Cash For Clunkers Datapoint of the Day

Good on the AP for FOIAing the details of how cash-for-clunkers played out:

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. 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.

It gets worse:

In at least 145 cases the government reported consumers traded old vehicles that got better than or the same mileage as the new vehicle they purchased. A driver in Negaunee, Mich., traded a 1987 Suburban that got 18 mpg for $3,500 toward a new Silverado pickup that got only 15 mpg. An Indianapolis driver traded a 1985 Mercedes 190 that got 27 mpg for $3,500 toward a new Volkswagen Rabbit that got only 24 mpg.

In at least 15 deals in nine states, owners of large pickups cashed in old trucks for between $3,500 and $4,500 toward new Hummer H3 SUVs that got only 16 mpg.

I think this is safely the worst policy implemented to date by the Obama administration: it has almost nothing in the way of redeeming features. Let’s hope it was some kind of weird aberration.

(HT Hiskes, via)

Comments

[User 353732:]

For the current US Regime the aberrant is the norm.
This was but a peccadillo compared to the vast economic, financial and social engineering perversions that America is being inflicted with.....with deliberate haste and malice aforethought.

Nov 09 04:46 PM

[Tony Petroski:]

From the article:

"I think this is safely the worst policy implemented to date by the Obama administration: it has almost nothing in the way of redeeming features. Let’s hope it was some kind of weird aberration."

Paying wealthy people from taxes levied on everyone to buy vehicles that they would have bought anyway with little or no gain in mileage usage and then to destroy the old vehicles at significant costs all to save the planet from warming and to lower the sea levels.

And there are those who laugh at the ancients for dancing to create rain and praying to the sun god.

Yes, weird it is. But is it any weirder than giving total control of the economy to people who have never produced anything in their lives and have never run anything other than a campaign?

Nov 09 04:54 PM

[Mayascribe:]

Felix and USER 353732: According to YellowHoard, some people were buying road ready golf carts for about $8500, and getting the rebate. For people who live in the center of the country, and haven't visited, there are scads of Florida islands that do not allow cars.

I know, because I have been to North Captiva on the west coast of Florida. Flew in on a single engine Cessna, and was met by the postman, who also was the island's law enforcer. He picked us up in a three-seater golf cart, and took us directly to where we could rent one.

Cash For Clunkers was absolute stupidity, as was/is most of the policies coming out of DC.

Nov 09 04:54 PM

[tripleblack:]

Absolutely accurate. I class Clunkers with the Mortgage Assistance program. NOT the most dangerous program flowing from our national leadership, but most definitely kooky.


On Nov 09 04:46 PM User 353732 wrote:

> For the current US Regime the aberrant is the norm.
> This was but a peccadillo compared to the vast economic, financial
> and social engineering perversions that America is being inflicted
> with.....with deliberate haste and malice aforethought.

Nov 09 05:00 PM

[matt...:]

I thought there mileage requirements for the trade-ins? The MSM made it sound like you had to gain a certain % increase in MPG to qualify for the rebate? Am I just misinformed, or was there some kind of gaping loophole?

Nov 09 06:23 PM

[Steve0:]

Come on, 67% of the 3 billion dollars was use to purchase commuter high mileage vehicles. The program more than exceeded it's stated goal to help stimulate the economy and as you avoid in your article move old inefficient cars off the road. People took advantage of the program just as planned, stagnant inventory was moved off the dealers lots in mass. The ripple effect will be felt in the industry for at least a year. As for the pickup truck issue you choose to use as a political statement. Hello, some people work in jobs or have life styles that require a large vehicle to move stuff in the bed of the truck. Please! What do you think a family of 6 would drive that gets 40 miles to the gallon?

Nov 09 09:25 PM

[Mr. Ed, Jr.:]

"I think this is safely the worst policy implemented to date by the Obama administration: it has almost nothing in the way of redeeming features. Let’s hope it was some kind of weird aberration."

I have a hunch the author's comment (above) will be needed at the end of just about every article on Obama administration policies. Copy/paste is probably most efficient.

Nov 10 02:40 AM

[woosht:]

"The new data, obtained by the AP under the Freedom of Information Act, include details of 677,081 clunker trade-ins processed by the government through Oct. 16."

So.. 15 (.00002%, if you're counting) of those got an H3! What Lucky Ducks!
And.. 145 (.0002%, which is TEN times the number of H3 recipients, OMG) of them have some sort of discrepancy in the paperwork or even (gasp) a mistake in the trade in!

"The data show the average fuel economy was 15.8 mpg for the old vehicles and 24.9 for the new ones."
..Sounds like the real datapoint here is that scoring cheap political points is always in vogue on the internets!

Nov 10 02:56 AM

[Mike from NYC:]

The Clunkers program was a clunker if its main goal was to create JOBS.

Why were cars NOT made in the USA included in the program? Not the American way? Not fair?

All's not fair in love and economics, to paraphrase an old expression. This isn't about being fair, but about creating jobs for Americans.

Why should my tax $ be used to put Koreans to work? Let the Korean government subsidize Korean cars. Korea has been subsidized by the US Taxpayer, as well as Japan, since the end of WWII by our military force and expenditures on weapons to protect Korea and Japan.

If the clunkers idea is the best that the Obama administration and especially the Goldmanites can come up with our country is doomed.

I voted for 'Change I can Believe In' and I get this crappy idea as well as all the other crappy ideas that have come out of the government since late January.

Nov 10 12:05 PM

[Glenn Mercer:]

Just a non-ideological comment (rare on Seeking Alpha...) remember that, whether arguing for or against CforC, that MPG is a tricky, even flawed, number to use in evaluating impact. Example:

1. Assume I have a big SUV, gets 10 MPG. Now I swap it in for another SUV, gets 13 MPG.

2. Assume I have a small sedan, gets 33 MPG. I swap it for another sedan, gets 43 MPG.

Only a 3 MPG improvement in the first, but 10 MPG better in the second. Average American (not saying Seeking Alpha readers won't be smarter) says example 2 is a bigger improvement. But is it?

Assume in both examples the owner drives 100 miles per year (yeah, I know, but bear with me). In example 1 by swapping vehicles the owner saves 2.3 gallons (10 gallons down to 7.7). In example 2 he or she saves only about 1 gallon (3.3. to about 2.3).

My point is, small changes to MPG when MPG is low are more impressive than the metric indicates.

If in the second example the car is swapped for an incredible MPG star, that gets... gasp!... 100 MPG .... it saves only 2 gallons over the year... same as the big ol' SUV swap.

This is why in Europe they use liters/100 km traveled, makes comparisons simpler!

Nov 11 09:39 AM