Auto Trends

chrysler emblem, originally uploaded by Jay B

According to Automotive News, Chrysler was certainly the big loser of the bunch, having only accounted for 6.6 percent of the total sales in the Clunkers Program. GM and Ford did not fair to bad, with GM coming in second with 17.6 percent of sales, and Ford third with 14.4 percent.

The beginning of August reported a slightly different story, with Ford in the lead with their popular Focus. As the clunkers program drew on, however, the popularity of the domestic brands faltered, leaving Toyota as the victor with 19.4 percent of the total sales.

These numbers only tell half of the story, as to really get an idea of where the brunt of the sales were going, we need to match up the sale of the imports vs. the domestics. What we know is that the domestics only accounted for 38.6 percent of the total vehicles sold (690,114). The number of imports sold, classified as “made in the USA,” are still relatively unknown.

This however did not stop most experts from making the obvious conclusion that the Cash For Clunkers brought more aid to foreign manufacturers that U.S. domestics. Considering market share vs total sales, Toyota rocked our world with 19.4 of sales, compared to its 16.3 percent market share.

Hyundai was right along side Toyota with a whopping 7.2 percent of sales, compared to their 4.3 percent market share. Chrysler bombed out early in the game, earning only 6.6 percent of its 9.6 percent market share.

Lets pull back and take a look at the winners and losers of the Clunkers program in total:

                          Total Clunker Sales                                Total Market Share

#1 Toyota                    19.4%                                                         16.3% Winner

#2 GM                          17.6%                                                            Runner Up

#3 Ford                         14.4%                                                           Runner Up

#4 Honda                      13.0%                                                           Runner Up

#5 Nissan                       8.7%                                                            Runner Up

#6 Hyundai                    7.2%                                                           4.3% Winner

#7 Chrysler                    6.6 %                                                        9.6% Big Loser

The order of most popular vehicles also changed a bit from the initial statistics produced early on in the program. They show Ford with an early lead, which would then lose its favor to the traditionally popular brands, Toyota and Honda. Hyundai and Nissan would then make an entrance, sweeping out anything else that the domestics had to offer, including the marginally popular Ford Escape.

Here is the initial list of popular vehicles during the start of the program on August 5^th:
1. Ford Focus
2. Toyota Corolla
3. Honda Civic
4. Toyota Prius
5. Toyota Camry
6. Ford Escape

Here is the list of popular vehicles at the conclusion of the program on August 25^th:
1. Toyota Corolla
2. Honda Civic
3. Toyota Camry
4. Ford Focus
5. Hyundai Elantra
6. Nissan Versa
7. Toyota Prius
8. Honda Accord
9. Honda Fit
10. Ford Escape

All in all, the program boosted sales from all dealerships and decreased the total pollution output of vehicles in the US, but just how much the $3 billion actually helped to improve domestic sales, is still a bit of a mystery.