Oh Goodie
We’re not only part owners in a car manufacturer but we’re thinking about buying used ones — can the federal used car lot be far behind?
Ottawa eyes $3,500 ‘cash-for-clunkers’ program
Environment Minister Jim Prentice said Saturday he’s reviewing whether Canada should follow the United States and several European countries in offering consumers a substantial financial incentive to scrap their clunkers and buy new vehicles.
I love cheesy used car commercials, will there be clowns, a marching band, and elephants in ours? Will Harper and Iggly be wearing cowboy hats and screaming “Come on down, we will not be undersold, buy, buy, buy!!“?
How about instead of Harper sinking millions of dollars into used cars he tells the automotive industry to get off their sorry asses and build a product that people want — you know, one that carries a reasonable price tag, has a decent usable life, and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to operate.
Why is the Environment Minister encouraging people to buy cars at all?
I wonder if there even are that many clunkers still on the roads today. It seems to me, via anecdotal observation, that emission testing has already reduced their numbers quite substantially.
If you’ve hanging on to an old clunker chances are you can’t afford a new car, at any price.
People are going to drive anyway. They might as well drive something more efficient with less emissions.
Shouldn’t it be the job of the Minister for Industry to promote, not the buying of new cars by the public, but the making of fuel efficient cars by manufacturers? Regardless,it strikes me that the last person who should be involved in telling Canadians to purchase cars of any variety is the Minister of the Environment. Perhaps our Ministers need orientation sessions when they are given their portfolios.
This is exciting. I’m looking forward to the poster that shows Stevie Harper in Nixon mode, with the caption “Would you buy a used car from this man?”
getting old broken down inefficient vehicles of the road in favor of more fuel efficient ones is better for the environment.
Not necessarily. You’re discounting entirely the car manufacturing process. There is nothing environmentally sound about cars. And I repeat – it is not the job of the Minister of the Environment to be selling them – new or used. It simply isn’t. That’s how far removed from actual environmental protection this corporate friendly government is.
It has to be all or nothing? Cars are bad and no one should drive? The real world reality is that Canadians are not going to give up driving. So knowing that reality, the Environment Minnister shouldn’t encourage people who are going to drive anyway to do something to reduce their environmenyal impact?
I’m not necissarily for this idea, I don’t have enough info on it and it’s still in the spitballing stage anyway. I’d like to see the research from the other countries that have already tried it. But these are exactly the types of things an environment minister should be looking into.
No, it’s the type of thing the Minister of Industry should be looking into. The Minister of the Environment should be protecting the environment. I think you’ve confused promoting the auto industry, “Oh well, peope will drive anyway, so I should promote new cars over old clunkers” with protecting the environment.
The environment minister shouldn’t be finding ways to help people reduce their carbon foot print?
Sigh. He should. He just isn’t. But you seem determined to believe that the Minister of the Environment telling Canadians to scrap their old cars and buy new ones is the Minister of the Environment protecting the environment. So I’m afraid we’ll just have to agree to disagree on the point of having a Minister of the Environment and a Minister of Industry as opposed to having no Minister of the Environment and two Ministers of Industry.
But you seem determined to believe that the Minister of the Environment telling Canadians to scrap their old cars and buy new ones is the Minister of the Environment protecting the environment.
Since there is no plan, I don’t believe anything yet.
Other countries have brought this in with the conditions that the cars turned in have a set milage and that the cars being bought have better fuel economy than the ones being turned in. If, (and it’s a big if) that results in less fuel being burned, than the plan could have potential. Nobody should be able to turn in a VW Beetle for to get a credit for an H2.
To dismiss the idea without knowing the details is cynical.
cash-for-clunkers won’t help either car sales or the environment
@Chrystal Ocean: Indeed, this is the same sort of smoke and mirrors we saw during the great GST tax cut – the more money you have, the more you save…. let’s forget about the poor and the working poor who purchase few taxable goods and services who saved little or nothing.
This time around lets forget about the poor and the working poor who can’t afford a better vehicle – $3,500 credit or no.
It all dodges the need to improve infrastructure – of which public transit is a key component.