Reality Check: Trucks Are The Most Popular "Cash for Clunker" Vehicle and Some Only Get 14 mpg!

So, if the F-150 is split up into the various models in the government's tally of which vehicles are the most popular purchases for those who gave up their "clunkers," why wasn't the same methodology followed for the Ford Focus which was given the honor of being the most popular purchase? Could it be that the Obaminions had an agenda of telling everyone that small cars were really... really... popular? More twisting the data.

Reality Check: Trucks Are The Most Popular "Cash for Clunker" Vehicle and Some Only Get 14 mpg!

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- What are people trading their clunkers in for? It depends on who you ask. The government's results showed small cars as the top choice for shoppers looking for Cash for Clunker deals. But an independent analysis by Edmunds.com disputed those results, and showed that two full-size trucks and a small crossover SUV were actually among the top-ten buys.

The discrepancy is a result of the methods used. Edmunds.com uses traditional sales measurements, tallying sales by make and model. The government uses a more arcane measurement method that subdivides models according to engine and transmission types, counting them as separate models.

Sales of truck models would tend to be heavily diluted using the government's method because practically each version counts as a different vehicle. The difference in tallying methods would not affect the overall totals of trucks, as opposed to cars purchased under the program, only the sales rankings of individual models.

Sales of GM's Silverado truck, under the government's counting method, were divided among five different versions. So were the Ford F-150s. If the different versions of these trucks were considered the same vehicle, as auto sales are normally reported, sales of these trucks would look much heftier.

MP: The Ford F-150 (pictured above) gets only about 14 mpg. and the Chevy Silverado gets the same 14 mpg.

Originally posted at Carpe Diem.