Cash For Clunkers

[Mr70]

"A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of gasoline.
A vehicle at 25 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a year.
So,the average clunker transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.
They claim 700,000 vehicles – so that’s 224 million gallons/year."

I think on paper this might be true,but how many new car buyers actually drive the same amount of miles or less as when they owned their older car?
How much gas are we as a nation really saving,(does it really matter how much a vehicle gets miles to Gal.),if everyone's driving more often?..And why?...because it's a <u>NEW</u> car.
So far every time I bought a brand new vehicle,I went everywhere,saw everyone &amp; visited more sites beyond my normal surroundings.I drove the piss out of em for the first 5 years..If this holds true for the status quo,this country isn't really saving as much gas as was previously reported.