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 ¼ of oneday's US consumption. And, 5 million barrels of oil costs about $350 million dollars at $70/bbl. So, we all contributed to spending $3 billionto save $350 million. How good a deal was that??? They'll probably do a great job with health care though!! </pre>
Bear in mind this is the same govt whose IRS seized a brothel in Nevada a few years ago and couldn't make a go selling whiskey and hookers......
Do they still teach that kind of math in federal schools? I don't think you were supposed to figure all that out. =P
I have seen a few of these socalled "clunkers" at my local dealer. The majority of them were in good to exellent running condition. The mechanics were sickened when they had to pour the liquid glass into to engines to destroy them as required by the "clunkers" law. So how many barrels of oil went to waste to produce the new cars to replace these socalled "clunkers"? Probably alot more than what will be saved.
You should see all of the smoke belch out of the clunkers while they are killing them with the powdered silica! Enough airborne pollution to make up for the new cars being put on the road. Stupid stuff, it just goes to show you what happens when the wrong people get to legislate, or at least write the stuff to get legislated.
New electronic cars (which is all of them) will go *poof* with an EMP burst. It benefits the government to get rid of the old cars. Of course, the reasons for utilizing this program varies from this; as it is more of a PR campaign and a way to further increase debt assets. But, almost everybody here already knows this.