Friends and family occasionally ask if we, as a company working with auto loans, saw a bump in our number of transactions based on the Cash for Clunkers program. The answer is yes, and we also see a follow-on decline in those transactions.
I thought this was interesting since I would not have claimed that we have a pulse on the industry (our customers come from all over in various markets). I found a new Google tool that highlights financial trends. Clicking on the "Google Auto Buyers Index" makes it *very* obvious that there was an industry bump. I doubt our transactions could have failed to reflect that bump.
Overall the program is probably neutral for us. People's need for cars is pretty stable - a decline in the economy probably just means more used cars change hands instead of new ones. Thanks for asking. :)
