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.
Depends on what you define as a clunker. If they originate from Japanese manufacturers then they may last longer than the average US car.