Another reason to hate Cash For Clunkers: Higher used car prices

I've been ranting about the Cash For Clunkers program for quite awhile -- mainly because I think it's the dumbest idea anyone has had in a long time.

But here's yet another reason to hate it; It's making low-priced used cars unavailable, and depriving low- and moderate-income families of badly needed transportation at affordable prices. According to the USA Today, "The popular cash-for-clunkers program, extended by Congress last week with $2 billion more in federal incentives, requires that all the old fuel guzzlers traded in are scrapped - not resold." As many as 750,000 vehicles will never make it to the used car lot, many of which would had still had years of life left in them.

Because trashing a clunker can now yield benefits of as much as $4,500, perfectly usable beaters that once made a great alternative to wasteful car loans are now being scrapped in a pathetic and short-sighted effort to prop up the already bailed out automobile industry.