#1 waste of money. « Beating Debt News Archives

#1 waste of money. July 28, 2009

Posted by BDO in News.
Tags: anti-consumerism, beat, car, cash, clunkers, dealers, Debt, fail, loan, new, program, rebate, system, used, waste
trackback

Opposite articles on MSN.com

The news media is so funny. MSN.com had two articles on their front page announcing opposite views of the “cash for clunkers” program. Could that be considered for a FAIL BLOG entry?

Anyway, the first article displayed its title in bold letters saying, Dealers say ‘clunker’ rebates drawing in buyers. The author, Roland Jones, says,

“Auto dealers around the country are reporting that the first weekend of the government’s $1 billion ‘cash for clunkers’ program,…is already boosting vehicle sales…”.

He goes on to admit that the “cash for clunkers” program’s intent is to

“… spur vehicle sales while the industry is struggling with the effects of the economic downturn.”

These statements prove our previous blog about the program when we said that the “cash for clunkers” program was

“…to entice customers to seek out a new car dealership and to buy a new car. As you’ve seen around your city, many auto dealers are using this new law to market their ‘great deal’ to convince people to take on more debt.”

To read an explanation of the “cash for clunkers” program, click here.

But here is the thing, right below that article was an article called 20 ways to waste your money. The authors of that article, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, believes that the number one money waster is buying a new car, instead of a used one.

“Talk about a spending leak — or, rather, gush. Cars lose most of their value in the first few years, meaning thousands of dollars down the drain.”

So, MSN.com shows an article supporting the new car, personal debt building program called “cash for clunkers”, but then inadvertently releases an article saying that buying a new car is the biggest waste of money. Ha, ha!

Hopefully, people will see through the “cash for clunkers” program and decide to a buy a car only if they NEED one, not because some salesperson is selling them “new lower prices” for something they don’t NEED.

~~~~~~~~