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Okay, so the US Congress is moving on a bill to foster the sale of new fuel-efficient cars and trucks. Dubbed CARS, for Customer Assistance to Recycle and Save, the cash-for-clunkers rebate looks like it might be available at car dealers sometime soon.

If CARS passes Congress and gets the President's signature, the government will dish out vouchers valued from $3500 to $4500 to car dealerships. So, if you trade-in an eligible vehicle and purchase a new one, they will pass along that hefty discount.

Of course, the new car must meet or exceed specified fuel economy improvement standards. The idea is to replace older vehicles with new ones that use less fuel, while giving the struggling automobile industry a shot in the arm. The seed money for the CARS program, to the tune of $4 billion, is part of the government's $800 billion so-called stimulus package.

If you buy a new car, and your old gas guzzler qualifies, the government could poke as much as $4500 into the deal. To qualify for that, your old car has to have a combined city/highway fuel-economy rating of 18 or fewer mpg (miles/gallon), and the new car must get at least four mpg better than the old one. If the new car gets at least ten mpg better mileage, the government will dish up a $4500 voucher. If it doesn't, you could get a $3500 voucher, which is still nothing to sneeze at.

Okay, hearing the news that CARS might pass by summer’s end, I called my local Honda dealer. I learned that if I trade my 1994 SAAB doggie car (my canine pal Smokey has commandeered the back seat with muddy paws and dog hair) for a brand new Honda Accord, I would squeak by and get the voucher and save $3500. The old SAAB is rated at 21 mpg (combined city/highway) and the new Honda is rated at 25 mpg.

This is the proverbial Good Deal, as far as purchase price goes. It's a whale of a lot better than the $500 the car dealership would give me for my SAAB as a trade-in.

Congressional Charades

But, from a fuel economy standpoint, the trade is the pits. The Honda sticker promises just a tad better fuel economy than my 15-year-old clunker. In fact, according to the mileage computer embedded in the dashboard of my trusty SAAB, I’m presently getting better than 27 MPG. Can I really be assured the new Honda will match or exceed that figure?

New cars should get at least 40 or 50 mpg, shouldn't they? Why are these cars delivering the same pathetic fuel mileage their 15-year-old antecedents did?

The CARS proposal doesn’t do much to give carmakers the incentive to produce truly fuel-efficient vehicles. What it will likely do is get the stagnant inventory of 2009 gas-guzzlers moving. The dealer, and the bank that really owns the cars, will be delighted, but where does that leave me?

Shock Therapy?

Now I could trade my trusty rust bucket for a gas/battery hybrid. Unfortunately, none of the hybrids on the lots right now offer lithium-ion batteries (where, oh where, are the unaffordable Chevy Volt and Chrysler ENVI?). If you buy one of today’s hybrids, you'll be stuck with an inefficient nickel-metal hydride battery pack.

If I were to take the NiMH bait and trade in my 4-banger petrol machine for a hybrid, I'd get the CARS voucher, and be able to claim a hybrid tax credit. I could also deduct the sales tax on next year's federal income tax return. That's all well and good, but it won't make me happy about that obsolete NiMH battery pack I just bought.

Interestingly enough, the DOHC engine on my old SAAB, which runs like the proverbial Swiss watch, and doesn't burn a drop of oil, must be destroyed under the CARS ruling. That makes even less sense than the rotten gas mileage the new models get. Why trash a perfectly good engine that could possibly breathe life into someone's car that needs a new engine?

According to a study that was published by the Energy Journal, China’s vehicle population is expected to hit nearly 400 million cars by 2015. India is expected to have over 150 million cars on the road. At the same time, the US car population will exceed 300 million. I’m provoked to ask a rhetorical question. With cars getting 25 mpg, where will gasoline come from, and at what cost?

Your comments are welcome. Please write me at amm at en-genius dot net, or post your thoughts and observations on our blog.