A major goal of “cash for clunkers” was to remove older and polluting vehicles from the road. To cash in on rebates of $3,500 to $4,500, car buyers had to buy new vehicles with better gas mileage than their trade-ins that were scrapped by dealers. For passenger cars, that difference had to be at least 4 mpg. But for buyers of SUVs, pickups and minivans, that difference had to be only 2 mpg.

That meant buyers trading in vehicles that dated to the mid-1980s, well before manufacturers put a priority on fuel economy, could qualify for the credits while buying trucks and SUVs that get less than 20 mpg.

The data was the first account of all the new cars sold through the program — prior to last week, the government had only released a list of top-10 sellers, which was loaded with smaller vehicles with higher gas mileage like the Toyota Corolla and the Ford Focus.

The Corolla was the top-selling new vehicle, with 29,488 sales. It was followed by the Honda Civic with 28,456, the Toyota Camry with 27,137 and the Ford Focus with 22,388.

But some crossovers and pickups were also among the best-selling vehicles in the program when different versions of the vehicle were accounted for. The government’s analysis had considered two-wheel and four-wheel versions of a car or truck to be a different vehicle.

The Ford Escape, for example, can be purchased with four-wheel or front-wheel drive, as a hybrid version or with an engine capable of running on flexible fuel such as E85 ethanol.

All told, Ford sold 21,894 Escapes through the program, the fifth-most in the program. Honda sold 20,106 versions of the CR-V crossover — more than half of the CR-Vs were 2009 four-wheel-drive models.

“Cash for clunkers” sales included 16,330 Chevrolet Silverado pickups when all models were taken into account.

Ford, meanwhile, sold 16,263 F-150 pickups, which come equipped with multiple engine assortments.

The Toyota Prius, meanwhile, a poster child for fuel efficiency, sold 15,013 vehicles through the program, fewer than the Nissan Altima, Honda Accord and Toyota RAV4.

Like many dealers across the country, the dealership in Ypsilanti Township is suffering from a Cash for Clunkers hangover, and Sales Manager Paul Grahl isn’t sure when it will end.

“We’re getting some traffic, but my business is a long way from healthy,” said the longtime salesman. “We suspect it’s going to be 90 days before we get back to any kind of normalcy.”

The clunkers program lured hundreds of thousands of people to dealers in July and August with government rebates of up to $4,500 to trade in older, inefficient vehicles for newer, more fuel-efficient ones.

While most dealers are grateful for the boost, they’re paying for it now with fewer customers. The government rebates drew people into the market who otherwise would have kept driving their clunkers due to uncertainty over the sputtering economy. Those customers might have made their purchases later in the year.

“It was good while it lasted,” said Phil Warren, sales manager at Toyota Direct in Columbus, Ohio. “Now we’re a little bit concerned about what happens next. The program may have just taken a lot of people out of the market.”

Making matters worse, many dealers depleted their stocks with clunker sales, and automakers have been slow to ramp up production to replenish the lots. Grahl says Ford has built the cars he ordered but mysteriously hasn’t shipped them. So the selection isn’t very good for people who do want to buy.

“We’ve noticed that,” said Amy Whiting, who with her husband, Frank, was shopping this weekend at a Pontiac-Buick-GMC dealer near Butman Ford. “You drive in the lot and it’s gone.”

The Whitings, who had trouble finding a Toyota Matrix compact, instead bought a used Pontiac Vibe, a General Motors version of the Matrix built at a soon-to-be-shuttered California factory that’s a joint venture between GM and Toyota.

Dealers across the country reported sparse selections on their lots as inventories shrunk to near record low levels. At the end of August, GM reported 379,000 cars and trucks in its supply, about half of what it had in August of last year. Ford Motor Co. had 243,000 cars and trucks, down from 461,000 a year ago.

David Kelleher, who owns two Chrysler dealerships in the Philadelphia area, said he sold out of many products.

Now, because of low inventory and September being a traditionally slow month, the sales pace has returned to where it was before the clunkers program began.

“We were already in a really mediocre year,” Kelleher said. “We’re just kind of back into that mode again.”

Kelleher usually has 350 to 400 vehicles at each of his lots, but said the clunkers program reduced that to around 50. He, too, has ordered replacements and is awaiting their arrival.

“We’re back into that let’s-wait-and-see mode,” he said. “People aren’t 100 percent sure about the economy yet.”

Some economists are predicting that clunkers and other stimulus programs will pull the economy out of a recession this quarter. Consumer confidence rose from a reading of 65.7 in August to 70.2 in early September as measured by the University of Michigan-Reuters survey.

Yet employment is still on the decline. Companies shed 216,000 jobs in August and unemployment rose to 9.7 percent, its highest level since 1983.

So in many ways, the Whitings, in their mid-20s and both secure in their jobs, represent a large chunk of buyers who remain in the market: They had to buy because their 1997 Plymouth Breeze sedan had so many things go wrong that it wasn’t worth repairing.

“For us it wasn’t a matter of confidence. It was more practicality,” Frank Whiting said.

The clunkers program brought a drop in rebates and other sales incentives in August from every major automaker but Hyundai Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. and Toyota Motor Corp. Chrysler had the steepest drop, from $4,604 to $3,405, according to the Edmunds.com automotive Web site. But slow September sales could drive them up again.

Scott Kesel, owner of a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep dealership in Canandaigua, N.Y., near Rochester, thinks the September sales drop is seasonal as vacations end, students return to school and people focus on new routines.

“That is always a difficult retail period for us. If you see numbers that suggest the market is down in September, it may be absolutely normal,” he said, adding that he isn’t worried about the rest of the year.

“I think there’s more demand out there yet, and the right dealers and the right products will bring those customers out.”

Kesel, like many dealers, still hasn’t been paid for most of his clunker sales.

“Most dealers are in a cash-flow crunch because of the federal government not paying up on this,” he said.

The government reported Friday that it has approved $1.22 billion in reimbursements, about 40 percent of what is due. The Transportation Department said it is on track to pay eligible dealers by Sept. 30. The rebates, which ended Aug. 24, led to more than 690,000 new car sales at a taxpayer cost of $2.88 billion.

As a result, U.S. sales of cars and light trucks rose to 1.3 million in August, a roughly 30 percent increase from July. But now that the clunkers program is over, industry analysts expect poor September sales, even lower than the July rate.

Even though customers are few now, dealers still are happy that Cash for Clunkers helped them in a difficult year with sales running at an annual rate of around 10 million. As recently as the first half of this decade, U.S. automakers sold around 17 million units per year.

“The CFC program definitely had an impact for a brief period of time, but it was like throwing a life jacket on a sinking boat,” said Dan Mahan, desk manager of Riverside Auto Mall with Jeep, Dodge, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda and Nissan outlets in Marquette, Mich.

The clunker sales, though, will help the Upper Peninsula dealership network to keep going if times get even worse.

“Because the CFC program was there, we were able to squirrel away a nut for winter,” Mahan said

R.L. Polk said it predicted the proposed government incentive — part of a $789 billion stimulus bill expected to pass today — will increase U.S. light vehicle sales by 94,000 in 2009, giving consumers an average rebate of $330 for each new vehicle purchased.

The Senate had originally passed a much larger $11 billion tax break that would have included allowing consumers to deduct the interest paid on new car loans. That would have resulted in an average tax break on a $25,000 new car of $1,500.

The smaller tax break was part of an effort to reduce the overall price tag of the stimulus bill by House and Senate negotiators.

The new car auto sales tax deduction is limited to consumers who have a gross income of $125,000 and $250,000 for couples and applies to new cars of up to $49,500.

Polk analyzed vehicle prices, sales tax rates, registrations by state, and income tax brackets to develop its rebate forecast.

Under the $11 billion plan, Polk estimates the average rebate would have been $1,250 per vehicle, and would have provided a sales boost of 359,000 units in the United States.

“Although the current tax incentive is not as generous as the initial one, it is nevertheless an encouraging measure. This incentive program could be even more successful if coupled with additional steps to boost consumer confidence that would drive more showroom traffic for dealers,” said Lionel Iron, director of consulting & analytics at Polk.

Auto sales fell 37 percent in January.

Western European governments are doing more to spur sales.

In Germany, consumers can receive a rebate of 2,500 Euros — equivalent to $3,200 — if they scrap their old vehicle when buying a new one. According to Polk, this German effort is expected to increase light vehicle sales by 200,000 units for 2009 and should push the German car market just above 3 million.

Various “Cash for Clunkers” proposals were considered in Congress but never added to the stimulus bill, with one offering up to $10,000 rebates on new car sales for trading in a car at least 10 years old.