Stupid Used Cars Getting Stupid Expensive for the Stupid Middle Class

Holy crap, used cars are expensive.

As it turns out, demand is up for dirt cheap cars and you know what that means? Supply is down. So dirt cheap cars aren't dirt cheap anymore. Everybody's flipping over the last of the rocks desperately searching for a cheap car that will get them around town. It doesn't help, of course that 14 MILLION cars have been removed from the market from natural disasters (earthquake in Japan), closing car lines, cash for clunkers, and overall reduced production.

It all ads up to pricey used cars and that adds to more strain on American families. I'm not just making this up from my own random anecdotal information...though it sort of started that way:

If you happen to be in the market for a used car, move over. There's been a jump in sales and also prices. In fact, brace yourself for some sticker shock. Edmunds.com says the average price for a three-year-old car is up 10 percent over the past year to almost $20,000 -- for something that's used..

[snip]

At a used car auction in Florence, S.C. this afternoon, Kenny Hyman was on the lookout for good prospects. He is used car sales manager at King Cadillac, Buick and Pontiac. He says it's not just lots of demand that's driving prices -- there's also less supply.

Kenny Hyman: They're just not out there to buy. Some auctions would have 1,000 cars, are having 200 and 300 now.

Probably good for car manufacturers if it's almost cheaper to buy a new car, so hopefully it means jobs. And who knows? Maybe it'll usher in some increased mass transit for the 99%. HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA...that last point was sort of a joke. Never gonna happen.

In the meantime, for those of us looking for a cheap ride that gets us to the store and back...it's getting on the tough side.


Our 1998 Ford Escort up and died several weeks so ago. It was our family's only car. But for a brief period in 2003, we've been a single car family since......well.....since we got married in 1998.

Anyway, our car died leaving the four of us car-less, which would have sucked but for my father's boundless generosity. He "sold" us his Jeep Grand Cherokee on exceedingly generous terms with an infinite repayment horizon. He got the car, used, last year for about $5000 and then passed it along to us so we had a vehicle to drive the family about town, get groceries, get to work...etc. etc.

At 180,000 miles the Jeep runs FANTASTIC. I mean, holy crap. If I were driving blindfolded and couldn't see the odometer I'd think that thing was brand new. But.....then I'd be driving blindfolded and that probably wouldn't end well.

Turns out the straight 6 Jeep engine is the best one they make. Reliable. Durable. Powerful. And holy crap, does it suck up the gasoline.

Now, I'm not looking a gift horse in the mouth, but that jeep is costing us $5 to $12 per day just to get around town. Yeah. It's getting at or below 15 miles to the gallon. We're putting gas on our credit card and I pray a little prayer every time I swipe it.

Why do we drive so much? Mind you, the school system doesn't BUS people anymore, on account of streamlining the school budget and creating more efficiency in the system. So instead of ONE vehicle carrying 40 kids to school, there are now 40 vehicles each carrying 1 kid to school. You know....EFFICIENCY. Driving kids to school alone (one goes to preschool at another location) is sucking up at least $4.


The point is, this Jeep is costing us a bundle just to feed it, so now I'm on the lookout for a different car. My plan was this: Sell the Jeep, then turn around and take that dough to buy something nice and fuel efficient.

I haven't shopped cars for a while but seeing as how we got our Ford Escort with 44,000 miles on in for $3800 in 2003 I was all, like, "Yeah...accouting for inflation, I'll probably find me a nice cheap no frills car for around $5000 to $6000....yeah...yeah..."

Nope.

Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING in the 40,000 mileage area tends to cost between $8000 and $10,000. Even Ford Focuses with 160,000 miles on 'em are priced in the $9,000 to $10,000 range. It's nuts.

That's well beyond my current...er....means, let's say. I'm looking for something more in the $4000 to $6000 range cuz that's about what I may be able to sell the Jeep for.

Forget about getting a loan.

I recently went to one of those weird car dealerships that has the No Credit/Bad Credit deal thingies....I went just to look at the cars to see if they had a car for the $5000 range. I was brought in, may kids were shown to the "play room" and I was given an presentation about how the company works and was told that a finance specialist would be out shortly to talk to me and that would take "only" fifteen minutes.....

I interrupted "Look....I.....I just want to know if you have any cars under $6000?

She finally relented and escorted me to their pricing board where EVERY SINGLE CAR, from the 1999 Ford Taurus to the 2002 Chevy Cavalier to the 2003 Kia Spectra was priced at the insanely and inappropriately high amount of TWELVE TTHHHHHHHHHHHOUSAND DOLLARS with, get this, a $95 a month car payment. As in "YOU WILL BE PAYING FOR THIS PIECE OF SHIT FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE."

THAT, my friends, is predatory.

Anyway.

This gas situation is kicking our butts. The car situation is kicking our butts. Sounds like it's not just us. It's an epidemic. Folks are scrambling for junkers all at once and so prices are through the roof. But hey............thank GOD we don't have a more robust Socialist train system, eh? Am I right?

Court Kill Heating Assistance and Renewable Energy with One Stone

Not only are we watching heating assistance for 95,000 low income families come to an abrupt end with no resolution or action from our legislature. But we also get to watch the de-funding of a Lake Michigan platform for researching the viability of offshore wind power.

Two in one blow!

The Michigan Public Service Commission set up and administers the "Low Income and Energy Efficiency Fund" as per the Customer Choice and Electricity Reliability Act of 2000.

What does it do? For one, it helps low income families pay for heat in the winter. It ALSO invests in energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. It has for most of a decade.

But that was then. This is now:

"The courts earlier this summer ruled that the Public Service Commission did not have legislative authority in the latest Michigan energy law to fund the Low Income and Energy Efficiency Fund

The Michigan Public Service Commission, under new law, no longer has the AUTHORITY to FUND the Low Income and Energy Efficiency Fund.

Nor does it have the authority to GRANT funds from it. The court ruling earlier suggested that LIEEF was not about energy regulation (the mission of the Public Service Commission), but was a form of welfare, and therefore, the PSC has no authority to fund LIEEF, administer LIEEF, or grand funds from LIEEF.

Who does?

**shrug**

Who cares, right?

Does it really matter? The same Conservative leadership that shoved thousands of Michigan families out on the streets today during the worst jobs crisis in generations, now gets to stand by and watch 95,000 Michiganders off from heating assistance with no action.

And as a bonus, they get to deal a massive wound to renewable energy efforts.

This Law Directly Benefits Low Income Communities

The importance and brilliance ofUS Department of Agriculture's Community Eligibility Option, signed into law by President Obama last December as part of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, cannot be overstated.

What does it do?

For one, it directly targets and infuses money into poor neighborhoods.

For another it cuts the bullshit class warfare arguments in a community and just helps EVERY child in a given school district...no more pissing and moaning about why the poorest get free school lunches.

For another-nother, it also does this

A major goal of the program is to eliminate the stigma of receiving a free lunch, said Howard Leikert, supervisor of the state education department’s school nutrition programs.

Okay...not only is this program designed to help children with low income get access to a hot meal during the day, it is explicitly designed...EXPLICITLY DESIGNED to eliminate any stigma of receiving a free lunch in a community.

The program evaluates the economic eligibility of an entire school or district, rather than individual students, and if 40 percent of the school or district’s students qualify for free lunches, all students get them.

and

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates up to 10,000 schools in the country’s poorest neighborhoods will be able to participate, starting with the 2011-12 school year.

“Families won’t have to complete applications providing detailed information on their income. And schools won’t have to process those applications or have a cashier figure out whether to provide a free or reduced-price meal every time a child goes through the lunch line,” Zoe Neuberger, a senior policy analyst with the Center, wrote in a blog post.

This is direct help for POOR COMMUNITIES.

DIRECTLY targeting poor communities. DIRECTLY reducing financial burden on ALL FAMILIES WITH CHILDREN in poor communities.

The city of Flint, Michigan will be among the first communities in the Nation to receive free lunches for the entire school system.

Last year, 81 percent of Flint students qualified for free lunches, according to Michigan Department of Education data from last fall, the most recent figures available.

Education Department figures show about 41 percent of the state’s (Michigan) 1.57 million students qualify for the meals.

EIGHTY ONE PERCENT of children in FLINT. 81%!

What makes one qualify?

Free and reduced lunch eligibility is set using poverty levels. For example, students from families making at or below 130 percent of the poverty level — $28,665 for a family of four — qualified for free meals last school year.

Families have been getting HAMMERED nationwide.

This law DIRECTLY TARGETS low income FAMILIES and low income, high poverty COMMUNITIES.