Top 10 vehicles bought by people trading clunkers

I have to admit I didn't follow this program very closely, but if it's intent was to help the two automakers we threw a ton of money at, it doesn't look like it worked so well.

WDH...your right...only american products bought were ford and I'm not surprised and now all the years that the american auto manufactures made crap has caught up to them and now there paying the price...GM just didn't get it you can tell with the ad for the new chevy camaro at $36,000 +.....in a time when you need the $15,000 vehicles and if I were in the market for a $36,000 vehicle it sure wouldn't be american.

What I can't understand is that it really didn't go after pre-1985 vehicles which lead me to a suspicion it was to recover palladium used in 1985 and on mandated airbags. The Urals in Russia are a major source. California had a cash for clunkers, though much less to take polluting cars off the highways. Statistically, involved in more accidents, the "low rung" of the used car market is often part of Hispanic purchases which leads to a disproportionate fatality and injury statistic. Same claim, sort of, was made for casualties in the Vietnam War according to the first issue of "Low Rider" magazine. Maybe they should have graded it into the 1970s or so, but I'm just grousing I drive a 1983, too old, that might have and a 1985 that can't because, it gets 25 mpg and thought it might be a good time for airbags.

Pre-1985 vehicles were excluded because there are no consistent estimated gas mileage figures available. By relying on published mileage figures, the current system may not be perfect, but it has the benefit of low overhead and establishing a clear benchmark -- your car qualifies or it doesn't. Imagine the opportunities for fraud (not to mention the costs involved) if it were based on somehow measuring current gas mileage.

I traded a 1996 Nissan Quest (built in USA) that was on death's door for a Honda Fit. Nothing currently built in the USA by any of the Big 3 met my requirements for something that will fit in my small garage, and deliver acceptable reliability and gas mileage. I have owned American cars, and they weren't happy experiences. For the past 20 years, the Big 3 have been proclaiming that they are closing the gap with imports, and they may be doing so for the first and second year of ownership. However, when you look at reliability figures past that, they are still generally dismal.

Guys, are you forgetting that Toyota and Honda are built in the USA and cars such as Chevy are built in Mexico? There are few real actual vehicles that describe themself as "American" that are built in this country. The only car built in America that comes to my mind at this time is Saturn and they are produced in Tennessee. Again, lets take everything to Mexico where the labor is cheap. However, I do not see any difference in the prices of the autos sold to Americans!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The price remains high while the labor is cheap. The american car companies brought about their own demise with their greed and unsympathetic views of the american worker. What a shame!!!