I'll trade you my clunker for...some debt?

Talk to most area new car dealers and you'll likely learn that the government's Cash for Clunkers program has been a success.

Thanks to the program, demand for new cars is on the rise while dealer inventories are shrinking.

However, there seems to be a dark side of the program that many customers will likely experience soon.

And that dark side is debt. Lot's of debt.

The program has attracted the wallets of people not in the right financial position to buy a car. Advertisements seem to scream that you can save up to $4,500 on a new car.

Who could resist that kind of offer. Even I was thinking of buying a new car.

But I knew that, even if bought an $18,000 car and saved $4,500 by trading in my current set of wheels, I would still be stuck with a loan of $13,500. That's not a very wise decision to make during a recession.

I know the government needs people to spend money to get the economy back on track, but it shouldn't be at the expense of throwing more people into debt just to sell a few more sedans.