Cash for Clunkers: American stimulus?

The recent government program that is known as cash for clunkers issued for economic stimulus has left me with one question: are we really benefiting ourselves as was portrayed by the program. Looking at the list of most popular vehicles purchased through this program on a wisdom journal blog answers my question real quick and the answer is no. 8 out of the top ten vehicles purchased in the cash for clunkers program were foreign made cars and every single car in the top ten for trade ins were American cars. How are we to stimulate our own economy when we are buying cars from foreign manufactures? It is true that many of these foreign cars were manufactured in U.S. plants but more money would go to the American economy if an American car was bought instead of the foreign car. I never heard that any of the American foreign car company plants were shutting down production or completely closing. The program should have been written to for only the purchase of an American made car you could get this rebate. This clearly would have stimulated our economy even more than it apparently did if it was executed properly. It is things like this that make me question what the government is doing to help get us out of debt. Even though it sounds like a good idea it clearly was not and besides all of this; if we the people are having problems with money our selves, why are we buying new cars anyway? Have we forgotten about the all the payments other than the down payment? Cars are expensive and if you take care of your so called clunker properly and take action to try and make your driving in general more fuel efficient it’s a lot better and a hell of a lot cheaper in the long run.