Hybrid Car Review

Despite rumors on the number of cars sold using the Cash for Clunkers program, there are no numbers yet to back up what or how many have occurred. And that's worrying to the AP:Obama administration withholds data on clunkers - Yahoo! News

The Associated Press has sought release of the data since last week. Rae Tyson, spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the agency will provide the data requested as soon as possible.

DOT officials already have received electronic details from car dealers of each trade-in transaction. The agency receives regular analyses of the sales data, producing helpful talking points for LaHood, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs and other officials to use when urging more funding.

LaHood said in an interview Sunday he would make the electronic records available. "I can't think of any reason why we wouldn't do it," he said.

So, go ahead and do it? Congress is looking to put in $2 billion more into the program. And the program has continued this week, despite possibly being out of money.  The least the Obama administration could do is release the numbers they have.

I'd be most curious about the difference in fuel economy, not to mention the makes and models of the cars being bought and sold. Ford has stated the CARs program has been extremely helpful for them. But rumors are saying a majority of the cars being bought are from Honda and Toyota.

Quick Update:
Bloomberg has a story on the numbers being released. The CARS program is currently hiring twice as many consultants just to handle the claims being made.

Vehicles made by the three largest U.S. automakers -- General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC --were fewer than half of sales under the program through Aug. 1, according to Transportation Department data obtained today. The companies accounted for 47 percent of the clunkers transactions.

About 80,500 transactions had been logged at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which is administering the program. That doesn’t include the backlog.

Vehicles traded in under the program averaged 15.8 miles per gallon, compared with 25.4 miles per gallon for the new purchases, or a 61 percent improvement, according to the Transportation Department data.

That's a good deal of improvement for the cars being traded in, although I hasten to point out 80,000 vehicles is just a drop in the bucket for overall sales.  That's about 8% of the sales made in July, for instance.  And sales were still down 12% from last year, never mind what they were down from two years ago.

This program is moving so fast, it's hard to keep up with the latest information.