Lost your job or maybe your house? No problem…buy a car

Robert Toy · Feb 3, 2009

This amendment was just passed:

Senator Barbara A. Mikulski’s (D-Md.) amendment to the stimulus package

“My amendment is simple. If you buy a new passenger car, minivan, or light truck by December 31st of 2009, you will get a tax deduction for your sales or excise tax and the interest on your loan. A family would save about $1,500 on a $25,000 car, not counting the additional incentives from dealers.

“My amendment is not about bailouts. It’s about jobs, jobs, jobs. Six million jobs are at stake in the American car industry. One out of 10 jobs in America relates to the auto industry. Right now the facts are gloomy. If we lose the Big 3, then 3 million jobs are at risk.

The only way to save the Big 3 is to get people into showrooms, but 1,000 dealerships could close this year. That’s 53,000 jobs that could be lost just at the dealerships. I believe we can help by getting the consumer into the showroom. They will know that the government is on their side and helping them with one of the biggest purchases they will make during this tough time.
http://mikulski.senate.gov/_pdfs/Press/autoownershiptaxamendment.pdf
http://mikulski.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=307676

The country is on its ass, people are losing their jobs and houses and a solution is a new government proposal to get further into debt?

Oh wait, didn't we just give the Big 3 a bailout with more promised in the future?

astonwest · Feb 3, 2009

I wonder if GM is using their bailout money to buy off their hourly employees with a handout and a free car?

Plot Device · Feb 3, 2009

Did we do a thread about the "car sleepers" in California? Homeless people who still have their cars are sleeping in their cars.

Robert Toy · Feb 3, 2009

Plot Device said:
Did we do a thread about the "car sleepers" in California? Homeless people who still have their cars are sleeping in their cars.

I don't remember one.

But the new amendment will help them upgrade to a newer "residence".

Silver King · Feb 3, 2009

Robert Toy said:
...A family would save about $1,500 on a $25,000 car, not counting the additional incentives from dealers...

That's the same kind of math that screws people every time: Buy something you can't afford, say for $25,000, and save $1,500 in the process.

There's been a lot of talk about financial institutions dropping the ball and helping us to get into this recession in the first place. But what I haven't heard mention much is how we, as individual spenders, created our own problems by living on credit. I mean, seriously: How long did we expect that to last?

Until the next paycheck? Or until I find a better job down the road? The thing about debt is that it has a strangling effect, not slowly but immediate, and will drag you down gasping for breath and wishing you had the money to live today instead of being stuck paying for, with interest, all of those yesterdays you can't even remember...

That's how it is for me right now, anyway.

Don · Feb 4, 2009

Silver King said:
That's the same kind of math that screws people every time: Buy something you can't afford, say for $25,000, and save $1,500 in the process.

There's been a lot of talk about financial institutions dropping the ball and helping us to get into this recession in the first place. But what I haven't heard mention much is how we, as individual spenders, created our own problems by living on credit. I mean, seriously: How long did we expect that to last?

Until the next paycheck? Or until I find a better job down the road? The thing about debt is that it has a strangling effect, not slowly but immediate, and will drag you down gasping for breath and wishing you had the money to live today instead of being stuck paying for, with interest, all of those yesterdays you can't even remember...

That's how it is for me right now, anyway.

And that's the argument some of us use concerning FedGov as a whole. Debt doesn't only strangle individuals, it's got a long history of strangling governments as well.

Susan Gable · Feb 4, 2009

We just bought a new vehicle in December. (Had no choice as the other was a lease that had to get turned in.) I want MY cut, too, for helping stimulate the economy!

Susan G.

alleycat · Feb 4, 2009

Silver King said:
That's the same kind of math that screws people every time: Buy something you can't afford, say for $25,000, and save $1,500 in the process.

Well, as long as they can afford the monthly payments for a while . . . that's the only thing that matters, right?

I wonder if there are "attractive lease option" incentives available with the amendment.

Clair Dickson · Feb 4, 2009

Oh darn. I was excited at first since I need to buy a new car (hopefully before the rear wheels come off my current one) but this doesn't appear to apply to people buying used cars outright. I guess my dollars don't help keep dealerships in business. I always knew my meager dollars weren't wanted.

Lost your job or maybe your house? No problem…buy a car

Robert Toy

FOB and Slayer of windmills

astonwest

2 WIP? A glutton for punishment

Plot Device

A woman said to write like a man.

Robert Toy

FOB and Slayer of windmills

Silver King

Megalops Erectus

Don

All Living is Local

Susan Gable

Dreamer of dreams, teller of tales

alleycat

Still around

Clair Dickson

A dark core to every cloud