<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" Starting next month, consumers trading in their older gas hogs will cash in, thanks to the soon-to-be-enacted Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act, otherwise known as Cash for Clunkers. Under this program, car buyers can receive up to $4500 by scrapping a gas-guzzler and purchasing a more fuel-efficient new car or truck. Pundits have applauded the fleet-modernization measure, but, as always, somebody has to lose. This time, it&amp;#039;s the homegrown mechanic with a love for 1980s metal who may have to take the fall.  The rules explaining the program are here. The trade-in car must be less than 25 years old and must be rated for less than 18 mpg on the current EPA combined fuel-economy cycle (You can find out if your car qualifies here).  Your local car dealer does all the paperwork when you trade that clunker in for a new model. If your new car beats the old one by at least 10 mpg, you get $4500. If the difference is less than 10, but greater than four mpg, the payout is $3500. Trucks are divided into small and light categories with slightly different requirements, but the same 25-year-old or newer condition remains. Owners must present proof that they&amp;#039;ve registered and insured the trade-in for at least one year.  The surrendered cars must be scrapped, but parts can be salvaged. The exception is, of course, the engine. While it&amp;#039;s questionable if many drivers of these older cars can afford to buy a new one, it&amp;#039;s estimated that the program will remove about a million older cars from our roads. And if that&amp;#039;s true, it could increase new-car sales this year by a tenth, a significant boost in these troubled times.  Sounds perfect, right? Not if you value cheap cars born in 1985 or later. This law will lead to the destruction of some good cars that don&amp;#039;t deserve to be scrapped. These rides are older and fully depreciated, but still interesting to many DIY auto enthusiasts. These are the cars we endlessly fantasize about buying. Who among us hasn&amp;#039;t perused the classifieds and come across something like a 1986 Alfa Romeo Milano that&amp;#039;s too cheap to pass up? For $1500, you&amp;#039;re willing to take that leap simply because its got a howling, Ferrari-esque V6 and rear-drive chassis. But now that it&amp;#039;s worth up to $4500, you&amp;#039;d have to really love that Alfa to give it a home. My personal wish list of now cheap &amp;#039;80s cars constantly grows and shifts. The Chevy Camaro IROC-Z and the Ford Mustang GT are at the top of the list. Sure, a modern Honda Accord V6 makes more horsepower. And yes IROCs do bring back memories of tank tops, parachute pants and gold chains--but the tuned-port injected IROC-Z ruled the streets of the mid-1980s along with the Pontiac Trans Am GTA. And both the GM F-Bodies and Mustang reaffirmed domestic power in the 1980s after a miserable decade of emissions-choked performance. Plus, these ponycars can be coaxed to well over 300 hp with simple bolt-ons. And, yeah, they do wicked burnouts.  In a similar vein, the Buick Regal Type T speaks to me. It&amp;#039;s missing the Darth Vader black paint job of the far dearer Grand National, but the turbo V6 remains. It embarrassed more than a few hot cars back in the day and seemed like a tasty, oddball car that somehow escaped from GM&amp;#039;s skunkworks.  Who doesn&amp;#039;t still pine for the Japanese version of the Porsche 944 turbo--the Mitsubishi Starion. Blistered fenders on the TSi model covered staggered tires on deep-dish wheels. And like its German twin, a turbocharged four-banger drove the rear wheels through a five-speed manual gearbox. Dodge sold a version called the Conquest TSi. My list stretches for yards: The first RX-7 Turbo, the twin-turbo Nissan 300ZX, the full-size Ford Bronco, and even some mid-&amp;#039;80s Toyota pickups. That last one seems odd, yes, but I&amp;#039;ve wanted one ever since Michael J. Fox came back from the future and found one in his garage.  Another less obvious choice is the 1994 Buick Roadmaster wagon--the one with the LT-1 Corvette engine. An original, boxy Isuzu Trooper could be a great adventure wagon. Or how about a Mercedes-Benz 300E? The mid-1980s E-Class were some of the stoutest sedans Mercedes-Benz ever built.  All of these cars could face a premature death at the hands of the President&amp;#039;s pen. Even if they&amp;#039;re spared, you&amp;#039;re unlikely to find one in the bargain-basement price range that inevitably starts the gearhead&amp;#039;s brain spinning. What&amp;#039;s really tough to stomach is that it&amp;#039;s the truly junky mid-&amp;#039;80s cars that will be saved because they do, in fact, return good mileage. I can think of no reason why any Yugo or Hyundai Excel should avoid the executioner. What about the Ford Tempo? Or the Chevy Corsica? Or the Dodge Omni? It&amp;#039;d be fun to watch those in the shredder.  There is one ray of hope, however. The program ends on Nov. 1. So that means we just have to bide our time. With luck, the stock of precious metal won&amp;#039;t be completely depleted.  In the meantime, what&amp;#039;s on your list?  RELATED STORIES * PLUS: You Know It&amp;#039;s Time to Cash in Your Clunker If...  * EARLIER: Top 10 Turbo-Charged Cars of All Time  * JAY LENO: Predictions for Future Collectible Cars  * RAY WERT: 5 Cars Detroit Shouldn&amp;#039;t Bring Back  * FOLLOW US: Popular Mechanics is Now on Twitter!  * FRIEND US: Find PM on Facebook   1986 Mitsubishi Starion. (Photograph by Mike Hanlon via Flickr. Some rights reserved.) "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/a12397/4322912/>