Time to retire your ride?
By Fiona Wagner • Bankrate.com

Some folks take pride in always driving the latest model car. Others stand by their old beaters, citing reasons such as economy or sentimentality. For those of you in the latter category, here's something else to consider: A car built in 1995 or before produces 19 times more smog-forming pollutants than vehicles built in the past five years. What's more, your clunker is just one of the five million vehicles on Canadian roads that are responsible for generating half of all smog-forming pollutants.

If your conscience is now making you feel blue instead of green, you've got options. The Clean Air Foundation, in conjunction with the federal government and several delivery partners across the country, is making it easier for Canadians to get their older cars off the road and get into greener, more sustainable transport.

How it works
Since February 2009, the national Retire Your Ride program has been encouraging owners to retire their old cars in exchange for incentives on everything from transit passes, car share memberships, discounts on commuter bikes and even $300 cash. Just recently, Canadian car manufacturers Chrysler, Hyundai, Ford and GM announced their own incentives, adding an additional $500 to $3,000 rebate toward the purchase of a new vehicle.

Any car built in 1995 or before that is still running and has been registered and insured for the past six months -- 12 months in British Columbia -- is eligible for the program. Participants simply fill out an application form and once approved, their car is removed and recycled.

"People don't generally think of cars and recycling," says Fatima Dharsee, executive director of the Clean Air Foundation. "Upwards of 75 percent of a car is recyclable. Cars are actually the most recycled consumer product on the planet."

Incentives not enough
While the goal of the program is to retire at least 50,000 vehicles per year until March 31, 2011, critics have argued the program -- especially the $300 cash incentive -- doesn't go far enough.

"It's not enough money to really motivate people to change their behaviour," says Michael Hatch, chief economist of the Canadian Automobile Dealers Association. "What it's doing is giving the benefit to people who would have retired their cars anyway."

He and others in the dealer and manufacturing sector point to successful international programs, such the U.S. Car Allowance Rebate System, commonly known as Cash for Clunkers, which was a $3 billion US rebate program that ran between July 1, 2009, and Aug. 24, 2009, and offered consumers between $3,500 US and $4,500 US to retire their gas-guzzling vehicles.

The response to the program was staggering with more than 690,000 cars retired in exchange for new models, giving a significant financial boost to the beleaguered auto industry hit hard by the global recession.

Despite industry pressure that Canada should follow suit with a $350-million program that would offer consumers a $3,000 rebate, the federal government recently announced Ottawa would stick to its $92-million program on the basis that it has been achieving its environmental objectives.

And therein lies one of the key distinctions between Retire Your Ride and other vehicle scrappage programs: the emphasis is on the environment.