top tens

You’ve heard about the “cash for clunkers” legislation that allows U.S. car buyers to get up to $4,500 in cash vouchers for replacing gas guzzlers with fuel efficient vehicles. If you’ve got an older car or pickup truck with rotten gas mileage, you can replace it with a new car getting 22 mpg or better or a new pickup getting 18 mpg or better and receive a break on the price courtesy of your government.

Which cars should you be looking at? Marketing service Autobytel complied a list of auto makers that have vehicles that qualify for vouchers, and even figured out how many of the cars in each automakers fleet were eligible. Every vehicle offered by Mini and Scion, for instance, could get you some cash toward a new car if you trade in a clunker.

Here’s Autobytel’s top ten cash for clunkers cars, with the percentage of each maker’s fleet that qualifies for a voucher when you buy a new car:

1. Mini 100%
2. Scion 100%
3. Honda 94%
4. Saturn 93%
5. Subaru 88%
6. Suzuki 85%
7. Pontiac 79%
8. Mazda 74%
9. Hyundai 73%
10. Volkswagen 73%

Honda doesn’t receive perfect marks probably because it has that massive Ridgeline pickup truck in the fleet. And Volkswagen all the way down at number 10 was a surprise. Also, keep in mind that Saturn’s future is a bit shaky these days, and Pontiac has received an official death sentence as part of GM’s restructuring.