Not sure if there is any flaw in this calculation but this came across my desk today.
A vehicle driven 24,000 miles per year at 15mpg uses 1600 gallons of gas. A vehicle driven 24,000 miles per year at 25mpg uses 960 gallons of gas.
So, the average clunker transaction will reduce US gas consumption by 640 gallons per year.
They claim that 700,000 vehicles sold through the program, so that's 448 million gallons per year.
That equates to a bit over 10 million barrels of oil. 10 million barrels of oil is about one-half of one day's US consumption.
10 million barrels of oil costs about $750 million at $75/bbl.
So, we as taxpayers contributed $3 billion to save $750 million.
How good a deal was that?
At least they'll probably do a great job with health care, though!
Of course you need to look beyond just the gas savings topic, take into consideration the profits made in the auto industry by this subsidized project as well.