re: #574 Walter L. Newton

That further points to the fact that buyers are simply people who either delayed or accelerated buying cars - not actually creating demand over what should be expected for the year. It may make the July figures look better comparatively speaking to last year’s figures, but then again, anything could do that - it was that bad.

And this year isn’t anything to cheer about either. The sales are still in the doldrums, and cash for clunkers destroys wealth, and puts people who more often than not paid off their vehicles back on the credit carousel when they could have saved money by keeping the clunker and maintaining their existing cars, even if they didn’t get nearly as good gas mileage.

But gas mileage isn’t the only thing to factor - what about the energy taken to build the new cars and destroy and cart off the old ones… throw those in, and the “green” isn’t quite as green as the Administration wants you to believe.