Cash For Clunkers - Looking Back

The figures just came out today, courtesy of Edmunds.com - each of the cars turned in for the "Cash For Clunkers" program, which was a program "sold" to us as costing $4500 per car actually cost taxpayers a whopping $24,000 for each car, after figuring in all the associated costs to taxpayers.

I would like to personally thank Senators Snowe and Collins for voting for this program - I wasn't feeling like I had been fleeced enough this year, but now I see they are working very hard to fleece us all.

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Future Class

The National Car Show Association has announced that a new class is coming in the near future, tentatively identified as the GREEN (Alternative Fuel) class. With pressure mounting for auto makers to produce green vehicles, and enterprising individuals trying to beat the gas pump prices, the Green Class is one that is destined to grow in the next few years.

The proposed description/definition is as follows:

"Any street legal motor vehicle of any make, model or year that gets at least 50% of its total fuel consumption from any energy or fuel source other than petroleum products."

This has not yet been finalized yet, or even publicized, as the Standards Committee is still working on it.

I don't think Maine shows will be including this class anytime soon (although Shaw's Ridge had an Alternative Energy class), as there are precious few such vehicles in Maine, and fewer still owned by people who go to car shows. But I do expect it to become a viable and worthy class at shows in Metro areas within the next three years.

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