Clunkers Results: Old Truck for New Truck
November 9th, 2009
Breakdown of cash-for-clunker swaps : Despite early evidence that Cash for Clunkers did well, the final statistics are a little depressing.
The single most common swap: an old Ford F-150 pickup for a new F-150. Owners of that pickup were 17 times more likely to buy a new F-150 than, say, a Toyota Prius. The new pickups’ EPA combined city/highway mileage ratings ranged from 15 mpg to 17 mpg, depending on the powertrain and other factors, up 1 mpg to 3 mpg over the old ones.
Perhaps this a bright spot? There much have been a lot of higher mileage trade-ins for these numbers to come up from the F-150 scenario mentioned above.
The data show the overall average fuel economy for the clunker trade-ins was 15.8 mpg combined rating, and the average for new vehicles purchased was 24.9 mpg.