The article ignores the effect of 'Cash for Clunkers'. It took 680,000 <i>running</i> vehicles out of the market. All these were worth less than $5000 to the people who owned them. The owners were all people able to buy (or five year lease) a new vehicle despite dire economic circumstances and tight credit market in summer 2009.<p>Because the program destroyed the vehicles it accepted and because those cars were <i>running</i>, there are fewer donor cars to maintain or rehabilitate the 'clunkers' that remain.