Car Allowance Rebate System
July 19th, 2009
If you have an older, less fuel-efficient car and are thinking about buying a new one, then the US government’s CARS program may be for you. It effectively raises the trade-in value of your clunker to either $3500 or $4500, plus whatever you can negotiate for the scrap value. My 1996 S-10 pickup qualifies and is normally worth about $1200, so this program can save some serious money.
Link #1: http://www.cars.gov/
Link #2: http://www.abcactionnews.com/…
(via digg)
Update: The program has been suspended as of midnight on July 30th, because the government thinks it may have already run out of funds (based on pending sales).
Update #2: The US House of Representatives has allocated an additional $2 billion for the program. This still has to be approved by the Senate and signed into law. I’m not that impressed, however, considering that it took less than a week to burn through the initial $1 billion.
Update #3: An additional $2 billion has been added to the program. Note that CARS is popularly known as “Cash for Clunkers”.
