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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009
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26

Most Replaced Clunker With ... Another Guzzler Like This

Most common trade was old pickup (15-17 mpg) for new (1-3 better)

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(Newser) – Think most who traded in a clunker under the government’s fuel-efficiency incentive program are now driving a hybrid? Guess again: The most common swap was an old, gas-guzzling pickup for a new, just-slightly-less-gas-guzzling pickup, AP analysis finds. Ford’s F150 is a prime example—it gets 1-3 mpg more than the 15-17 of older models, and those who traded ‘em in were 17 times more likely to get a new F150 than a Toyota Prius.

"If we're looking for the environmental story here, we're going to be disappointed," an analyst at Edmunds.com. "It might have started out from the perspective of improving the environment, but it got detoured as a way to stimulate the economy."

A new Ford F150 pickup truck was 17 times more likely than a Toyota Prius to be the choice of owners trading in old pickups.
A new Ford F150 pickup truck was 17 times more likely than a Toyota Prius to be the choice of owners trading in old pickups.   (AP Photo)
A new Ford F150 pickup truck was 17 times more likely than a Toyota Prius to be the choice of owners trading in old pickups.
A new Ford F150 pickup truck was 17 times more likely than a Toyota Prius to be the choice of owners trading in old pickups.   (AP Photo)
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26 comments
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Rocket448
Nov 4, 09 9:05 PM CST
Whatever works, I suppose. Up here pickups are common and old ones aren't so easy to find anymore. It was a good deal for some and that's fine. Reply
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+1
Deebles
Nov 4, 09 9:07 PM CST
Please. We are so beyond the gas guzzler thing. I get a little tired of Gore making a cottage industry from the fossil fuel thing. We are what we call-- fucked about carbon, and not one single thing that you do now is gonna change that. Thank goodness that we have real scientists who knew this ten years ago and think not of gas guzzlers, but blowing up a volcano to lower the earth's temperature. Getting really sick of all the fingers in a dike that broke years ago. We have the capability to fix what we fucked up. Hope you don't want a tan for the next twenty years. But, isn't it cool that the nuclear bomb that we invented for whatever will save us now? Cause it is only about the planet heating up and we do have the ways to cool it down. Three years ago before scientists realized that there was no hope than artificial cooling--gas guzzling was an issue. Now--how lamely out of touch with science are you? The nice thing is that science gave up trying to tell you that fossil fuel was a man-made problem. They don't care what you think. They have a man-made solution. Reply
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Addyp
Nov 4, 09 9:28 PM CST
When it comes to you Heisenberg... I'm just uncertain. :/
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+3
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riffran
Nov 4, 09 10:17 PM CST
ok that was a good one...in principle...rofl
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0
Spudsy
Nov 4, 09 9:42 PM CST
I've foolishly owned two Fords. A 1972 LTD and a 1995 Windstar. To those that bought one now.....CHUMPS! Those cars truly sucked. Made by overpaid union workers that barely work. Perhaps now they don't have the planned obsolescence that they did in the 70's and 80's but the treatment that I get from Honda and Toyota versus the treatment I got from Ford would be laughable if I wasn't out 21k for the Windstar. My Windstar engine melted and they put a 1994 engine into a 1995 body creating a car that never existed. My Toyota Tacoma had a rust hole in the frame and Toyota bought it back from me for $2500 more than I had paid for it because they didn't want that truck out on the street dirtying up their name. And they gave me cash so I could buy any model I wanted. I bought another Toyota. Can't beat that kind of resale value. Reply
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+4

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