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"  Still tooling around in a Crown Victoria from 1988? It might be time to trade that old gas-guzzler in and get yourself something a little more fuel efficient. Thankfully, the government is looking out for you. A bill appropriately named C.A.R.S. (the government does love their acronyms), short for &amp;quot;Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Program&amp;quot; and nicknamed &amp;quot;Cash for Clunkers,&amp;quot; was passed by Congress last Thursday and is slated to be signed by President Obama today. To get the lowdown on how it&amp;#039;s going to work, we spoke with Brian Benstock, GM/VP of Paragon Honda and Acura in Queens, NY, whose dealership intends to give consumers an additional $500 to $1000 on top of the government&amp;#039;s $3500 to $4500 trade-in voucher. For more info on the program and to find out if your car qualifies, go to cashforclunkersheadquarters.com.   How can a consumer get cash for their clunker?    You have to own the car for over a year to qualify. It must be registered in your name and can&amp;#039;t be over 25 years old. If your current car gets less than 18 miles per gallon fuel efficiency and you buy a car with a 10 MPG improvement, you can get a $4,500 voucher; if you get a car that has just a 4 MPG improvement, you can get a $3,500 voucher. So you can trade in a car that is worth $500 and get $5,000 for it! For many folks, this is the down payment they need to get a new or pre-owned car that gets good gas mileage. There&amp;#039;s $1 billion for the program and it will run from July to November.   What kind of vehicles can someone upgrade to?    The number-one selling SUV among women is the Honda CRV 2WD (20 city; 27 highway). In addition to that, we have the Honda Civic hybrid (40 city; 45 highway)\u2014it&amp;#039;s the funnest car I&amp;#039;ve ever driven. There&amp;#039;s the Accord, too. That&amp;#039;s 22 city and 31 on the highway. But you don&amp;#039;t have to get a Honda. If you want a Subaru or a Chevrolet, there are plenty of options out there for you.   Why is this bill important for consumers?    Bailout dollars are finally being put to work in the consumer&amp;#039;s hands. With the past bailout money, it didn&amp;#039;t save jobs or prevent GM from going into bankruptcy. Cash for Clunkers helps the consumer, the car industry and the environment. Everyone wins. I think it&amp;#039;s about time. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.womansday.com/life/a3923/cash-for-clunkers-bill-faq-78646/>