Think of it this way:
A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.
A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons a year..
So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction should have reduced US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.
They claimed 700,000 vehicles so that's 224 million gallons saved per year.
That equated to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.
5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.
More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars.
So, the government paid $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.
That means we spent $8.57 for every dollar we saved.
