The huge popularity and success of the U.S. government’s recent Cash for Clunkers program generated nearly 700,000 new vehicle sales across the country in just one month. The program gave the auto industry a shot in the arm by offering buyers $4,500 off the price of a new vehicle in return for trading in their older vehicles that got 18 miles per gallon or less.
The program turned out to be more popular than anyone imagined and the $3 billion allotted for funding lasted less than a month. Government reports show 84% of vehicles traded-in were trucks and 59% were cars. The combined average fuel economy for all of the trade-ins was just about 16 miles per gallon, while the average mpg for the new vehicles was about 25mpg.
The resulting 58% improvement in fuel economy for 700,000 new vehicles on the road could be considered a resounding success, yet millions of owners of the nation’s worst pollution-spewing vehicles would probably disagree. The difference of opinion is due to the fact that antique/collector car lobbyists convinced legislators to prevent cars and trucks built before 1984 to be eligible for the clunkers rebates.
Lobbyists from the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) have won many legislative battles in the past to protect classic car enthusiasts from restrictive laws that might compromise their hobby and industry. The SEMA group, representing over 6,000 companies making auto parts and products, opposed Cash for Clunkers because the program showed the potential to damage the market for classic auto parts. After some negotiation, legislators and environmental groups ultimately agreed to restrict the Clunker program to post-1984 vehicles.
The SEMA viewpoint was that the 4.8 million 25-plus-year-old vehicles on the road today represent only 2% of total registered vehicles, and most are only driven a fraction of the annual miles that newer vehicles accumulate. The argument was that such a small number of vehicles, driven smaller amounts of miles, did not generate much pollution.
Needless to say, the logic didn’t hold up too well for owners of pre-’84 vehicles, or even owners of post-’84 vehicles that got one- or two-miles-per-gallon more than the Clunkers 18mpg limit. Owners of both feel they were shut out of the Clunkers program by arbitrary guidelines more than real world data. In the real world, few cars and trucks made before 1984 are classics and most of them get abysmal mileage and produce copious amounts of emissions. It is a fact that older vehicles are far dirtier and less fuel-efficient than vehicles today. The combined overall fuel-mileage for the new car fleet in 1975 was just 13mpg, by the end of 1984 it jumped up to 22mpg.
Perhaps even worse, is that vehicles made prior to 1974 lacked catalytic converters and can produce a whopping 400 times the amount of tailpipe emissions than a similar size new car does today. The numbers mean that a “classic non-clunker” from 1968 driven only 1,000 miles a year can pollute as much as a new car driven a staggering 400,000 miles. While many of the cars and trucks made prior to 1984 actually are classic vehicles, most are not. Most are simply worn out, high-mileage polluters that need to be retired.
Many of the post-’84 vehicles that missed program eligibility requirements by delivering just one or two miles-per-gallon more than the 18mpg limit are just as “clunky.” A primer-painted 1992 Buick smoking down the road while barely delivering 19mpg is not much more socially responsible than the program-eligible ’85 version of the same car that got 16mpg. It is the same situation for a 1980 pickup truck powered by a gas-guzzling V-8 engine. The truck isn’t really a collectable classic, it gets terrible mileage and puts out a ton of emissions. According to the program rules however, it is too valuable to be “clunked.”
So don’t get too excited if the Cash for Clunkers program has reclassified that old car or truck in your driveway as a “classic” vehicle that is too valuable to be destroyed. When you go to sell it you may find out that it is just an old vehicle with a lot of miles on it.
