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The issue isn't that "foreign" brand cars (U.S. made or not) were the highest selling brands being traded in for.
The issue is that the entire program was highly anti-progressive.
Lower middle-class taxpayers disproportionately footed the bill so upper-middle and upper-class new car fanciers could trade in their gas-guzzling SUV's for sweet hybrids. They were having a bad case of buyers' remorse (thinking about those boys dying in Iraq and Afghanistan so they could enjoy having two air-conditioners in their Armada?) They also missed that new car smell.
Free gov'ment money to buy a new car? You've got to be kidding! Sign me up and call me patriotic! You're a "great American!"
The whole program was an abuse of the public trust. It was rushed out in a panicky, experimental way, and smells too much of auto execs (foreign and domestic) and elitist government wonks. Worst of all, it didn't really help the socio-economic class of under-employed and working-poor who could have used something like it the most.
