To be eligible, your clunker must be: 1) Operational. 2) Rated at no more than 18 miles per gallon (m.p.g.) combined city/highway. (Check your car’s rating here.) (Editor’s update: The Environmental Protection Agency updated mileage ratings on July 24, affecting the eligibility of some models. These changes will only affect trade-ins made after that date.) 3) A 1984 model or newer. 4) Worth less than $4,500 – or in some cases, $3,500. (The program just bumps up the trade-in value of your car to one of those amounts; you don’t get extra). 5) Owned by you for at least a year (so you can’t go out and buy one at the junkyard and then turn around and trade it in). The car or truck you buy or lease must be: 1) New. (It can be foreign or domestic). 2) Rated at 22 m.p.g. (combined) or better. If it’s a car and gets at least 10 m.p.g. better than your old vehicle, you get a $4,500 voucher; otherwise, it’s $3,500. For trucks, it’s more complicated. (Click here for details.) 3) Be worth no more than $45,000. 4) Bought between July 1 and Nov. 1 (but Congress has the option of extending the $1 billion program if it comes up with more money).

You have to have had the car registered and insured for the past year and have documentation proving that. And, it has to have been in your name. The car has to have been rated as averaging 19 miles per gallon or less and has to be on the governments approval list. The car that you are purchasing has to be new and has to also be on the governments list when compared side by side with your old car. To find out go to cars.gov and then click on the tab that says "MPG Ratings." You have to be able to drive the car (it has to run.) It has to have been made between 1984 and 2001. The new car has to be a new car and cannot cost more than $45,000.