If you live in Canada and high gasoline prices have you considering whether to ditch your car, consider this winning deal: Turn over your pre-1996 vehicle to be scrapped and you can choose from a variety of attractive offers courtesy of the Canadian government, including a new bike, bus passes, membership in a car-sharing program, a rebate toward buying a newer car, or $300 cash. Sure, you might be able to sell your old car to someone else for a heck of a lot more than $300, but then they’d just go and drive it — and that’s not the bloody point. The National Vehicle Scrappage Program aims to get 1995 and earlier model-year cars off Canadian roads. 1996 ushered in cleaner-model cars due to much stricter emission laws that took effect that year. Pre-1996 vehicles in Canada pollute some 19 times more than newer models.
