Ford launches Cash-for-Clunkers eligibility calculator
In the coming weeks before the U.S. Department of Transportation finalizes the rules and regulations for the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS), otherwise known as Cash-for-Clunkers, we expect every automaker who operates in this country to start promoting which vehicles they sell that meet the program's eligibility requirements. Ford Motor Company has got 20 vehicles spread across its Ford and Mercury brands, and less than 24 hours after President Obama signed CARS into law, the automaker has launched a new web page to help you determine if your clunker is eligible.The website is called Let Ford Recycle Your Ride and features an eligibility calculator that will help you easily determine if your particular vehicle is both less than 25 years old and gets 18 mpg combined or less. Oh, then it will try and sell you a Ford product, but that's to be expected. Regardless of the sales pitch, the calculator is an easy tool to use if you're seriously thinking about trading in your clunker for a credit worth between $3,500 and $4,500 courtesy of Uncle Sam.
[Source: Let Ford Recycle Your Ride]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
chconline 5:42PM (6/25/2009)
Good move by Ford. When others are too lazy to implement something like this, they go ahead and gets it done. Gives advertising chances for themselves too.
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AndrewNoNumbers 11:10PM (6/25/2009)
Ford has done so many things right recently.
Eric Smith 5:52PM (6/25/2009)
I checked this out just for fun, and I found something strange:
My '05 Impreza isn't eligible, but a 2009 Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe is eligible for a $4,500 rebate.
Probably has something to do with the MPG, but it's still strange to think that Ford would have been legally bound to recycle that Rolls instead of something far more useful.
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mozee 6:06PM (6/25/2009)
Remember - the vehicle being recycled has to have a combined MPG rating of 18mpg or lower. The Impreza is higher, the Rolls-Royce isn't. Although anyone that would take the $3500-4500 on a vehicle that could be traded in for far more is nuts anyways.
Bob Denley 7:14PM (6/25/2009)
I have an 88 300zx auto that it says is 19 so it isn't eligible... it burns oil and has 250k miles on it... lol it does not get 19 combined, last time I checked it gets 21ish on the highway! So would that count?
Nightcrawler 9:32PM (6/25/2009)
Bob - Nope, you're out of luck. Realistically, they'd have no way of knowing the mpg your car really gets, so they go by the originally mpg ratings. Even if they had a way to yest each individual car to determine the gas mileage it's getting at the moment, people would be detuning their cars to get the worst mileage possible in order to qualify.
Vtecgreen 6:15PM (6/25/2009)
Haha, Eric, I tried the same thing on a whim with the Bugatti, same deal. My A4 was a no go but if you feel like losing 1.5M on a car,
Bugatti =10mpg. $4500!
Tempting. :)
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DJ 6:15PM (6/25/2009)
I just loaded my 2004 Chrysler Pacifica into their system and a big banner came back with "Congratulations!" Based on your trade-in information, you may be eligle for a CARS incentive when purchase or lease one of the following vehicles.
So what they are telling me is that a car the had a MSRP of $41,200 just five years ago is now worth NOTHING or at least less than $4500? Gee, how bad is the residual value for "New Chryslers" going to be?
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Seminole 7:49PM (6/25/2009)
All the site does is tell you if you qualify for a rebate or not. Not what the value of the car is. Obviously you don't go trade in a car worth $20,000 or whatever for only $4500.
The rebate is more for someone driving say, a early 90's POS truck or car that gets terrible mileage. They'd get $3500 or $4500 for their car as opposed to $100 bucks or whatever the dealer would normally give them.
chconline 8:56PM (6/25/2009)
I can say the same for a Lamborghini Murcielago.
tony 6:27PM (6/25/2009)
You guys should read how the program works before posting your "funny" comments. If your vehicle is worth more than $4500 why would you trade it in for the program? Just trade it in to get its full value. This program is meant for those "clunkers" out there of which its value is less than $4500 or $3500. I checked my friends old caravan and its worth not more than $1000 but its MPG does not qualify so too bad. So if you have a "clunker" making less than 18MPG and with less than $3500 or $4500 trade-in value, you should avail this Cash-for-Clunkers program.
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Iwa 6:38PM (6/25/2009)
Sad for people that own clunkers that get better than 18mpg.
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Clavius 10:06PM (6/25/2009)
Yup I'm one of them. I own (sadly) a 97 Volvo 850 Wagon it says I get 19mpg and hence can't do it. Now that is what I call frustrating.
indijanac 7:18PM (6/25/2009)
yes it sucks, we have a 93 Cavalier rust bucket. We were waiting for this legislation to get something new, but it doesn't apply to this car because it gets 23mpg combined. :(
I sold a 91 Rodeo for $800 two years ago. I wanted to keep it but my family didn't want to have a "junkyard" in front of the house.
AndrewNoNumbers 11:26PM (6/25/2009)
Anyone know if they consider the separate trims separately? My parents have a minivan that gets 20MPG but 3 other trims in the same model year are under 18MPG.
Gloria 6:44PM (6/25/2009)
This will be a great tool for the vindictive divorcee.
Take your spouses pride and joy (insert any massively overpriced luxury car), and trade it in, under the clunker law. Most married people have their titles in "or," so they can legally do so.
Just imagine how pissed the ex spouse to be, will be, when you send them a picture of the crushed carcass of your beloved Bentley/RR/Lambo/etc.
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Iwa 6:57PM (6/25/2009)
Actually they legally can't do so. Property is reassigned in divorce decrees.
Mike 7:16PM (6/25/2009)
Eh, i'm confused.. I have an 18 mpg car.. I select it, site says it's eligible for a $4500 rebate, towards a few cars, one of them being a ford escape hybrid.
Is it using the 5mpg better thing for trucks???
Either way, to get the full credit, it's the stick Focus or a bunch of hybrids I can't afford, or an unsafe SUV.. not much of an option...
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Seminole 7:52PM (6/25/2009)
If you are referring to the Escape as an "unsafe SUV" I would like to take a second to let you know that it (and the Mercury Mariner) is a IIHS Top Safety Pick. Oh, and so are the Flex and Edge.
Mike 9:09PM (6/25/2009)
I'm thinking more of safety as in accident avoidance, not on how safe it'd be if i decided to just plow into whatever was in front of me.
I'll take not getting hit over being safe in a collision anytime.