Contradict meaning it's not eligible?

Consumers hoping to trade in their old "clunkers" for new vehicles through the Cash for Clunkers (or CARS) program are discovering the EPA changed fuel economy numbers for some cars last week, making it impossible to trade them in!

New Jersey resident Jeff Chase was considering trading in his 1989 Mazda 929 for a new car and checked the government's FuelEconomy.gov website and it said it met the 18 MPG threshold to be considered a gas-guzzling clunker. He went back later to buy the new car only to discover the numbers had been changed and the combined mileage was now 19 MPG and therefore disqualified from the discount.

    "The dealer that I wanted to do business with had started to write sales orders for cars but were not delivering them until the final CARS rules were set," said Jeff Chance. "They are finding out that cars that they thought were qualified as trade-ins are no longer eligible. Now these people will not be able to purchase a car."

Jeff isn't alone. Daniel Anderson was planning to trade up from his 1991 V6 Toyota Camry only to be rejected because the number was changed sometime in the last week from 18 MPG, a number that would have garnered him a check, to a new 19 MPG rating.

This is especially troublesome because the official rules released this week states they'll use the latest combined mileage as determined by the EPA because the agency reconfigured how they measure mileage to more accurately reflect real-world MPG. Thus the Cash For Clunkers final rule states:

   
If this is the case, people who discovered their car's were formerly rated as 18 MPG technically had vehicles determined to qualify under the rules.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional officials say the government plans to suspend the popular "cash for clunkers" program amid concerns it could quickly use up the $1 billion in rebates for new car purchases.

The Transportation Department called congressional offices late Thursday to alert them to the decision to halt the program, which offered owners of old cars and trucks $3,500 or $4,500 toward a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle.

The congressional officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Through late Wednesday, 22,782 vehicles had been purchased through the program and nearly $96 million had been spent. But dealers raised concerns of large backlogs in the system, prompting the suspension.