The CARS program was a government-run solution to get polluting cars off the road by providing credit for the trade-in of ‘clunkers’ towards the purchase of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. In Tim Brown of IDEO’s blog, he posts an image of a Toyota dealership inundated with ‘clunkers’. The majority of these inefficient, oversized vehicles are American-made – specifically Ford, GM and Chrysler. Brown asserts that this image underlines just how poorly the US auto industry has been run for years.
The reason that the government didn’t support the US auto industry during the program is that most ‘clunkers’ are American cars, and most fuel-efficient vehicles are foreign. I would like to support ‘made in USA’ whenever possible, but until our domestic car companies make sustainability a priority, I’m afraid they just can’t compete. Most Americans drive their cars every day, and these cars have not only drained our pockets but they have contributed to global warming.
American car manufacturers need to take the lead in innovating new viable solutions, and more importantly people could stop investing unneccesary amounts of their income to pay for gas, and demand greater fuel efficiency for their daily commute.