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Chrysler failed to capitalise on the rush to the showrooms that came with the U.S. Transport Department's Car Allowance Rebate Scheme, more commonly known as Cash for Clunkers, that saw 690,114 older and more polluting cars traded in.

The U.S. Transport Department's CARS [Car Allowance Rebate Scheme] programme more commonly known as Cash for Clunkers came to a close Tuesday night with nearly 700,000 older cars being taken off the roads and replaced by far more fuel efficient vehicles. Rebate applications worth US$2.877 billion were submitted by the 8 p.m. deadline, under the US$3 billion provided by Congress to run the program.

However Fiat's new alliance partner Chrysler was the biggest loser in this sales bonanza despite highly competitive pricing designed to lure buyers into the showrooms as consumers shunned offerings from the Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep brands. Of the 690,114 new vehicles that were purchased during the scheme just a meagre 6.6 percent came from Chrysler's brands. Toyota claimed the biggest share of sales with 19.4 percent of all cars sold under the scheme, followed by General Motors (17.6 percent) and Ford (14.4 percent). Also outdoing Chrysler's efforts were Honda (13.0 percent), Nissan (8.7 percent) and Hyundai (7.2 percent).

Cars made in America topped the most-purchased list, from the Ford Focus to the Toyota Corolla to the Honda Civic and the U.S. government expressed itself highly satisfied with the outcome. "American consumers and workers were the clear winners thanks to the cash for clunkers program," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. "Manufacturing plants have added shifts and recalled workers. Moribund showrooms were brought back to life and consumers bought fuel efficient cars that will save them money and improve the environment." "This is one of the best economic news stories we’ve seen and I’m proud we were able to give consumers a helping hand," Secretary LaHood added.

Toyota's Corolla was the most popular car to be bought by customers through the incentive scheme with its Camry coming in third, while Chrysler failed to get any of its models into the top-10. In between the two Toyota models was Honda's Civic, while the fourth placed Ford Focus FWD was the first offering from Detroit's "Big 3". The rest of the top ten was made up of the Hyundai Elantra, Nissan Versa, Toyota Prius, Honda Accord, Honda Fit and the Ford Escape FWD. Ford and General Motors both recently announced production increases for both the third and fourth quarters as a result of the demand generated by the program. Honda also said it will be increasing production at its U.S. plants in East Liberty and Marysville, Ohio and in Lincoln, Alabama.

In addition, the program provides good news for the environment. That’s because 84 percent of consumers traded in trucks and 59 percent purchased passenger cars. The average fuel economy of the vehicles traded in was 15.8 miles per gallon and the average fuel economy of vehicles purchased is 24.9 mpg. – a 58 percent improvement. "This is a win for the economy, a win for the environment and a win for American consumers," Secretary LaHood said. With the end of transactions under the program, the Department of Transportation is augmenting a team that already includes more than 2,000 people processing dealer applications for rebates.

84 percent of trade-ins under the program are trucks and 59 percent of new vehicles purchased are cars. The program worked far better than anyone in the Treasury Department anticipated at moving consumers out of old, dirty trucks and SUVs and into new more fuel-efficient cars. Cars purchased under the program are, on average, 19 percent above the average fuel economy of all new cars currently available, and 59 percent above the average fuel economy of cars that were traded in. This means the program raised the average fuel economy of the fleet, while getting the dirtiest and most polluting vehicles off the road.