Exotic clunkers also got the crunch under program

A few weeks back, the owner of one such Continental R decided it wasn�t worth more than $4,500, had its engine destroyed and shipped it to a junkyard with the rest of America�s clunkers.

It�s one of several rare or surprisingly new vehicles destroyed under the Obama administration�s cash for clunkers program designed to sweep old gas guzzlers off U.S. roads. According to new government data, the rebates of $3,500 or $4,500 were enough to doom the Continental and a �97 Aston Martin DB7 Volante that once had a sticker price of $135,000 to the crusher.

And 37 people decided to clunk models that were less than a year old.

Beyond car lovers� grief over why anyone would destroy sweet rides like a 1999 Mercedes C43 AMG, the value of the junked jalopies plays a major role in deciding whether the $3 billion program helped the economy. Two economists at the University of Delaware said Tuesday that assuming the average clunker was worth just $1,000, the costs outweighed all benefits by $1.4 billion.

While the data provided by the federal government doesn�t give any indication of the clunkers� mileage or condition when they were turned in, the vehicles had to be in running condition and insured for at least the past year.

Some enthusiasts would have paid many thousands of dollars for the rare 1987 Buick GNX destroyed under the program; only 547 were built. The nation�s supply of used Chevrolet Corvettes was thinned by 131, including 34 convertibles, and the program also liberated 22 Americans from the burden of owning a Peugeot.

The 2008 model year vehicles deemed clunkers ranged from a Scion xD to 10 Mercury Grand Marquis sedans to two copies of special edition F-150 pickups, sporting 450-hp V8s and Chip Foose-designed paint jobs.

The most popular clunker was the Ford Explorer, with 69,887 copies turned in, accounting for roughly 10% of the trade-ins under the program. Under federal law, only vehicles built after 1984 were eligible for the program, and the trade-in rules favored trucks over cars to spur the removal of less efficient models.

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