Rebate recovery for clunker clinks

The $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program accomplished several things it set out to do, such as improving fuel economy,
getting polluting cars off the road and giving a jolt to auto sales.

But a recent analysis by The Associated Press of 677,081 clunker trade-ins processed by the government through mid-October turned up some disturbing findings, such as the most popular swap, which involved getting rid of one pickup truck and replacing it with another.

In more than 8,200 cases, owners of old Ford F150 pickups took advantage of the government rebates to buy new Ford F150s, improving fuel efficiency on average about 1 mpg to
3 mpg.

But it wasn't just Fords. Owners of old Chevrolet and Dodge trucks also upgraded to new pickups, only marginally improving their fuel efficiency.

That's disappointing. The Car Allowance Rebate System that ran July through August generally required that the new vehicles be more efficient - at least 22 mpg for cars and 15 mpg to 18 mpg for trucks, depending on the model.

And even worse, the AP study showed in some cases ($562,000 in rebates) that the upgraded vehicles got the same or worse mpg. The government should get those rebates back from dealers.

Overall the program did some good things for people in need of a new car, for the environment and for sluggish auto sales. Too bad some dealers abused it and the government didn't catch them at it.