Clunker Math (from a friend in Dallas)...
>
> A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of
> gasoline.
>
> A vehicle at 25 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a year.
> So, the average best-case clunker transaction will reduce US gasoline
> consumption by 800 - 480 = 320 gallons per year.
>
> It is claimed that 700,000 vehicles were traded in, so that's 0.7M * 320
> = 224 million gallons / year.
>
> That requires a little over 5 million barrels of oil to produce.
>
> In one year we thus save 5 million barrels of oil, which is about ¼ of
> one day's US consumption
>
> (see
>
formatting link
>
> 5 million barrels of oil costs about $350 million dollars at $75/barrel.
>
> So, we all contributed to spending $3 billion plus administration
> costs, to save $350 million.
>
> This is not 350 million a year because a clunker life expectancy would
> not be very long anyway.
>
> Most barely made it to the dealer!
>
> Further, what many now save on gas costs will probably only mean that
> they will drive farther.
>
> I guess success is all about political performance and mileage, not
> saving gas or handling recession.
Your analysis neglects to mention the amount of oil that went into producing the more efficient new cars, too, for that matter.
The Cash for Clunkers plan was about stimulating the economy, any concessions made to fuel efficiency was just verdebabble.