Virginia is for…Toyota

Cash for Clunkers program data show that Virginians are now driving Toyota’s and many traded in their clunkers for Camry’s and Corolla’s.

By Sasha Lester

Cash in your clunker. On June 24, 2009 House Democrats and the Obama administration signed the Car Allowance Rebate System bill into place that later became known as the “Cash for Clunkers” bill. According to the Edmunds website, the program was initially set to end November 1 but the program ended August 24 due to concern that the program was running out of money.

The program was modeled after similar successful programs implemented in Europe and allowed for consumers to cash in their “clunkers” or old vehicles and trade them in for brand new vehicles of their choice.

The bill would provide federal vouchers of up to 4,500 for consumers to trade in their gas-guzzlers for fuel efficient cars with better mileage. An article in USATODAY breaks down the step-by-step process of how consumers purchased a new vehicle by simply trading the government for another.

“Vehicles that are traded in are to be destroyed, not resold, and the base manufacturer’s suggested retail price of the new replacement vehicle cannot exceed $45,000 (Edmunds)”.

The Breakdown. The Government would send up to $4,500 to the selling dealer on your behalf, if you:

1. Trade in a car that — this is a key point — has been registered and in use for at least a year, and has a federal combined city/highway fuel-economy rating of 18 or fewer miles per gallon.

2. Buy a new car, priced at $45,000 or less and rated at least 4 mpg better than the old one (gets a $3,500 voucher). If the new one gets at least 10 mpg better, you get the full $4,500 (Healey, USATODAY).

Healey said the program was designed for two specific reasons.

“Supporters say it would replace older vehicles with new ones that use less fuel, are safer and pollute less. And it would give the struggling auto industry a sales boost (Healey)”.

A waste of cash. Even though many supported the program there were some who didn’t see the potential of the program – especially after numbers were released once the program ended in August 2009.

Reporter Peter Valdes-Dapena for CNN Money said that the program didn’t accomplish anything and ended up being a waste of money in the end.

“The average rebate was $4,000. But the overwhelming majority of sales would have taken place anyway at some time in the last half of 2009, according to Edmunds.com. That means the government ended up spending about $24,000 each for those 125,000 additional vehicle sales (Valdes-Dapena, CNN Money)”.

Virginians drive Toyota. According to data released from the Car Allowance Rebate System website, 23,231 vehicles were sold in Virginia and 4,267 of those purchased were Toyota’s. Nationwide totals show that Toyota was the only manufacturer to have two of its vehicles makes the top of the list for purchased vehicles in the “Cash for Clunkers” program.

A Toyota dealership in Virginia Beach sold 285 vehicles and its competitor’s numbers weren’t as high. Chevrolet and Jeep dealers didn’t break 100 and Ford sold 149 and Honda sold 137 vehicles.

Dealerships in Woodbridge sold 248 vehicles and Ford came up short with 88 new vehicles purchased. Some Toyota dealerships in Chesapeake sold 370 vehicles compared to Chrysler who sold 18 vehicles in that area.

Don’t stand a chance. In Chester, Priority Toyota sold 226 new vehicles and trampled all of their surrounding competitors. Chevrolet sold 81 vehicles, Honda sold 166 and Hyundai sold 91 vehicles.

Priority Toyota salesman Colby Hall participated in the Cash for Clunkers program and says that Toyota’s reputation is what made them a tough competitor.

“The reason I think that Toyota did well in the Cash for Clunker program is because they have built a reputation over the years for quality and reliability. For those people that wanted to buy or needed to buy, they wanted a Toyota because if they spend the money they think it’s a better value”.

Hall was glad to be part of the program but said the program may have had a greater impact if it took place at a different time.

“I think the program would have been better to do in the slower part of the year so it could help balance sales. The summer already has a lot of sales. The program was fun and I’m very appreciative to have been apart of it”.

Toyota’s for all. According to the Car Allowance Rebate System data, Toyota sold more cars than any other manufacturer during the Cash for Clunkers program.

Nationwide, Toyota sold 131,961 new vehicles to consumers. The Toyota Corolla was the number one car sold in country for the program and the Toyota Camry was the 3^rd most purchased vehicle. Toyota’s hybrid synergy Prius was the 7^th most popular among consumers.

REFERENCES

Healey, James R. “Q&A: How the ‘cash-for-clunker’ plan would work”. USATODAY. June 10, 2009. Retrieved on December 7, 2009 from http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2009-05-11-chrysler-gm-cash-clunkers_N.htm

Valdes-Dapena, Peter. “Clunkers: Taxpayers paid $24,000 per car”. CNN Money. October 29, 2009. Retrieved on December 7, 2009 from http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/28/autos/clunkers_analysis/index.htm

Car Allowance Rebate System. Last updated December 2, 2009. Retrieved on December 7, 2009 from http://www.cars.gov/

**All of the data was collected from the Car Allowance Rebate System website, found here. The visulations you see have been created using Many Eyes**