Andrée Seu Peterson on the "Time" cover 
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America’s top clunker
Although it appears Washington’s Cash for Clunkers program may be on the brink of extinction, it seems a number of U.S. car owners have taken advantage of the program in order to purge one particular vehicle from their lives: the Ford Explorer. Six different model year Explorers landed on the Top 10 list of trade-in clunkers–and the rest were all domestic vehicles. Here’s the complete list:
- 1998 Ford Explorer
- 1997 Ford Explorer
- 1996 Ford Explorer
- 1999 Ford Explorer
- Jeep Grand Cherokee
- Jeep Cherokee
- 1995 Ford Explorer
- 1994 Ford Explorer
- 1997 Ford Windstar
- 1999 Dodge Caravan
So what new cars are Americans trading in for? Here’s the Top 10 list:
- Ford Focus
- Toyota Corolla
- Honda Civic
- Toyota Prius
- Toyota Camry
- Ford Escape
- Hyundai Elantra
- Dodge Caliber
- Honda Fit
- Chevy Cobalt
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back to top36 Comments to “America’s top clunker”
Almost 130,000 miles on my ‘02 Civic and it runs as good as it did the day I bought it.
The original battery lasted 7 years.
I get 40+ MPG on the highways, still.
It gets 37 MPG around town.
I am thankful for it.
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If they’re taking Ford Explorers off the market like that, it’s good the program ran outta cash. We want to get an Explorer. Actually, we’d be after a newer one, so that’s OK.
Either a big Explorer or a regular Expedition. Whatever, it would be in lieu of my real preference: Chevy Suburban. Our old one still sits in the garage, too tough to be turned into dog food.
Now to see if the time stamp for this post will be 8:42 instead of the 5:42 it is here on the Best Coast.
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So, how does this program help the economy if 7 of the 10 top sellers are foreign? I suppose that it helps keep the jobs in the US of those who make the Japanese cars.
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So Cash For Clunkers is a program where you trade in a clunky American car for a Japanese one. Good idea!
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Nobody trading in their Cadillac, Mercury/Lincoln, Lexus, Mercedes, Hummer, etc?
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¥ Have you ever wondered what the Japanese do with their clunkers???? ¥
¥
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People buy the Cobalt? On purpose?
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Peter L — Hyundai has a nice plant down in Alabama. Foreign-owned marques does not necessarily mean foreign-made (as percentage of parts). Weirdly, some “foreign” name plates have more domestic content than some domestic names. Go figure.
News out of Detroit yesterday was the first profitable month for Ford in two years — large measure because of the cash for clunkers. As the list notes, people seem to like their Focus. (And had you been a gambler a while back, your Ford stock would have done you very, very well, up 250+ % YTD).
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I was noticing that some of the critics make the point that these purchases this month may mean lean months ahead. I also wonder if there were any buyers who thought they made a mistake and wanted their old car back, not realizing that it would be crushed and the metal recycled.
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The Explorer I own came to me after my brother’s divorce. I’m surprised he didnt give it to one of his kids. Given all the infamy surrounding Ford Exploders and Firestone tires, I’m not surprised those are popular vehicles. SUVs in general arent really appropriate unless your Mom-chauffeur to a passle of kiddos and a Great Dane or two. Mine is used to drive to and from work (maybe all of 3 mi one-way)
And as others have written there are profitable car plants in Alabama. Mercedes built a truck plant there and many municipalities began purchasing those trucks for maintenance fleets. Which meant most city street crew men and women drove more expensive vehicles on the job than they did off work!
I still foresee the eventual rot of the Detroit-centric auto industry. Any job you gotta pay some stiff upwards of $30/hour to do should be exported to wherever the prevailing wage rate is cheaper. The only unionized jobs in the USA that won’t disappear are the post office and govt jobs at all levels. (We tried to offshore the Foodstamp call center in Texas and whatta ruckus that created!)
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This clunkers deal has inspired a Kramer-from-Seinfeld get rich quick scheme. He and George could fly to Mexico, then fly to Cuba and buy up several of the old Edsels and Buicks still puttering around the streets of Havana. Then have the vehicles shipped to Mexico and pay illegals to sneak them up to some Texas car-dealer’s lot for a clunker turn in.
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I briefly thought about using the program to trade in the 1992 Chevrolet Lumina, but the gas mileage on it is too good. I am glad now, though, because it still runs (only 108,000 miles) and I’d hate for it to be scrapped. I apologize for not thinking through – it just seemed to be too good a deal to pass up.
And, we qualify as a family who needs the Yukon XL. There is nothing better for a trip with 8 and all the stuff. But most of the time, it stays parked in the garage. Even the Lumina gets better gas mileage and is easier to drive.
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Sawgunner: Except you have to show proof that you’ve had the car registered and insured for a year (I think, maybe longer) prior to the trade-in date. The law doesn’t allow such schemes.
So George and Kramer are, once again, victims of their failure to read the fine print.
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I don’t drive a clunker. I drive a foreign car; a Subaru. However, I don’t particularly mind the program if it can get the polluters off the streets and can buy us a psychological boost. Partaking in this program isn’t necessarily only a financial question for most people. Older cars tend to break down more often. There is a “security” element over and above the “It’ll take me 7.5 years to save that much gas” line. We needed something to jump start car sales and provide a little psychological boost from an economic perspective. I say renew the program.
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#13 I think the best idea they hatched up was putting homeless guys to work pulling rickshaws
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#13 You would of course have to bribe Mexican title office employees and insurance folks to type in the forms to show ownership for the required time period.
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Toyota Corolla is made in Fremont California.
Honda Civic is made in East Liberty Ohio.
Toyota Prius is made in America as of 7/08 (probably in Fremont).
Toyota Camry is made in Georgetown Kentucky.
Of all the cars on the best selling list the Hyundai Elantra is the only one that isn’t assembled at least in part in the USA.
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KEEBLER, We had a ‘91 Chevy Lumina, two door that went over 295,000 and still averaged 30 MPH, (original motor and trans). Most of the miles were highway from my husband’s commute. It was built in Canada and was the best car we ever owned.
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Isn’t this just car welfare (”Carfare”)?
It’s nice to see the Big 3 company that didn’t take the bailout doing well. Granted, Ford is benefiting from Carfare, but relatively better management and relatively better products must be playing a role.
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I bet if George and Kramer did bring cars from Cuba they could sell them to collectors for a lot more than $4500. A collector would give that or more for a 55 Chevy in good condition. Even if it doesn’t run, a car of that vintage can sell for $5000, especially if the body is in good shape (little/no rust or dents). I know this because a friend occasionally goes out to California and buys such classics cheap, then brings them to Missouri and sells them for a profit. He had a ‘57 that sold for $7000, even though it ran rough and needed a paint job.
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No, I’m not giving up the Mercury Grand Marquis. I use $20 a week in gas, including the air conditioning.
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NJL, you must not do a lot of driving. That’s not a very efficient vehicle. But then again if you don’t do a lot of driving, who cares right?
I’m looking at bikes right now! We should have a program for them. I’d gladly trade in my old car for a $4,500 bike (/drools a little bit)! My biggest car expense is insurance, not gas.
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#19 RKG Isn’t this just car welfare (”Carfare”)?
Yup! This is a government program that let’s you buy stuff with other people’s money. A Japanese car dealer gets $4500. The value of your car is immediately lost to a crusher and landfill. And the taxpayer get’s saddled with $10,000 in debt and interest. What a deal!
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We’ve already refuted those points, Xion. Please try and keep up. A Japanese “car dealer” won’t get any money unless you go to dealer in Japan! If you mean a Japanese car manufacturer, I showed in post 17 how the Toyota’s and Honda making the top ten list are assembled in the USA. Yeah, Japanese companies certainly make money, but these are internationally traded companies. Plenty of U.S. Americans have stock and holdings in Toyota and Honda.
They the old wasteful cars get destroyed. That’s how we achieve the reduction of millions of tons of CO2 and other toxic emissions from our air. But you’re comment that the value of those polluting cars is “lost to landfills” is idiotic and it’s also patently untrue. The price of metal is going up, and the scrap metal industry hasn’t disappeared because we instituted a stimulus plan.
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No, I don’t drive a lot at all. I have not gone 10,000 miles in two years. But the mileage is not as bad as you’d think, no worse than my Olds Ciera. And it is comfortable for my bad leg — the “luxury” helps because the seat has a lumbar support and I can move it electronically to just the right spot. This is the fanciest car I’ve ever had, and these old bones wouldn’t trade the comfort for $4500. I waited a long time to get this car, and I’m paying for it myself. There’s nothing wrong with working for it.
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A buy American provision in the cash for clunkers program would be a no-brainer except for the fact that it’s against the law according to the free trade treaties so popular with Republicans.
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KWatson,
No. It’s not a no-brainer. Tons of Honda’s and Toyota’s are manufactured in the U.S. And even if they weren’t tons of American’s have their retirements invested in Toyota and Honda! The U.S. economy can’t thrive if the foreign companies we all invest in are descriminated against. It’s easy to call conservatives hypocrites, but in this case they are also flat out WRONG! Go with that.
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NJLawyer,
One of my first cars was a Mercury Marquis, loved it. Drove it everywhere. Had the best eight track tape player ! (Yes it was old!) You could not get the eight track to skip no matter how big a bump you drove over. Sadly I traded it in when I upgraded a few times. I wish I had just garaged it somewhere.
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They the old wasteful cars get destroyed. That’s how we achieve the reduction of millions of tons of CO2 and other toxic emissions from our air.
Gee, some people will believe anything. ‘Millions of tons’ , yeah , right.
We achieve reduction in hot air gases when liberals stop mouthing insanities. C:þ…pthhh
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Were these cars properly maintained—as all cars need to be—their measly few miles per gallon deficit short of the “new” norm this program seeks to achieve by eliminating them from the road hardly translates to some massive reduction in anything. That is, other than roughly 700,000 vehicles—or .368% of the national motor pool of 190 million vehicles—that used to be potential transportation for those unable to afford new or late model used cars.
Essentially all that will happen is that an engine shortage—because they’re recycling everything but the engine—will mean proper replacement engines designed for these car models will disappear from the after market forcing mechanics to put other unsuitable engines into still usable car bodies. Knowing gearheads as I do, I’d suggest the propensity will be to install larger engines than necessary to move the vehicle further negating the mpg gain and CO2 reduction supposedly achieved by the program.
Not to mention that the chopped up engines are to be shipped to China in hardly greenhouse gas free trains and ships that wouldn’t be required at all were the cars allowed to age and die natural deaths within miles of where they first hit the road—as most vehicles do.
But, the UAW is happy. Detroit is happy. Bankrupt manufacturers will show profit. The recession can be declared over. Congress can buy private jets they admonish others for using. Life is good.
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#24 Mynock.
OK, I think I understand. If you buy a Toyota or Honda, no Japanese company gets any money. Got it. Thanks.
Second point. I have an 11 year old Toyota 4Runner with 250,000 miles. It’s value according to my bank is $7600. If it is crushed, you are telling me no value is lost? OK. Appreciate it.
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#30 Your last line about the new jets for congress is spot on. When will this ever stop?
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While I haven’t researched it, Toyota, Hyundai, Kia, etc., while they may have manufacturing plants in the US, are still headquartered in other countries, and thus, while purchasing one of them may help our economy to some degree- or more specifically the plant workers- we are really helping the foreign enterprise much more. The program would have been much more effective if it had stipulated that the rebate would only go toward the purchase of a vehicle from one of the U.S. big three automakers, with perhaps an extra incentive if the purchase had been made from one of the two bankrupt companies. U.S carmakers need our $$ much more than Toyota, Hyundai, or Kia. Too bad the administration couldn’t have found a way to keep ALL of our money here.
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You donot need actual vouchers or coupons to partipate in this program. All dealers are required and government will
reimburse the fees for the clunkers
Henry
Blogger
http://www.cashforclunkersfacts.info
http://www.cashforclunkersfacts.info
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Both trucks are car qualify for the Cash For Clunkers but not the motorcycles.
Henry
Blogger
http://www.cashforclunkersfacts.info
http://www.cashforclunkersfacts.info
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“while they may have manufacturing plants in the US, are still headquartered in other countries, and thus, while purchasing one of them may help our economy to some degree- or more specifically the plant workers- we are really helping the foreign enterprise much more.”
Do you have any numbers? I haven’t looked. However, if it is as you say, and there is a manufacturing plant making the parts and assembling them here in the US, there is a whole string of benefits. The land for the plant is purchased or leased, construction workers build the plant designed by engineers and architects, building code inspectors inspect, roofers build a roof, then people operate equipment and clean the buildings, people are employed to assemble the cars, workers and sales people staff the dealerships, employees are employed to service the vehicles, usually under warranty if they’re new … . . . A positive chain of events for us as we try to end the Great Bush Recession of 2007.
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