Cash for Clunkers: What’s the Best Family Car Option?
August 5th, 2009
The Cash for Clunkers program continues to entice American consumers to trade in their gas guzzlers, despite ongoing confusion about rules and rebates.
As BusinessWeek’s David Kiley reports in this video, the No. 1 traded car is Ford’s (F) Ford Explorer, which got around 17 miles per gallon when new in the 1990s. The No. 1 car it is traded for? Ford’s svelte Ford Focus sedan—which gets up to 35 miles per gallon, but is not exactly a big family friendly set of wheels. (I can’t imagine carpooling my son and his friends in it.)
My friends who live in the suburbs cart around their kids in SUVs with trunks that are larger than my friend Mary’s first New York City apartment. (Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration, but these cars are bigger than plenty of New York City kitchens.) I’m curious whether the Cash for Clunkers program is motivating families in suburbia to dump their ginormous Chevy Suburbans, still billed as the car that “fills the big needs of big families.” (Thus, explaining why they called it Suburban in the first place!)
What about mini-vans? Are families with several kids shedding them for smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles? (None of the top 10 cars bought through the Cash for Clunkers program are pick ups or SUVs, incidentally.)
Working Parents: Have you participated in the Cash for Clunkers program? What kind of car did you trade in? And what kind of automobile did you trade it for? Most important, how does it meet your family’s needs?
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