Clunker Pickups: New Analysis
Filed under: Autos
According to the latest data, the recent Cash for Clunkers program set up to rid gas guzzling cars from our roads did not do as good a job as first thought. It had been hoped that more fuel-efficient vehicles would take the place of a number of old vehicles, but the new models only have slightly better gas mileage figures.
The biggest swap was recorded to be old Ford 150 pickups being traded in for newer models, the old pickups used to get 15mph whereas the new models achieve 17mpg, many trucks averaged between 1 to 3mpg differences, not much in the grand scale of things.
The government admitted to spending $562,500 in rebates for new cars that offered worse mileage figures than the old cars being replaced, this was a violation of the requirements of the program. The government is now in the process of investigating the issue.
According to the Associated Press, more than 95,000 new vehicles purchased under the program got less than 20mpg. This certainly goes against the intended plan of the program, it seems that the government was not strict enough and should have set stronger guidelines.
Do you think that the recent Cash for Clunkers program was a failure or success?
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