The senate just passed the Democratic/Obama plan to give vouchers to people who trade in older cars for vehicles that get better mileage. If your POS gets 18 MPG or worse, you can get a voucher worth a minimum of $3500, and as much as $4500 towards a new vehicle that gets as little as 4 MPG better mileage. BUT, if you have an SUV, pick-up or minivan, the new vehicle only needs to get 2 mpg more than the old one!!! So you can still drive an SUV and be a part of the problem, just a smaller part.

If the new car gets 10mpg better, the voucher is worth $4500. An extra $1000 does not seem to be much of an incentive to get people to switch from gas guzzling SUVs to sensible sedans and coupes, so I'm guessing you will see this plan help SUV sales more than sedans and coupes.


What do you get if your old vehicle is already getting decent mileage? Nothing!

 

Yup, once again the people doing the right thing get screwed.

 

woooo hooo my truck just went way up in value

 

I think the vehicle has to be a clunker and taken OFF the road and crushed.

If your SUV is a POS, this could work. My SUV is still worth more than the credit, so I'll hang on to the gas hogging SUV.

 

Nope. I'm going to buy this POS and use it to buy a new Chevy Cobalt!

http://boston.craigslist.org/sob/cto/1224262845.html

 

Where was this a few years ago when I gave away my $300 dollar Jeep Cherokee!!!

 

read the fine print - you need to own it for a year

 

DOH! I ws wondering about that. Stupid Obama.

 

I've wondered how many of the owners of vehicles worth less than $4,500 could actually be new-car customers. I suspect most of the new car buyers have trade-ins worth more than $4500 and most owners of the clunkers own them because they can't afford a new vehicle. At least the owners of the gas-hogs that qualify for the credit.

Although one guy I go to work with has a '98 Jeep Wrangler he thinks is worth less than $4,500. It's EPA combined mileage is 16, so he's OK there.

 

I've got a co worker with a 1986 Buick electra wagon. He bought it new, took excellent care of it and is nearing retirement. He may take advantage of this program. He could have afforded a new vehicle many times over but didn't want to spend the money. Now he may be ready.