‘Cash for clunkers’ winners -- foreign or domestic?
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The latest friction over the ‘cash for clunkers’ program has to do with which automakers are actually benefiting from the American tax dollars that are being spent to subsidize new car purchases.
According to data floating around Capitol Hill, the top five cars being purchased under the program are: 1. Ford Focus, 2. Toyota Corolla, 3. Honda Civic, 4. Toyota Prius and 5. Toyota Camry. Some folks are noting sourly that four of the top five models are made by Japanese companies.
The reality is not so simple. True, every Focus sold in America is made at Ford’s Wayne, Mich., assembly plant. Of the Honda Civics sold here, 95% are built in Indiana or Ontario, Canada, and all of the engines are made in the U.S.
All of the Corollas sold in the U.S. are assembled by Toyota in either California or Ontario, while “almost all” of the Camrys sold here are assembled at plants in Kentucky and Indiana, according to Toyota. Only the Prius is built exclusively in Japan. (Toyota planned to start making the Prius at a converted SUV plant in Mississippi, but put those plans on hold after hybrid sales collapsed last year along with gas prices and the U.S. economy.)
As originally proposed, the clunkers program would have barred rebates for cars produced overseas, and would have provided less money for cars produced in Canada or Mexico. These restrictions were dumped in part over concerns about creating problems with America’s trade partners.
It wouldn’t have made a huge difference, apparently. Besides the Prius, the only other cars among the top 10 clunker sellers that aren’t made in North America are the Hyundai Elantra, which is made in Korea, and the Honda Fit, which is made in Japan. (Rounding out the top 10 are the Ford Escape, Dodge Caliber and Chevy Cobalt.)
Overall, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have accounted for about 47% of the 157,000 new vehicles sold under the clunkers program as of this morning.
Where American automakers really dominate is on the clunker side of the equation. Of the top 10 trade-ins, all are made by U.S. companies: Ford Explorer 2WD and4WD, Ford F-150 2WD and 4WD, Jeep Cherokee and Jeep Grand Cherokee 4WD, Dodge Caravan, Chevy Blazer 4WD, Chevy Silverado 1500 2WD and Ford Windstar.
The junking of all of those old pickups, minivans and SUVs in favor of new compact cars and sedans is giving the clunkers program a bit of the green tinge it was originally intended to provide.
According to the latest government stats, clunker trade-ins (which under the program’s rules can’t be re-sold) have an average fuel economy of 15.8 miles per gallon. The average fuel economy for new cars purchased under the program is 25.4 mpg.
Those numbers have convinced Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to support additional funding for the program despite her earlier concerns that the law’s fuel economy standards weren’t tough enough.
“This program has done much better than we ever thought it would for the environment,” Feinstein told reporters. “The best solution is to continue the program as is.”
-- Martin Zimmerman