Although the initial deadline for submitting Cash for Clunkers applications was Monday at 8pm, the NHTSA extended the deadline for dealers to submit the completed forms to Tuesday night. Yesterday, the system was actually down for some time because the servers were flooded.

This morning, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) published a press release listing some of the results from this hugely successful program. Nearly 700,000 vehicles were traded in and $2.877 billion in rebate applications were received.

We’ve already seen the positive impact that the program has had on Ford’s sales as the Focus topped the list of new cars purchased under the program and Ford’s July sales were up by a few percentage points. August sales figures will be reported next week and it is likely that we’ll see more good news from Ford and perhaps smaller declines from other automakers.

Not only was this a good deal for automakers and dealers, the program took some gas-guzzlers off the streets. “That’s because 84 percent of consumers traded in trucks and 59 percent purchased passenger cars. The average fuel economy of the vehicles traded in was 15.8 miles per gallon and the average fuel economy of vehicles purchased is 24.9 mpg - a 58 percent improvement.” Source: DOT

I know that many environmentalists were stating that the government should have issued stricter fuel efficiency requirements on the program using the mass availability of 30+ mpg vehicles available. Although I agreed that more fuel-efficient vehicles should have been a requirement, it is good to see that the program did help a bit.

We still have a long ways to go with regards to the average fuel economy of passenger vehicles on the road in the nation but the auto industry certainly needed a stimulus and this program undoubtedly helped.

Photo by Tony the Misfit

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