No matter how you take good care of your car, there will come a time that it won’t be as useful and reliable as it once was. The car will eventually age, hitting its maximum mileage and no amount of repairs can make it like new again. Now you have to find out how to retire a car in California.
Sure you can try to fix it, but it’ll just be impractical. It’ll cost you more to repair and replace car parts as they start to fail and wear down. It can cost you even more than your car’s value.
If you come to a conclusion that your car is not worth repairing anymore, then retiring it will be a great option. If you came across this article, it is likely that you’re already considering it but you are not sure how it works. To help you with it, here is our complete guide on how to retire a car in California.
The state of California’s Bureau of Automotive Repair has a Consumer Assistance Program (CAP) that offers qualified consumers repair assistance and vehicle retirement options. One of which is the Voluntary Accelerated Vehicle Retirement program or the VAVR.
The VAVR is an old vehicle buy back program that aims to help improve California’s air quality. It is no big secret that the older vehicles emit more pollution compared to the newer ones. With this program, the removal of the older, more polluting vehicles are encouraged since it provides monetary or other incentives to those car owners that voluntarily retire their old vehicles.
The vehicle retirement options currently offer financial incentives for those who wish to retire their cars in California provided that they have met the eligibility requirements.
Retired vehicles from consumers with household incomes that meet the income eligibility requirement may receive $1,500 while consumers that have household incomes exceeding the income eligibility requirement may receive $1,000.
One has to meet all the requirements set to be eligible for the vehicle retirement program. One important criteria is that the vehicle has to be registered and titled in your name in the state of California without any lapses of coverage for 4 months or more.
On top of that, there are other requirements you and your vehicle has to meet before you can avail the VAVR program.
If your vehicle is subject to the Smog Check Program, it has to complete an inspection within 180 days or 6 months prior to the date of application. Vehicles that are in model-year 1976 and newer that run on gasoline, hybrid, and alternative fuels and diesel vehicles in model-year 1998 and newer are all subjected to the Smog Check Program.
If your vehicle holds a salvage title, it should be either (1.) holding a valid and unexpired registration sticker and has been registered with DMV without lapse in registration for more than 4 months during the 2 consecutive years or (2.) it has to be primarily driven in California for the last 2 years and not registered outside of California in the previous 2 years.
To meet the requirement of criteria number 2, you need to show proof by submitting one of the following:
Vehicles should be able to run using its own power to the site and be able to start its engine without using external booster batteries or starting fluids. There should also be no damages that can affect its drivability.
To apply for the vehicle retirement program, you just need to do these following steps:
For instances where applying online is not possible, you can send your application via mail. To do this, you will have to call the Department of Consumer Affairs’ Consumer Information Center at (800) 952-5210 and request for an application to be mailed to you. A notice will also be mailed to you along with your CAP ID number after your application has been processed.
Within 4 to 6 weeks of receiving your application, the BAR will review your application and all its supporting documentation to verify it complete. You may be required to provide some additional documentation to complete the process. A notice will be sent to you if any other documents are required.
If you want to check the status of your application, you can check it online through the CAP status check tool of the BAR.
If your application has been denied, a notice of ineligibility will be mailed to you including all the requirements that fail to meet.
A letter of eligibility will be mailed to you if your application has been approved. It will include all the details on the incentive amount that has been approved and also the instructions on how to retire your car at a BAR-contracted auto dismantler. You will need to bring your car there before the expiration date that can be found on your eligibility letter.
Now, if all things are settled and you are ready to retire your car at a BAR-contracted auto dismantler, you need to prepare and bring with you the following documents to the dismantler:
Once the inspection is done and your vehicle passes all its requirements, the dismantler will then issue a check named to the registered owner as indicated on the eligibility letter.
The Voluntary Accelerated Vehicle Retirement program can be a great help to car owners that want their vehicles to retire. With the aim to lessen air pollution caused by older vehicles, you can’t really say anything negative against it.
But keep in mind that this program is funded on a yearly basis. If all the funds have been used, you will have to wait another year to file an application. And if you have applied, you have to meet all the requirements and wait patiently as the processing will take about 4 to 6 weeks, or even more.
If waiting or doing paperwork is not your strongest quality, you can also consider selling your retiring, old car to your local car buyer like the cashcarsbuyer.com They offer quick cash minus all the hassle and unending requirements. All you have to do is visit our homepage to know how it works and how it’s done.
