autoevolution
 

CARS Appeal Fades Away?

The glory days of the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) are coming to an end, as a recent report says the purchase intent of automotive buyers in the US dropped by as much as 31 percent from the peak reached in the first week of CARS in July.

If you have been watching several reports coming in these past few days, automakers involved in the program are caught in a tight race to boost output and meet the soaring demand. No later than today, General Motors announced it plans to boost production and reinstate 1,350 jobs, needed to add some 60,000 vehicles to the production cue in the third and fourth quarters of the year.

We are running our plants to maintain maximum flexibility and keep production tightly aligned with customer demand,” said Tim Lee, GM group vice president, global manufacturing and labor. “The uptick is an encouraging sign that vehicle sales are turning around, and we will ramp up quickly to meet that demand.

Last week, the additional $2 billion funding added to support CARS was even forecasted to last at the most one month, Ford's chief economist, Ellen Hughes-Cromwick said.

"The numbers on the cash-for-clunkers program have been really blockbuster. People were waiting for this program to start."

Yet, according to the study conducted by Edmunds, it is the intention that counts and people seem to have lost interest. After last week CARS interest dropped by 15 percent, it nearly doubled now. Even if purchase intent is a somewhat volatile criteria, it may indicate that the pace at which CARS moved so far will slow down.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)
About the author: Daniel Patrascu
Daniel Patrascu profile photo

Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories