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Auto dealers, drivers and the environment all will benefit from the "Cash for Clunkers" program that's luring buyers back into dealership showrooms and getting old gas-guzzlers off the roads.

It's one segment of the Obama administration's controversial economic stimulus package that will show an immediate return on a comparatively modest investment. The $1 billion in credits will be available until Nov. 1, unless the money runs out.

With the sale of new cars and trucks at a 30-year low nationwide, dealers needed help in reducing bulging inventories before the new 2010 models start arriving in October.

However, there are rules to follow and paperwork to fill out. For example, engines and transmissions must be disabled and removed from the rust bucket trade-ins before they are hauled off to the crusher. And a last-minute EPA list revision of which vehicles qualify has created some confusion.

For drivers, the news is mostly good. Having a car on the list entitles them to credits of up to $4,500 toward leasing or buying a new vehicle with a combined fuel economy of at least 22 miles per gallon. Manufacturer incentives could sweeten the deal even more.

But it's important to remember that your current clunker must be drivable and average 18 miles per gallon or less to be eligible for the voucher. That's based on what the manufacturer said it was when new, not what you say it gets now. Any number of Web sites provide data on car models and makes going back 24 years -- the last year of eligibility. Key in "cash for clunkers."

The environmental impact is less predictable. Eliminating older, less fuel-efficient vehicles may cut air pollution somewhat, but the overall number of miles traveled may increase with more new cars on the road.

It's not the first time older vehicles have been targeted. Patriotic fervor during World War II saw Detroit's motoring relics by the thousands recycled into war materiel.

While car fanciers later rued the loss of classic Packards and Duesenbergs, nobody now will shed a tear for mom's beat-up minivan or dad's SUV.