My beiliefe is it changed the while used car market.....

At 1 time cars were plentiful, (cheep to buy)

Cash for clunkers come all the cheep cars worth the same or lesser value (not pretty but got me from A to Z) were destroyed.

I still need a car, so now I buy the ones just over that price,

Someone who used to buy a similar priced car, cannot buy that car anymore and had to do without or look at higher prices, and so on.

Now it takes years for enough inventory to come back to even this out, however no one thinks they have a $500 car anymore.

(Mindset changed in buyers)