,000 or more. The price of the tiny Fortwo is $10,000 less.
However, the Prius wins the frugality race hands down depending on what cars you compare it with and what car expenses you consider, says a story at MarketWatch called "Study shows significant savings in alt-fuel cars." This is worth reading, and so is the study (.pdf file).
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Posted
Apr 27 2009, 12:00 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Truman Lewis at partner site ConsumerAffairs.com.
Consumers sometimes get fed up with their car and decide to dump it earlier than planned. Now General Motors is doing the same thing. GM said today it will build its last Saturn vehicles this year, ditching the struggling brand two years earlier than planned. Pontiac and Hummer will be scrapped next year, leaving GM with just four U.S. brands: Chevrolet, Cadillac, GMC and Buick.
The four-brand strategy will "enable GM to better focus its new product-development programs and provide more competitive levels of market support," the company said.
GM CEO Fritz Henderson released the company's revised survival plan today, moving up the execution date for Saturn. In a conference call with reporters, he also said that the Hummer will be retired after the current model year.
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Posted
Dec 19 2008, 05:59 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Filed under: spending, savings, The Simple Dollar, car models, gas prices, prices, cars, used cars, gas mileage, car loans, car shopping
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from Trent Hamm at partner blog The Simple Dollar. In just a few short months, the price of gas at the station I regularly use has dropped from $4.09 per gallon to $1.49 per gallon -- an absolutely amazing drop. Not long ago, I spent $82 filling up my truck (which has a 20-gallon tank). The other day, I filled the tank for under $30. From a strict personal-finance perspective (and ignoring the larger global economic concerns) this is fantastic news for most people. If you have to fill a typical car tank each week (12 gallons), the price change is saving you somewhere on the order of $30 a week. That's $120 a month, an amount that can really help with debt repayment, saving for a down payment, or preparing for retirement. This shift in gas prices comes at an interesting time for me and my family. My wife and I have been carefully studying potential automobile purchases, and our calculations had led us to focus on automobiles that are efficient with their fuel. Using our numbers, assuming a $4 to $5 gallon of gas going forward, fuel efficiency was so valuable that it often trumped a higher price at the dealership.
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Posted
Sep 09 2008, 12:10 PM
by
Karen Datko
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
Las Vegas car dealer Dan Towbin got smart and closed his Hummer dealership. Now he's going to sell Europe's ubiquitous and tiny Smart car. It's due to America's collective decision that smaller is better when it comes to vehicles. The super-sized Hummer is "yesterday's fashion statement ... sort of the automotive equivalent to Hula-Hoops," Sheldon Sandler, an investment banker who specializes in dealerships, told The Wall Street Journal's Deal Journal.
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Posted
Jul 17 2008, 01:58 PM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
This post comes from James R. Hood at partner blog ConsumerAffairs.com.  Almost exactly two years ago, with gas well under $3, we had the opportunity to test drive a Toyota Prius and a Camry. Toyota turned aside our request for a Corolla, insisting that the Camry was the car most comparable to the Prius.
Well, maybe so. But we've always thought that many families who need to save big bucks on their transportation costs -- as opposed to those who just want to be the first on their block to drive around on top of a battery -- should take a close look at the Corolla and similar cars before plopping down big bucks on the Prius.
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Posted
May 26 2008, 11:59 AM
by
Karen Datko
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
As the price of gas goes up, many people's desire to own a big honking SUV heads south. And so may be the value of that SUV sitting in your driveway. A growing number of SUV owners are finding that they owe more on their vehicles than they're now worth. And those folks are going to have a heck of a time getting rid of them at a satisfactory price.
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Posted
May 07 2008, 10:59 AM
by
Donna Freedman
Rating:
Money Blog: Smart Spending Blog - MSN Money
If only there were a magic pill that would give us 100 miles per gallon. Well, there isn't. "Frustrated Monk" uses a mix of strategies to get the most bang for the four bucks.
He drives 60 mph even if the speed limit is higher. The reader says that doing this earns him an extra three or four miles per gallon in his three different vehicles. Monk also keeps the car tuned up, checks the tire inflation, uses cruise control (except in hilly areas) and has removed any the junk from the trunk.
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