Via Jonathan Hiskes at Grist, I see that the Associated Press has done some good investigative work on the swaps that occurred as part of the Cash for Clunkers program. The best news is that the change in average fuel economy was about 9 mpg (from 15.8 to 24.9 mpg, based on the figures in the article). But the details of the swaps are what will capture people's attention:
The most common deals under the government's $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program, aimed at putting more fuel-efficient cars on the road, replaced old Ford or Chevrolet pickups with new ones that got only marginally better gas mileage, according to an analysis of new federal data by The Associated Press.
The single most common swap — which occurred more than 8,200 times — involved Ford F-150 pickup owners who took advantage of a government rebate to trade their old trucks for new Ford F-150s. They were 17 times more likely to buy a new F-150 than, say, a Toyota Prius. The fuel economy for the new trucks ranged from 15 mpg to 17 mpg based on engine size and other factors, an improvement of just 1 mpg to 3 mpg over the clunkers.
Owners of thousands more large old Chevrolet and Dodge pickups bought new Silverado and Ram trucks, also with only barely improved mileage in the middle teens, according to AP's analysis of sales of $15.2 billion worth of vehicles at nearly 19,000 car dealerships in every state. Those deals helped the Ford F-150 and Chevy Silverado — along with Ford's Escape midsize SUV — climb into the Top 10 most-popular vehicles purchased with the government rebates. The most common truck-for-truck and truck-for-SUV deals totaled at least $911 million.
Haste makes waste -- even beyond the waste of paying people to destroy productive assets. Waiting another month to design a better program, with more mileage bang for the taxpayer's buck, wouldn't have been a terrible idea at all.
"Waiting another month to
"Waiting another month to design a better program, with more mileage bang for the taxpayer's buck, wouldn't have been a terrible idea at all."
Actually, there were a number of different proposals for Cash for Clunkers. Some had stronger provisions related to fuel economy. They just didn't get the support needed to pass. Check out HR 1550 and HR 520.....
robbnig the unseen man
I thought the best part of the program is that low income people would no longer have access to lots of good used cars and trucks at very low low prices -- they've all been turned into scrap metal.
Very low income folks would continue driving horrible poluting machines from the 70s and 80s, rather than good used cars from the 90s and 00s.
Cash for Clunkers
Cash for clunkers did not help the US auto industry, the environment or the economy. It just cost taxpayers, the poor and charities that rely on the revenue from car donation a lot of money.
Yes, the F 150 trade was the
Yes, the F 150 trade was the most common single traded.
It accounted for 1.2% of the total transactions.
Big deal.se
HORRIBLE SUMMARY of the
HORRIBLE SUMMARY of the program. The impression conveyed is NOT accurate. YES, the most common specific model to specific model swap was F-150 for F-150, and yes other truck for truck specific model deals were high on the list, HOWEVER, the appropriate conclusion to draw here is that the Category 2 truck market is concentrated in a few models, while the passenger car market is not. Specific to Ford -- Fewer than 28% of the number of category 2 or 3 Ford trucks traded in (the F-150 is among these) were replaced overall by a a category 2 or 3 Ford truck. This was a common trade-in (9.1% of all trade-ins), but they typically went with a lighter vehicle. The percentage of category 2 or 3 trucks declined from 19% to 7%. Note that 85% of trade-ins were category 1,2 or 3 trucks (only 15% passenger vehicles), but that 59% of new vehicles were passenger cars. Most trade-ins were category 1 trucks (lighter than an F-150), and most of these people bought passenger cars.