Accelerated vehicle scrappage programs have been suggested as a possible means to clean the air in urban areas by allowing sponsoring entities to generate emissions credits through the purchase and scrapping of older, high-emitting vehicles. Although two previous car scrapping projects had been executed, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) decided that doing another project would be productive. The authors wanted to further explore certain aspects of vehicle scrappage and concentrate on specific characteristics of the local vehicle fleet to determine how such programs should be considered for credit generation in Illinois. The IEPA, in conjunction with two contractual consultants and a combined team from General Motors and the Environmental Defense Fund, designed a pilot project that would investigate the feasibility of a large scale vehicle scrappage program in the Chicago area. The Illinois 'Cash for Clunkers' project introduced several attributes that had not been part of previous scrappage efforts. The project purchased 207 vehicles from southern Chicago and the southern suburbs. All vehicles were tested using an IM 240 test procedure with a purge and pressure analysis of evaporative emissions. The total average emissions per car in grams per mile for testable cars were found to be: Hydrocarbons (HC), 16.09; Oxides of Nitrogen (NOx), 4.81; Carbon Monoxide (CO), 62.42; and Carbon Dioxide (CO2), 496.3.