The fueleconomy.gov website will tell you the voucher value of a trade in. However, it does not tell you the value of your gas savings. This post focuses on the value of the gas savings from a Cash for Clunkers trade in.
Car buyers: The gas savings from your trade in can be more valuable than the voucher itself. MPG is a misleading indicator of gas savings: Replacing a 14 MPG car with a 25 MPG car will save more gas than any possible improvement to a 33 MPG car (for example, 300 gallons over 10,000 miles of driving).
Car dealers: We encourage you to have "GPM" tools available for car buyers when they trade in their Clunkers so that car buyers can see their gas (and cost) savings.
The GPM tools on this website will give you an accurate picture of the gas savings from a Cash for Clunkers trade in. Here are 3 tools that help calculate gas savings:
1) The GPM calculator, www.gpmcalculator.com, will let you choose different levels of MPG (or specific cars) and compare the gas consumption of those vehicles for a distance of your choice (100 miles, 12,000 miles, 100,000 miles).
2) The following table let's you quickly compare the gas consumption (gallons per 100 miles) and gas cost savings (over 10,000 miles). The table assumes that gas is $2.50 a gallon. (To see the effect of different gas prices, use the GPM calculator above.) Click here for a downloadable pdf.
MPG | Gallons per 100 Miles | Gas Costs to Drive 10,000 Miles |
| 10 | 10.0 | $2,500 |
| 11 | 9.1 | $2,273 |
| 12 | 8.3 | $2,083 |
| 13 | 7.7 | $1,923 |
| 14 | 7.1 | $1,786 |
| 15 | 6.7 | $1,667 |
| 16 | 6.3 | $1,563 |
| 17 | 5.9 | $1,471 |
| 18 | 5.6 | $1,389 |
| 19 | 5.3 | $1,316 |
| 20 | 5.0 | $1,250 |
| 21 | 4.8 | $1,190 |
| 22 | 4.5 | $1,136 |
| 23 | 4.3 | $1,087 |
| 24 | 4.2 | $1,042 |
| 25 | 4.0 | $1,000 |
| 26 | 3.8 | $962 |
| 27 | 3.7 | $926 |
| 28 | 3.6 | $893 |
| 29 | 3.4 | $862 |
| 30 | 3.3 | $833 |
| 31 | 3.2 | $806 |
| 32 | 3.1 | $781 |
| 33 | 3.0 | $758 |
| 34 | 2.9 | $735 |
| 35 | 2.9 | $714 |
| 36 | 2.8 | $694 |
| 37 | 2.7 | $676 |
| 38 | 2.6 | $658 |
| 39 | 2.6 | $641 |
| 40 | 2.5 | $625 |
| 41 | 2.4 | $610 |
| 42 | 2.4 | $595 |
| 43 | 2.3 | $581 |
| 44 | 2.3 | $568 |
| 45 | 2.2 | $556 |
| 46 | 2.2 | $543 |
| 47 | 2.1 | $532 |
| 48 | 2.1 | $521 |
| 49 | 2.0 | $510 |
| 50 | 2.0 | $500 |
3) This document contains two tables that directly calculate the gas (page 1) and cost (page 2) savings of different trade ins. Look in the top row for the MPG of your original vehicle; look in the left side column for the MPG of a new vehicle. Table 2 assumes that gas is $2.50 a gallon. (To see the effect of different gas prices, use the GPM calculator above.)
[The Sierra Club and the American Council for an Energy-Efficienct Economy have developed an online gas savings calculator similar to these tables. You can find it here. It assumes 2 possible prices of gas--current and $4 per gallon.]