By Mark Slavit
Friday, November 06, 2009 at 3:27 p.m.
Read more: Local, Economy, Business
COLUMBIA -- The federal government bought over 700,000 gas guzzling vehicles during this summer’s Cash for Clunkers Program.
The idea was to get clunkers off the streets, but could some of them find their way back on our driveways?
Federal officials are not reporting any cases of fraud connected to the Cash for Clunkers Program.
Just to be safe, the Columbia-based company Carfax is suggesting that used car buyers match the vehicle identification numbers, or VIN numbers, of any vehicle they are thinking about buying against a government list of clunker VIN numbers.
Carfax officials said all of the 700,000 VIN numbers from the Cash for Clunkers Program are in their database.
“The government made it very clear that the cars were supposed to be disabled so they couldn’t be resold," Carfax chief technology officer Gary Lee said. :They can part them out, but the engines and drive trains are to be destroyed.”
The federal government is also supplying a free list of Cash for Clunkers VIN numbers if you are willing to download a large Microsoft file.
Click on the link below for that free government list.
