This is great. Think about this...
What group drives sub $4500 gas guzzlers? People with no money. Can they afford a new car? No. But, if they take this deal, and sign off on an insanely high interest rate loan, they can have a new car! But they still can't afford the damn thing.
Does this sound familiar at all?
Poor people couldn't afford houses. So they were sold houses with ARMs.. The lender knew they couldn't pay, the people knew they couldn't pay, but the deal was struck anyway. The interest rate went through the roof, the poor people got evicted, the house got repo'd, the bank got hammered with a loss.. The banks suffered, the investors suffered, the entire economy collapsed.
Hey, I have a brilliant idea, lets fuck the auto industry in exactly the same way! Hey poor people, come get your brand new cars!
I predict that in 5 years, resale value on civics, corollas, focuses, etc.. Is going to drop to half of what it would have been, maybe less. The market is going to be absolutely flooded with these things after 70% of them are repossessed. The auto lenders are going to go belly up hard core. This may be the final nail in the coffin for a few auto manufacturers.