On Monday, our long, national gearhead nightmare officially ends. The government announced on Thursday that the mess of Cash For Clunkers will be put to rest. Maybe politicians decided that they had created enough havok, confusion, and false demand for one year. At least that’s our hope.

When a program like this “ends,” it never really does. We’ll guarantee that something similar will show its ugly head sooner rather than later, and once again, automotive enthusiasts will be the ones suffering at the hands of fools.

It’s great that the program is “ending” but it sucks to think about all the cars that have been wrecked or will be wrecked in the coming weeks from this madness.

Click to see the take of Business Week on this news.

According to that story, only $150 million of the $3 billion allotted has been paid back to the dealers, so they continue to float the government a big loan. Also, 40 percent of the paperwork submitted by dealers so far has been rejected by the government.

Business Week also reports, “The top 10 vehicles purchased were: Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, Ford Focus FWD, Toyota Camry, Toyota Prius, Hyundai Elantra, Ford Escape FWD, Honda Fit, Nissan Versa, and Honda CR-V 4WD. Just two of the top 10 were from U.S.
automakers, though six of the 10 vehicles are built in the U.S. By manufacturer, Toyota, as of Aug. 14, was the biggest beneficiary of the program, accounting for 18.9% of transactions. General Motors was No. 2, claiming 17.6% of sales.”

Pick your own poison, but we’re blasting down Jeagermeister bombs.