Inappropriate or not, the picture looks weird. Something is not quite right with the hands...

I think Ken has made some good points in regard to older cars that usually would work great on the used car market for between 1.000 and 1.500€ for cheap transportation. Instead they get traded in as "junk" cars when buying a new one or one that has been previously registered as a dealer's car. Although sometimes the incentive lets you take an easy way out as with my mother’s ‘95 Golf Cabriolet that had just 120.000 km on the clock (working perfectly with no mechanical problems whatsoever and good equipment on board like double airbags etc) which was traded in when buying a new BMW120i Convertible. It probably would have fetched the same price on the used car market (maybe a little more) but now the dealer takes care of all written work and so on to receive the 2.500€ incentive and disposes of the old car. Saves my dad the hassle of posting the car and selling it himself.

As for numbers: The debate rising up in the last few days has a strong political connotation as Germany has a general election in fall ’09. So some of the comments regarding the extension of the incentives program is pure politics. Fact is that by the end of this week 350.000 new/almost new cars have been bought (or contracts have been signed) using the 2.500€ payment per purchase. What is left from the original 1.5 billion € will last for another 250.000 vehicle purchases and politicians as well as car lobbyists are warning that by Easter the money will be all used up…

German website areadvd reports the list price being 1499 EUR.