In order to determine whether these sales would have happened anyway, Edmunds.com analysts looked at sales of luxury cars and other vehicles not included under the Clunkers program.

Using traditional relationships between sales volumes of those vehicles and the types of vehicles sold under Cash for Clunkers, Edmunds.com projected what sales would normally have been during the Cash for Clunkers period and in the weeks after.

Edmunds.com's estimate of the ultimate sales increase generally matches what industry experts had thought, said George Pipas, a sales analyst with Ford Motor Co. But that misses the point, he said.

"The whole purpose of the program was to provide some kind of catalyst to kick-start the economy," he said, "and by all accounts the extra production that was added this year was a boost to the economy."

Emunds.com's projection indicates that, without Cash for Clunkers, October's sales increase would be even higher.

Cash for Clunkers epitomizes the idiocy of Progressives. What kind of idiots suggest the destruction of billions of dollars worth of perfectly good assets and the same time create more National debt and personal debt.

Very good point