Click the play button on the video window to the right to see the storyPHOENIX- Old, worn and battle-scarred, they roam the nation's streets and parking lots.
A group of senators and congressmen call them "clunkers", and they want to give you $3500 to $4500 to trade yours in for something new, shiny and more important, something more fuel-efficient and less polluting.
Bobbie Sparrow, the president of the Arizona Automobile Dealers Association, says the AADA supports the proposals, which could create a flood of new car sales for the AADA's members. "I think there is a pent-up group of people that would like a new vehicle...we've watched it work in several different countries and several different states."
But that $3500 to $4500 is all the money you're likely to get for your vehicle, which must be 8 years old or more, have been registered to the same owner for the past year and must get at least 4 miles per gallon less than the new car you're trading up to.
That's because you're not really trading.
The idea behind Cash for Clunkers, besides spurring new car sales at a time when manufacturers and dealers desperately need the business, is to get older cars off the road for good.
Instead of being resold as used cars, dealers will be sending them straight to the crusher, meaning zero trade-in value beyond what the government will pay.
That part of the proposal has auto recyclers, or junkyard owners, opposing the legislation.
Cars, or what's left of them, can stay in junkyards for months or even years until every last usable part has been bought either by someone trying to fix up a classic or keep their daily transportation running. The shortcut straight to the crusher kills that revenue stream.
John Fischl, owner of Riteway Auto Parts in Phoenix says, "It's not fair. It's not fair to our industry but more so to the consumer, and when you look at the average consumer in Arizona and actually the country, if they can't afford to take on the obligation of buying a new vehicle, they may be stuck in a year or two if their older vehicle breaks."
And Cash for Clunkers (even one version safeguarding cars 25 years and older) really concerns classic car appraiser Bill Gilmore, who says today's clunkers could be tomorrow's classics. "Now when you go to the car shows, you see plenty of 80s and 90s cars, so you never know what's going to be collectible."
Read about HR 1550 (Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009)
Read about S 247 (Accelerated Retirement of Inefficient Vehicles Act of 2009)
