Consumers Who Cashed In on Clunkers Plan to Cut Back for the Holidays

CHICAGO, Nov. 25, 2009 -- According to a recent Cars.com survey, many shoppers who took advantage of the government's Cash for Clunkers program plan to cut back on holiday shopping this year.

According to the survey, 63 percent of consumers who purchased a car during or before the program expressed that they would be cutting back more than usual on their holiday shopping this year as a result of their car purchase.

"For many consumers, the incentives offered by the government clearly helped bring some shoppers into the new car market," said Cars.com Editor in Chief Patrick Olsen. "While there are signs that the economy is heading in the right direction, it seems as though consumers who took the plunge and recently bought a car will continue to tighten up their wallets through the New Year."

Men are much more likely to cut back on holiday spending as a result of their recent purchase, with 75 percent of men expressing they will cut back more than usual. Consumers ages 25 to 34 also were more likely to cut back than any other age group with close to 80 percent saying their recent car purchase has them cutting back more than usual.

About the Survey: The survey was conducted for Cars.com by Impulse Research Corp. with an online random sample of 1056 men and women 18 years of age or older who have purchased a new or used vehicle in the past 3 months or are planning to purchase a new or used vehicle in the next 6 months. The overall sampling error rate for this survey is +/-3 percent at the 95 percent level of confidence

About Cars.com

Cars.com is the leading destination for online car shoppers, offering credible, easy-to-understand information from consumers and experts to help buyers formulate opinions on what to buy, where to buy and how much to pay for a car. With comprehensive pricing information, side-by-side comparison tools, photo galleries, videos, unbiased editorial content and a large selection of new- and used-car inventory, Cars.com puts millions of car buyers in control of their shopping process with the information they need to make confident buying decisions.

Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures, LLC, which is owned by leading media companies, including Belo , Gannett Co., Inc. , The McClatchy Company , Tribune Company and The Washington Post Company .