And then when you make the deal for the Escalade suddenly whip out your $4,500 voucher with a flourish and say "and here's the first month's payment!"

No. Doesn't work that way. If you present a voucher for your old car, truck, bus, or trolley that's all you get. The idea is that no one will trade in a vehicle on a voucher which is later than about 1984 because they can get more in a straight-trade. The dealer is supposed to take the voucher and your piece of you-know-what and send it to be scrapped.

Right. Who doesn't believe that a secondary market for crapola-mobiles will spring up to take these rust-buckets off the hands of dealers and immediately ship them (under the soon to be revised trade rules) to Havana where a steady stream of 25-year-old Buicks and Oldsmobiles will replace the Cuban national supply of 50-year-old Packards and DeSotos.

On the eve of the GM bankruptcy filing an enterprising reporter called around to some big New York ad agencies and asked, "If you were pitching the GM account, what would be your suggested slogan?"

My favorite was: "You own the company. Why not drive the car?"