The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District has renewed its Old Car Buy Back Program that will pay county residents to scrap their 1997 or older vehicles to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases in the area. The program is sponsored by your local Air Quality Management District or Air Pollution Control District. This Voluntary Accelerated Vehicle Retirement (VAVR) Program is not operated by the State of California. Participation is entirely voluntary.
The voluntary program will pay Ventura County residents $1,000 for their older car, truck or SUV, if the vehicle is legally allowed on the highway. The vehicle must be driven to the location on its own power, and must pass the most recent biennial Smog Checks required by California DMV in order to be considered eligible for participation in the Old Car Buy Back and Scrap Program.
The vehicle will have an inspection done before the purchase to make sure the doors, hood, dashboard, exhaust, windshield, etc. are all still on the vehicle to make sure that it meets their requirements to be scrapped.
2018’s program has been funded at $105,500 from the district’s fund for motor vehicle emission reduction projects to permanently remove up to 182 older polluting vehicles from our roads. Motor vehicles produce more than half of the air pollution in Ventura County. Removing older, high-emitting vehicles from the roadways helps clean up the air. The Clean Air Fund was created by a donation from the 3M Company.
Ventura County residents who are interested in participating in the program can call the program hotline at (800) 717- 7624 to determine if their car is eligible and to learn how the program works.
The hotline will be manned by Environmental Engineering Studies Inc. from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.
Participating auto dismantlers are in Oxnard and Santa Paula. An eligible vehicle must be driven under its own power to one of the two sites and pass an inspection according to state guidelines.
State regulations require that members of the public have the opportunity to buy vehicles out of the program by calling the hotline before the dismantling date. They keep an updated list of vehicles on their website, www.oldcarbuyback.com that are currently available for purchasing before going to scrap.