Congress now has sent its “Cash for Clunkers” bill to President Obama to sign into law, but most Americans oppose the plan to encourage people to trade in old cars for new, more fuel-efficient models.
Twenty-eight percent (28%) of Americans say it’s at least somewhat likely that they will be personally impacted by the closing of General Motors and Chrysler dealerships across the country. But just nine percent (9%) say it’s very likely, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Eighty percent (80%) of U.S. voters want the government to sell its stake in General Motors and Chrysler as soon as possible.
Just 33% of Americans think it is even somewhat likely that the federal government will ever get back the $50 billion in bailout funds it has advanced to General Motors to keep the company in business. Only 11% say it’s very likely.
Forty-one percent (41%) of Americans expect the quality of General Motors cars to get worse now that the federal government is the majority owner of the bankrupt automaker.
Only 42% of those who currently own a General Motors car are even somewhat likely to buy a GM product for their next car. That figure includes just 30% who are Very Likely to do so.
Twenty-six percent (26%) of American adults believe it was a good idea for the federal government to take ownership of General Motors as the auto giant was on the verge of collapse. Nearly as many--17%--say that Americans should protest the bailout by boycotting GM and refusing to buy its cars. Most Americans are somewhere in between.
General Motors for decades has been the symbol of U.S. industrial might. “What’s good for General Motors is good for the country” is a quotation that has lingered in the popular imagination since it was first said over 50 years ago. And the truth is, at its high point in 1962, GM had 51 percent of the car and truck market to itself.
