“Cash For Clunkers” Data Extremely Inaccurate, Favors Japanese

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Apr 27, 6:36PM EDT · Published Sep 1, 10:48AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

The “cash for clunkers” data by car manufacturer and model type is incorrect. The Department of Transportation numbers reports cars by drive train and not by brand. Edmunds was able to see part of this disparity and reported that “Government breaks out models by drive type; Edmunds.com aggregates all model data to report each model once.”

Government statistics show that the most purchased model type under the program was the Toyota (TM) Corolla. It was followed by the Honda (HMC) Civic, Toyota (TM) Camry, and Ford (F) Focus FWD.

Edmund’s measurements, done by model give Ford three of the top four slots. In first place is the company’s Focus, followed by the Escape, the Honda (HMC) Civic, and Ford’s F-150 pick-up.

The DOT list of leading purchases from its August 26 release put the models in this order:

Top 10 New Vehicles Purchased

1. Toyota Corolla
2. Honda Civic
3. Toyota Camry
4. Ford Focus FWD
5. Hyundai Elantra
6. Nissan Versa
7. Toyota Prius
8. Honda Accord
9. Honda Fit
10. Ford Escape FWD

The Edmunds data as of last Thursday:

Top 10 clunker buys:

MAKE MODEL

Ford              Focus
Ford              Escape
Honda           Civic
Ford               F-150
Toyota          Corolla
Toyota          Camry
Honda           CR-V
Chevrolet     Silverado 1500
Hyundai        Elantra
Honda            Accord

Detroit goes from having two in the top ten to four.

On trade-ins, the DOT numbers:

Top 10 Trade-in Vehicles

1. Ford Explorer 4WD

2. Ford F150 Pickup 2WD

3. Jeep Grand Cherokee 4WD

4. Ford Explorer 2WD

5. Dodge Caravan/Grand Caravan 2WD

6. Jeep Cherokee 4WD

7. Chevrolet Blazer 4WD

8. Chevrolet C1500 Pickup 2WD

9. Ford F150 Pickup 4WD

10. Ford Windstar FWD Van

Compared to the figures from Edmunds:

MAKE         MODEL of Trade Ins
Ford            Explorer
Ford            F-150
Jeep            Grand Cherokee
Chevrolet Blazer
Chevrolet C/K 1500 Series
Jeep             Cherokee
Ford             Windstar
DodgeRam Pickup 1500
Mercury      Grand Marquis
Cadillac        DeVille

The government has always had trouble with math.

Douglas A. McIntyre

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.