Some Interesting Global Cash-For-Clunkers Stats

A couple of compilations of cash-for-clunckers results have recently shown up on the web and the results are, well, not at all surprising.  The program funded by the US government (read: taxpayers) successfully achieved two things: it boosted sales of Japanese brands, and eliminated thousands of perfectly good (in some cases exotic) vehicles from the road.

Jalopnik discovered this visualization on Political Math Blog, which shows which countries supplied the most clunkers, and which ones picked up some extra sales as a result of the refunds.  Japanese branded vehicles sold the most by far – a total of 319,341.  I say Japanese brands, because many of those vehicles may have actually been built in the U.S.  American cars topped the list of clunkers, however.  Should any of this really be surprising though?

On a more depressing note, Car and Driver sought out a list of the more interesting and desirable cars to be scrapped.  According to their count, 123 Corvettes (1984-1995) bit the dust.  I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by that either, but it doesn’t make it any less of a shame.  More shocking is the fact that a 2005 RX-8, a 1997 Aston Martin DB7 Volante and a total of 9 Mercedes Benz 500SL’s became clunkers before all was said and done.  I just really hope those cars with sticker prices over $100k weren’t traded in for Toyota Corollas.

It’s a shame that this artificial boost in sales ended the lives of so many genuinely good vehicles.  I’m not convinced there is evidence that it really did any lasting good for the (U.S.) economy or the environment.  To make matters worse, Japan has followed suit with it’s own adaption of a cash-for-clunkers type incentives which excludes the purchase of non-Japanese vehicles.  As if they hadn’t already done enough damage…