Saw the list in this morning's newspaper. No Minis anywhere in the top 10. I wonder if Mini coming last in the JD Power "quality survey" hurt its ranking.

The list:
Ford Focus
Toyota Corolla
Honda Civic (a real piece of crap, my brother had one, it literally fell apart after 80,000 miles)
Toyota Prius
Toyota Camry
Ford Escape
Hyundai Elantra
Dodge Caliber
Honda Fit
Chevrolet Cobalt

It's ridiculous that they stick only to the so-called CAFE mileage ratings. My previous car was 1 mpg short of the requirement. No matter how lightly I press the gas, it never got better than 17 mpg. The mileage ratings are wayyy off. They should let us show old gas receipts and log books as proof that the car was a gas guzzler. I kept my car in top condition, always following the manufacturer's schedule and it got lower gas mileage than my friend's 1999 Firebird.

 

So what was your car?

 

Seems to me that most if not all the cars you posted are actually manufactured by companies owned in Asia and Japan.......

This boondoggle is just another sub prime lending scheme to futher put American Economy into the perverbial toilet........

 

Interesting that you would call 60% as "all". At least "most" is technically more accurate.

Keep in mind domestic and foreign are much more blurred these days. For example, here's where those cars are assembled these days:

Ford Focus - USA
Toyota Corolla - Canada
Honda Civic - Canada
Toyota Prius - Japan (moving to US next year)
Toyota Camry - USA
Ford Escape - USA
Hyundai Elantra - Korea
Dodge Caliber - USA
Honda Fit - Japan
Chevrolet Cobalt - USA

As you can see, 50% are assembled in the USA and only 30% in Asia. This is just the assembly as when you start talking parts, things get very complicated very fast. Also, the foreign car companies employ tens of thousands of employees each in the US and that's not counting the dealerships.

If it makes you feel better, the similar programs going on now in Europe allow for all cars too and not just their domestic brands.

 

.

 

only the Fit is made in Japan...

To the op... The MINI is still considered a niche market in general, that's all.

Not everyone likes the shape or have the guts to drive something that looks so different from the norm.

Although I get embarrassed for the driver when I see a Kia Soul. Damn the thing is ugly...

 

If one is worried about what other's think of their choice of cars, well that's just sad. Drive what you like, even a Soul.

The Fit is a very nice transportaion pod. I could be happy driving one.

 

MINI is a niche product, they sell about 50,000 cars per year in the US. Even if this program DOUBLED their sales (which is an extreme scenario), they still would not sell enough cars to be on that list because all of those other manufacturers sell more of those models.

 

I've heard people are getting Ford F150 pickups with this program, and someone turned in a Corvette. And can someone please explain how crushing cars that could be used for parts, or sold to someone needing a cheap car, saves the enviroment? I could say more on this, but then I would be banned.

 

its finally over....

 

That Corvette would have to be some unsellable POS for it to be cost effective for the owner to "clunker" it. You should have also read the law, the clunkers don't have to go straight to the crusher. If so, why require the engine seizing? The law states that the parts can be removed for resale with the exception of the engine (thus the seizing requirement). The rest of the drive train can be sold off too, but only as individual parts. Only after 6 months must the car be sent to the crusher. If that Corvette truly had any valuable parts, the scrapper could remove them for resale.

As for the F-150, are you sure you aren't hearing about them being turned in. The Explorer and F-150 are the top two vehicles being turned in as clunkers. The early sales figures showed no truck in the top 10 vehicles sold using this program. Admittedly, the top 10 list I've seen was early in the program. Now that it's finished, we should soon see hard figures. Best to leave your criticism until then.

 

yah, now for us normal folks(?) to shop for cars.

 

Agreed. I could be that the car was a cobbled together, non-numbers matching car with a common set of options. I could have also been salvaged from a wreck. It could be burning oil like crazy and leaking what it didn't burn. Not that is isn't a runnable car, but it just wouldn't be worth much as a Corvette.

 

There was a separate category in the CARS program for work trucks. Large pickups would qualify for that.

 

Well, as of these statistics:
http://www.cars.gov/files/official-i...ust26Stats.pdf

MINIs only represented .4% of the vehicles purchased under the CARS program. Considering the total number of cars sold, this equals approximately 2,760 MINIs purchased. Sounds pretty good to me considering the normal amount of MINIs sold each month.

At least we don't drive a Smart, Volvo or "other"!