I'm thinking you should be able to haggle the price of a new vehicle down by $4500 anyway if you go at the right time of year. Shoot I got over 3000 off of a brand new Cobalt without having to trade in a darn thing, just because the new ones had come out and dealer wanted to clear out old stock.

My father in law used to own a car dealership and said only a few people would actually benefit from this clunker cash-in. He explained all the ins and outs and nit-picky criteria and said it's not worth it for most people. For one thing, I think you have to trade in towards a new car. First off, dealers aren't going to give you much wiggle room on the original price of the new car, since they know they are gonna give you 4500 total off regardless. If you figure in normal trade-in value of your used vehicle, you would probably be able to haggle them down for the difference in price anyway.

Also think of how many people out there are driving "clunkers" because that's all they can afford to operate. If they do cash-for-clunkers they may get a decent price for their heap, but they still have to deal with years of payments on a new car.

Just do all of your research before jumping on this. There are a lot of little details that may make it less of a deal than it appears at first.