My family has a very old Toyota Previa at home. This van is so old that they don’t even make it anymore. I remember taking many family trips to Toronto in it. Now that the van has served its purpose, it seems to be more trouble maintaining it than it is worth. There is no point in repairing the van anymore. Thankfully, with the Cash for Clunkers program now there is something we can do with it. Starting July 1st, if you are looking to buy a new car, you can trade in your “clunker” and get a $3500 – $4500 credit toward purchasing a fuel efficient vehicle. The program is actually officially called the Cars Allowance Rebate System (CARS) Act. More information can be found on its website. Of course, we might not want to take advantage of this since we don’t really need another car. I guess we’ll have to think about it.

Here are some important points straight from the website:

• Your vehicle must be less than 25 years old on the trade-in date
• Only purchase or lease of new vehicles qualify
• Generally, trade-in vehicles must get 18 or less MPG (some very large pick-up trucks and cargo vans have different requirements)
• Trade-in vehicles must be registered and insured continuously for the full year preceding the trade-in
• You don’t need a voucher, dealers will apply a credit at purchase
• Program runs through Nov 1, 2009 or when the funds are exhausted, whichever comes first.
• The vehicle that you are trading in is required to be destroyed. Therefore, the value you negotiate with the dealer for your trade in is not likely to exceed its scrap value. The law requires the dealer to disclose to you and estimate of the scrap value of your trade-in vehicle.

To see where your vehicle lies in MPG the website gives you this resource: Fueleconomy.gov

If someone is going try this, please leave a comment or shoot me an email to let us know if it worked for you.