Mal Occhio: Feinstein Kiboshes Cash for Clunkers. For Now.

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

I’m beginning to like the environment. First, the greens spiked Charles “Double Nickel” Hurley’s nomination for the top slot at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). As we reported earlier, Hurley’s federal pension plans came a cropper for daring to suggest that larger cars were safer than fuel misers (at the IIHS, back in the day). Now, tree huggers have torpedoed the current cash-for-clunkers bill. Reuters reports that California Senator Dianne Feinstein, a friend of the Friends of the Earth, is not happy with the compromise cash-for-clunkers bill.

Here’s the [your] money shot from the lady who wrote the Senate version: “Essentially what it means is that perfectly good vehicles would be scrapped, so that vehicles with below average fuel economy could be purchased.” Yes way! It gets better.

Feinstein referred to the compromise as the “automobile industry’s version.”

“American taxpayers have already pledged $33 billion in bailout funds to this flagging industry — without any special considerations for achieving greater fuel economy,” Feinstein said. “This is unacceptable.”

By jove she’s right! This IS a boondoggle! The fact that Feinstein’s objection is that it’s not the RIGHT KIND of boondoggle troubles me not one bit. What was that about the friend of my enemy being my frenemy? Like that. Only where TTAC tilts at windmills at the margins, Diane gets the MSM to put up its metaphorical speed bumps and steamroller those suckers. Oh wait. She likes windmills. Anyway . . .

Under the House bill, owners of small trucks and SUVs face even a lower threshold than car owners to get a voucher. They could get a $3,500 voucher if their new vehicle gets at least 2 miles per gallon more than the old truck or SUV. The voucher increases to $4,500 for a difference of at least 5 miles per gallon. For larger trucks, the new truck only has to exceed the fuel efficiency of the old vehicle by 1 mile per gallon to generate a $3,500 voucher.

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • Runfromcheney Runfromcheney on May 14, 2009

    ttacfan: The current Focus is only built in the Wayne, Michigan assembly plant. Also a former Escort/Tracer plant.

  • KeithF KeithF on May 16, 2009

    If the greens and the GW people really cared about the environment, they should encourage the government to simply require the oil companies to raise their gas prices $1-2 themselves. The pricing signal to the market is the same with the same net result, but a lot quicker to implement and fewer systems to upgrade. If they don't want the nasty oil companies to have the money, require the gas station owners to do it and keep wholesale prices constant. Then "local small business owners" would get the insane profits and probably plow a lot of it back into their local economies across the nation. Why are usurious federal taxes automatically the answer? Oh wait, that's obvious. The point isn't to reduce oil consumption but to enrich the government. It's all about who gets the money and thus, who decides how it gets distributed out to their campaign supporters.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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