When the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) program was finally officially enacted last week, car shoppers swarmed automotive dealerships to take advantage of the $3500 or $4500 rebates offered when trading in their less-efficient clunkers for more fuel-efficient new cars. The program was so effective, in fact, that by the end of the week, the Government put the program on hold so officials could reconcile the backlog of sales and trade-ins: Apparently more than 200,000 cars had already been sold across America within those few days! According to Consumer Reports,  that weeklong sales blowout burned through $843 million of the $950 million allotted for the program. With that enormous success, Congress is now trying to extend the CARS program by searching to find an additional $2 billion in funds.

Auto dealers across the nation celebrated the sales infusion: Ford emerged at the top of the list with a sales increase of nine percent over July 2008 across its Ford, Mercury, and Lincoln vehicle lines. Hyundai and Subaru also saw higher sales in July 2009.  And God bless America: almost half the cars purchased in the sales melee were domestic brands made by Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler. Go team!

A press release sent out by Hyundai said that early statistics showed these trades revealed a 59-percent fuel economy improvement between the new and old vehicle in the transactions. In fact, according to the release, Hyundai estimates individual fuel consumption will decrease by 275 gallons per year, reducing fuel costs by nearly $680 annually at current gas prices. Multiply that number by the total amount of vehicles sold (nearly 250,000!), and Hyundai says annual fuel consumption in the U.S. could decrease by 69 million gallons, reducing spending by a total of nearly $170 million on gasoline[1], and cutting CO2 emissions by more than 600,000 metric tons[2]. Let's hear it for cleaner air!