AP IMPACT: Clunker pickups traded for new pickups

[thundley4]

AP article on Yahoo.  Quite funny about how the plan backfired.

• 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.
• A driver in Arlington, Va., traded a 1999 Ford Explorer with 15 mpg in July for $3,500 toward a new $28,000 Jeep Commander that weighs about 4,700 pounds and gets 16 mpg.
• In at least 32 deals, drivers traded older vehicles for new large trucks — including versions of Toyota Tundras, GMC Sierras, Chevrolet Silverados, Dodge Rams and Ford F150 pickups — that got only 14 mpg.
• A driver in West, Texas, earned $4,500 in July in exchange for a 1989 Chevrolet Suburban SUV that got 14 mpg and bought a 2009 Suburban that weighed 5,900 pounds and got 16 mpg. Across Texas, seven of the 10 most common transactions involved drivers trading old pickups for new ones.

Car-crazy California led clunker sales with more than 76,000 trade-ins, followed by Texas with roughly 43,000 and New York with nearly 37,000. In California, the Honda Civic was the No. 1 new car and no pickups ranked higher than 18th. In New York, the Hyundai Elantra was No. 1.

Damn libruls in Califruitopia and New Yawk, couldn't even buy American cars. 

[bkg]

IIRC well over 1/2 of the cars sold were not Detroit based brands.

[thundley4]

I think Ford had the only Detroit based vehicles in the top ten.

[Chris]

To qualify for C4C, trucks and vans only had to have a 1-2 mpg improvement over the trade-in models.