Texas Giving You Three Thousand Dollars For That Clunker

Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston low income residents are getting a nice price on their old cars, but only if they use it to buy a new or late model used car. The program is called Air Check Texas and $20 million has been set aside for the program this year, another $20 million next year.

The idea is to get some of the old cars off the road, because new cars emit 10 to 30 times less than these older vehicles.

If you earn less than $30,630 as an individual, you can get $3,000 for a car over 10 years old, $3,500 if you buy a hybrid. The new car has to cost less than $25,000. There are about 300 dealerships involved in the program.

The first doubt that comes to my mind is price. Let's say you have a car that's over 10 years old. Chances are, given that you are a low income person, the reason you have that vehicle is so you don't have to make car payments every month. If you buy a $25,000 car, $3,000 is a significant discount. But it still leaves you with a monthly payment you didn't have before.

I also wonder how much people are negotiating price, since they (and the dealer) know you are already getting $3,000.

But, they are getting some residents involved. 2,150 people in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have already participated in the program. I wonder how many went all out and bought a hybrid?

Source: Winding Road » Archive » Texas Program Aims to Get Low-Income Drivers into Cleaner Cars