Toyota Wins in Cash for Clunkers Sales

The top selling cars in the Cash for Clunkers program were:

1. Toyota Corolla (see related recall story- d'oh!)
   
2. Honda Civic
3. Toyota Camry
4. Ford Focus

Nearly 700,000 cars were sold in the Cash for Clunkers program's four-week run, most of them by Japanese automakers: Toyota alone captured just over 19% of the voucher market, while Honda got 13%. Ford came in with 14%, the only real winner from the Big Three. Chrysler was at a disadvantage due to its manufacturing shutdown earlier in the year.

Overall, though, the lingering sentiment is that Cash for Clunkers wasn't as effective for economic recovery as the hype would suggest. What happens now that those who were on the fence about buying a new car have already done so? It's hard to imagine the trend continuing, since trade-in values or private auto sales may either bring in less money per clunker or be too much of a hassle for the average consumer.

It's not that Cash for Clunkers didn't work, but that it didn't necessarily build any momentum, which stands to reason, really.