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 clunker transaction reduced US gasoline consumption by roughly 320 gallons per year.
They claim 700,000 clunker vehicles were turned in under the program– 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 one day's US consumption (0.07% or 7 one hundredths of a %).
And, 5 million barrels of oil costs about $350 million dollars at $70/bbl.
So, our government just committed the taxpayers to borrowing and spending $3,000,000,000 (that's Billion with a "B") plus interest to save $350 million.
How good a deal was that ???
But, they'll probably do a better job with health care, right???