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 “Cash for Clunkers” transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.
They claim 700,000 vehicles – so that’s 224 million gallons / year
That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.
5 million barrels of oil is about 1/4 of one day’s US consumption.
And, 5 million barrels of oil costs about $350
million dollars at $70/bbl.
So, we all contributed to spending $3 billion to save $350 million.
How good a deal was that ???