OMFG ...
Let me give all of you the cliffs on this... (and please stop freaking out?) It's not what most of you are thinking!
Cash for Clunkers was basically a porkbarrel spending bill that was inserted into the latest war funding bill to help jump start the economy (or so they claim) ha ha!
It does not affect the operations of how salvage yards operate under US Code at all!!!
The jest of this new law is... It's a REBATE program! If you have an old car, and you wish to trade it in, you can get stimulus money for it which is worth more than the trade in value of the car if your car meets certain criteria:
* your car has to have been registered and insured by the same owner for at least one year
* your car must average less than 18mpg epa average combined
* have been manufactured less than 25 years before the date you trade it in
for more info:
http://www.cars.gov/faq.html
Basically if you use this new government program to buy a new car and you have a qualifying vehicle (car or truck) ... you now have 2 choices for trade ins... Dealer give you trade in value, or you claim this federal rebate (in which you get no trade in value, and under the law, the dealer must basically crush your powertrain so that it never hits the road again (motor/tranny) they can sell body parts off it however) and the money is sent directly to the dealer. You never see a dime of this money, the rebate money is paid directly to dealerships.
You can only claim one, not both! The rebate is upto $4500 for any trade in that qualifies under the new Cars for Clunkers rebate law.
The way the law is written, it would have to be an old ass gas guzzling V8 car in most cases to pass the gas mileage requirement of the law. Trucks and SUV's are a different story though!
