Surprise: Demand for new cars collapses after Cash for Clunkers ends

(Hot Air) - As predicted, the “hangover” is upon us. Here’s the glorious result of dangling $3 billion in free taxpayer money in front of car-buyers: Two months of artificially stimulated demand which spurred manufacturers to ramp up production, leaving dealers now with showrooms full of new cars — and no customers to buy them. At the moment, no one’s even sure if overall sales will be higher for the year. Genius.

Edmunds.com reports that “September’s light-vehicle sales rate will fall to 8.8 million units … the lowest rate in nearly 28 years, tying the worst demand on record. After the cash-for-clunkers program boosted August sales to their first year-over-year increase since October 2007, demand has plunged. In at least the last 33 years, the U.S. seasonally adjusted annual rate has only dropped as low as 8.8 million units once — in December 1981 — with records stretching back to January 1976.”

“Many people regard February as the darkest month of the recession, but even then (sales were) higher, at 9.1 million units,” adds Edmunds.com statistician Zhenwei Zhou.