Used-Car Dealers: Program's a Clunker

The Cash for Clunkers program has proven to be a shot in the arm for the new-car market, but not everyone's a fan. Used-car dealers say their business is suffering, the Sacramento Bee reports. "The used side sort of slipped" since the program started, said one Honda dealership manager. Three out of every five trashed clunkers normally would have ended up on a used-car lot, auto analysts estimate.

Advocates for the poor are unhappy with the program, too. They say lots of perfectly good cars that could provide basic transportation are being destroyed rather than donated or sold at an affordable price. Also revved up: Car collectors who fear future antiques are being lost. "We don't know what cars will eventually be collectibles in the future," said the California Auto Museum's director. (More Cash for Clunkers stories.)