Edmunds.com Tallies "Cash for Clunkers" Numbers; Uncovers Another Discrepancy
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Edmunds.com Tallies "Cash for Clunkers" Numbers; Uncovers Another Discrepancy
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — September 3, 2009 — August was perhaps the strangest month in automotive history. Thanks to "Cash for Clunkers," there was an unprecedented range in analyst's sales forecasts. Now that the numbers are out, analysts at Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive information, have reviewed how things actually played out, and have uncovered some mysteries in the process.
For example, the government's press release reported that the program took 690,114 "clunkers" off the road. However, Edmunds.com's experts tracking the program report that "clunker" trade-ins never accounted for more than 33.4 percent of weekly sales.
"It is mathematically impossible for there to have been nearly 700,000 new car sales during the course of the program, given the actual sales numbers announced by automakers who should have no motive to under-report," remarks Edmunds.com Senior Statistician Zhenwei Zhou, PhD. "The prominence of that number in the media does help to explain why some analysts' sales forecasts were way too high."
Edmunds.com Senior Analyst Michelle Krebs explores the possible explanations for this discrepancy and covers other interesting "Cash for Clunkers" findings in her report titled "New Math: Cash for Clunkers Numbers Don't Add Up" at Edmunds' AutoObserver.com.
For more information on Cash for Clunkers, please visit http://www.edmunds.com/cash-for-clunkers/. Lively discussions about Cash for Clunkers are taking place on Edmunds' CarSpace.com message boards at http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f1db290.
About Edmunds (http://www.edmunds.com/about/)
Edmunds publishes four Web sites that empower, engage and educate automotive consumers, enthusiasts and insiders. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive consumer information, launched in 1995 as the first automotive information Web site. Its most popular feature, the Edmunds.com True Market Value®, is relied upon by millions of people seeking current transaction prices for new and used vehicles. Edmunds.com was named "Best Car Research Site" by Forbes ASAP, has been selected by consumers as the "Most Useful Web Site" according to every J.D. Power and Associates New Autoshopper.com Study(SM), was ranked first in the Survey of Car-Shopping Web Sites by The Wall Street Journal and was rated "#1" in Keynote's study of third-party automotive Web sites. Edmunds is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and maintains a satellite office in suburban Detroit.
