The surprising news is that in 2009, more old cars were scrapped than new cars were bought, meaning that the US auto fleet fell to 246 million from 250 million.

Note that “cash for clunkers” accounted for only about 700,000 vehicles, so the auto fleet would have contracted without the program.

This is the first time that the US fleet has shrunk since probably the end of WWII.

So the year sucked in terms of sales, though December was good for Ford and Toyota, but bad for GM and Chrysler.

Sales had to go up, as at their nadir, sales would have resulted in a fleet age of almost 30 years.