Did American politicians learn the Cash for Clunkers lessons from Europe?

German_clunker There are good. There are bad, and…there are ugly cash for clunkers programs in Europe.

The program that everyone considers to be the bad one is the one that just got extended in Germany.

At first blush the German "no question asked" cash for clunkers program looks like a huge hit since new car sales are up by 40 percent in Germany. and in Germany at least, the only stipulation to the program is that you must scrap a car that's at least 9-years-old to get the $4,000 toward the purchase of a new car.

According to CTV.ca:

"New car sales in Germany are up 40 per cent from a year ago and sales haven't been this good since 1991.

But it's costing a fortune. When this clunker program arrived in
January, Berlin envisioned spending 1.5 billion euros to get 600,000
clunkers off the road.

But with an election around the corner, the government raised the
budget to 5.0 billion euros for two million cars and extended the
deadline through the end of 2009. Vote buying, perhaps?"

So now the biggest question on everyone's mind is what will happen to the car manufactures when the program in Germany and in France and even the U.K. expires?

How will a 40 percent drop in new car sales effect the European car manufactures?

That's a lesson that U.S. politicians would do well to learn as they are about to sign the American version of the program into law.