Ford Motor Company Gets Minimal Effect of Cash for Clunkers While Most Automakers Lose Ground

While Chevrolet and Chrysler are seemingly out of the running, having sold fewer autos than it did a year earlier, 250,000 clunkers are claimed to have been traded for gas guzzlers that get a little better mileage, the average of 15.5 MPG trade in Vs 24.5 MPG new acquisition (9 MPG Difference), but along with the savings comes a monthly bill although amortized, still is around or better than $10,000.00.

If this was an effort to help the American automakers it gets a resounding "F" for failure. Four out of five, 80% of these trades were for foreign owned automobile manufacturers, Japanese automakers like Subaru and Hyundai, now 50,000 automobiles may sound like a lot, but the real figures when matched to the same period in 08, shows a different story.

Example, setting the auto sales on equal footing for July 2008 and July 2009 we see that there was NO benefit from the cash for clunker program "NONE". "NONE" in fact it was a total waste of taxpayer resources.

Ford: sales for July 2008 were 138,175 units, while its sales under the program July 2009 were 142,135 units a difference of only 3,960 automobiles, a mere 3% difference.

But Ford took this away from competitors like GM, Dodge, Chevrolet, Pontiac, BMW, Cadillac, Saturn and Chrysler who sold fewer units, actually this combined group sold exactly 50,000 fewer cars in 09 than it did in 08. Think about that, in other words there was a shift of consumers that would have bought a new car anyway and they didn't all go to Ford. In fact the group of 27 auto manufacturers sold a total of 162,000 fewer autos in July 09, than it did in July 08.

Mercury: sales for July 2008 were 9,412 units, while its sales under the program July 2009 were 10,031 units a difference of only 619 automobiles.

Subaru: sales for July 2008 were 16,271 units, while its sales under the program July 2009 were 21,893 units a difference of 5,622 automobiles and a showing much better than Ford. Subaru had a 34% increase from a year earlier.

Volvo: sales for July 2008 were 5,124 units, while its sales under the program July 2009 were 6,441 units a difference of 1,317 automobiles, a 26% increase from 08.

Hyundai: sales for July 2008 were 40,703 units, while its sales under the program July 2009 were 45,553 units a difference of only 4,850 automobiles again better than Ford, and an increase of 12% from a year earlier.

The other 27 Automakers, all lost ground, as they sold fewer autos during the government promotion than it did in the same period a year earlier. In fact in total the market was flat.
In short the Cash for clunkers was a total waste of money, did nothing to stimulate the economy, and actually cost the taxpayers, through creating a future obligation to support those who would have purchased a car anyway.