国际英语新闻：Three major U.S. automakers' market share sinks as "cash for clunkers" ends

CHICAGO, Aug. 26 (Xinhua) -- Three major U.S. automakers saw their share of the 3 billion "cash for clunkers" sales collapse in the final weeks of the program.

    According to a Detriot News report, General Motors Co., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Group LLC sold just 38.6 percent of the clunkers sales, far below the companies' 45.1 percent share of July auto sales. Chrysler ended up with just 6.6 percent of sales, behind both Nissan Motor Co. at 8.7 percent and Hyundai Motor at 7.2 percent.

    GM finished with 17.6 percent of clunkers sales, behind Toyota Motor Co. at 19.4 percent. Ford Motor Co. fell to 14.4 percent of total sales in the final tally, ahead of Honda Motor Co. with 13 percent.

    A total 690,114 voucher applications worth 2.878 billion U.S. dollars were submitted by the 8 p.m. deadline. A total of 84 percent of trade-ins under the program were light trucks, and 59 percent of new vehicles purchased were cars.

    With the end of transactions under the program, the U.S. Transportation Department is boosting a team that already includes more than 2,000 government workers and contractors processing dealer applications for rebates.