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The Online Magazine FOR and ABOUT Southside Virginia |
3/29/2024 |
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Editor's PageJuly 09 - CARS & Fool EconomyI have been waiting for my car to be worth more than I paid for it. I just knew if I hung on to it long enough, it would become valuable someday. Since they announced the Cash For Clunkers Program, officially named CARS, for Car Allowance Rebate System, I have expected to reap the rewards of at least one of the new tax-subsidized incentives our Government has conjured up. Conjured is the word I use, as some of these ideas lately must have been pulled out of thin air, if not someone's ___ ahhh - Hat? Crystal Ball? Sleeve? In case you weren�t paying attention, the Cash For Clunkers Program gives you a Government sponsored trade-in credit up to $4,500 for your older, low fuel economy vehicle toward the purchase of a new higher fuel economy vehicle. The theory is great. Get the older less fuel-efficient vehicles off the roads, save fuel and lower emissions across the board. The reality is less promising as it will most likely wind up like the gun buy-back program (remember that fiasco?), where it only gets the junk that was going to be scrapped anyway. So I proceeded over to the Fuel Economy website at www.fueleconomy.gov, to see if it qualifies. Well, it looks like I am going to have to keep my car a bit longer. Hard to believe, but the MPG on my 19 year-old, full-size Oldsmobile is too good to qualify as a clunker. (Hello EPA? - Have you SEEN this car?) In spite of my disappointment, this site was fun for a while and might be useful. If you search around the site, it actually has some useful tools for cost estimating and recording, and some calculators for MPG in case you don't know how to do long division. Here's a sampling of some of the things you can do on the Fuel Economy website. � Find the fuel economy for your vehicle.
� Find Driving & Gas Mileage Tips.
� Finding the Cheapest Gas.
� List Vehicles with the Best and Worst MPG
So I learned, I can't trade in my Olds as a clunker, but the Lamborghini Murcielago, 12 cyl, at 8-13 MPG qualifies for the program. Suppose I can pick one up for $4,500?
As always, we hope you will support our advertisers. Without them Discover Southside would not be possible. Thanks for reading and have a great month.
WB Carver - Editor/Publisher
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