Every day we continue to get emails from consumers seeking help with qualifying their “Clunker” for the new Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS).  Consumers need to know that manufacturer websites may offer EPA mpg estimates for your clunker but the only official website is http://cars.gov.

To get the MPG rating for your car, go to http://cars.gov and click on the button labeled “FUELECONOMY.GOV”.

Once you are on http://fueleconomy.gov you need to select your year, make and model and get a COMBINED mpg estimate.  It will appear as a red number and that is the number that determines if your clunker qualification. 

Consumers are asking if the goverment will be rating their cars based on actual mpg or only based on this website.  For now, it looks like the Federal website is not going to take into consideration individual car mpg ratings that differ for this baseline. 

If your vehicle does not qualify, join the Cash for Clunkers Petition.

How To Read A Vehicle Report

We visited http://fueleconomy.gov and asked for the  rating on a 1997 Ford Taurus.   Here is what was shown for this specific Taurus model and the key is to locate the COMBINED fuel economy.  If that rating is higher than 18 mpg, your car does not qualify.  In this case, since the car is rated at 21 miles per gallon, it would not qualify.

Ford Taurus EPA estimates from http://fueleconomy.gov

Local Car Dealers

Local car dealers will be assisting consumers verify if their car qualifies when the program starts. If your car is NOT on the government website http://fueleconomy.gov , DO NOT call your local dealer until the program starts.  They will not have any additional information that you have not researched since everyone is supposed to be using the cars.gov website.

If your car qualifies because it gets 18 mpg or less on the cars.gov website, contact a local car dealer to discuss your new car purchase.  If you would like a car dealer to call you, complete the form on the left.  We’ll have a knowledgeable local dealer call you and discus your new car purchase.

Tags: ford taurus cash for clunkers, ford taurus mpg, reading fuel economy ratings