Faster horses
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2005
- Messages
- 30,241
- Reaction score
- 1,423
What a sweet deal!
>>
>> If you traded in a clunker worth $3500, you get
>> $4500 off for an apparent "savings" of $1000.
>>
>> However, you have to pay taxes on the $4500 come
>> April 15th (something that no auto dealer would
>> have told you). If you are in the 30% tax
>> bracket, you will pay $1350 on that $4500.
>>
>> So, rather than save $1000, you actually pay an
>> extra $350 to the feds. In addition, you traded
>> in a car that was most likely paid for.
>> Now you have 4 or 5 years of payments on a car that you did
>> not need, that was costing you less to run than the payments
>> that you will now be making.
>>
>> But wait, it gets even better: you also got ripped off
>> by the dealer.
>>
>> For example, every dealer here in LA was selling the Ford
>> Focus with all the goodies including A/C, auto transmission,
>> power windows, etc for $12,500 the month before the
>> "cash for clunkers" program started.
>>
>> When "cash for clunkers" came along, they stopped
>> discounting them and instead sold them at the list
>> price of $15,500. So, you paid $3000 more than
>> you would have the month before. (Honda, Toyota, and
>> Kia played the same list price game that Ford and Chevy
>> did)..
>>
>> So let's do the final tally here:
>>
>> You traded in a car worth: $3500
>>
>> You got a discount
>> of: $4500
>>
>>
>> ---------
>>
>> Net so
>> far +$1000
>>
>> But you have to
>> pay:
>> $1350 in taxes on the $4500
>>
>> >> --------
>>
>> Net so
>> far: -$350
>>
>> And you
>> paid: $3000
>> more than the car was selling for the month before
>>
>>
>> ----------
>>
>> Net
>> -$3350
>>
>> We could also add in the additional taxes (sales tax, state
>> tax, etc.) on the extra $3000 that you paid for the car,
>> along with the 5 years of interest on the car loan but lets
>> just stop here.
>>
>> So who actually made out on the deal? The feds
>> collected taxes on the car along with taxes on the $4500
>> they "gave" you. The car dealers made an
>> extra $3000 or more on every car they sold along with the
>> kickbacks from the manufacturers and the loan
>> companies. The manufacturers got to dump lots of cars
>> they could not give away the month before. And the
>> poor stupid consumer got saddled with even more debt that
>> they cannot afford.
>>
>> Obama and his band of merry men convinced Joe consumer that
>> he was getting $4500 in "free" money from the
>> "government" when in fact Joe was giving away
>> his $3500 car and paying an additional $3350 for the privilege.
>>
>>
>>
>> How's that for CHANGE?
>>
>> If you traded in a clunker worth $3500, you get
>> $4500 off for an apparent "savings" of $1000.
>>
>> However, you have to pay taxes on the $4500 come
>> April 15th (something that no auto dealer would
>> have told you). If you are in the 30% tax
>> bracket, you will pay $1350 on that $4500.
>>
>> So, rather than save $1000, you actually pay an
>> extra $350 to the feds. In addition, you traded
>> in a car that was most likely paid for.
>> Now you have 4 or 5 years of payments on a car that you did
>> not need, that was costing you less to run than the payments
>> that you will now be making.
>>
>> But wait, it gets even better: you also got ripped off
>> by the dealer.
>>
>> For example, every dealer here in LA was selling the Ford
>> Focus with all the goodies including A/C, auto transmission,
>> power windows, etc for $12,500 the month before the
>> "cash for clunkers" program started.
>>
>> When "cash for clunkers" came along, they stopped
>> discounting them and instead sold them at the list
>> price of $15,500. So, you paid $3000 more than
>> you would have the month before. (Honda, Toyota, and
>> Kia played the same list price game that Ford and Chevy
>> did)..
>>
>> So let's do the final tally here:
>>
>> You traded in a car worth: $3500
>>
>> You got a discount
>> of: $4500
>>
>>
>> ---------
>>
>> Net so
>> far +$1000
>>
>> But you have to
>> pay:
>> $1350 in taxes on the $4500
>>
>> >> --------
>>
>> Net so
>> far: -$350
>>
>> And you
>> paid: $3000
>> more than the car was selling for the month before
>>
>>
>> ----------
>>
>> Net
>> -$3350
>>
>> We could also add in the additional taxes (sales tax, state
>> tax, etc.) on the extra $3000 that you paid for the car,
>> along with the 5 years of interest on the car loan but lets
>> just stop here.
>>
>> So who actually made out on the deal? The feds
>> collected taxes on the car along with taxes on the $4500
>> they "gave" you. The car dealers made an
>> extra $3000 or more on every car they sold along with the
>> kickbacks from the manufacturers and the loan
>> companies. The manufacturers got to dump lots of cars
>> they could not give away the month before. And the
>> poor stupid consumer got saddled with even more debt that
>> they cannot afford.
>>
>> Obama and his band of merry men convinced Joe consumer that
>> he was getting $4500 in "free" money from the
>> "government" when in fact Joe was giving away
>> his $3500 car and paying an additional $3350 for the privilege.
>>
>>
>>
>> How's that for CHANGE?