Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009

Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save Act of 2009 - Establishes in the Department of Transportation the Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS) Program.

Directs the Secretary of Transportation, for FY2009-FY2011, to: (1) encourage a dealer, dismantler, and scrap recycler to participate in the Program; (2) authorize the issuance of a redeemable voucher by a participating dealer to the registered owner of a high polluting automobile for the purchase of a new fuel efficient automobile upon transfer of the eligible automobile title to a participating dealer, dismantler, or scrap recycler; (3) require participating dealers to accept such vouchers as partial payment for the purchase of a new fuel efficient automobile; and (4) electronically transfer funds to a participating dealer upon receipt of a voucher and relevant certifications from the dealer.

Requires any dealer receiving a certificate of title to any eligible high polluting automobile in exchange for a CARS voucher to certify to the Secretary that: (1) such title has been retired or otherwise extinguished and not re-issued; and (2) the dealer has received from a dismantler or recycler a certification that such automobile, engine, and drive train will be crushed or shredded within a certain period, will be processed prior to crushing or shredding to ensure removal and appropriate disposition of specified products, and has not been, and will not be, registered, sold, leased, exchanged, distributed, or otherwise operated at any time as an automobile in the United States or in any foreign country.

Requires the Secretary to promulgate regulations that allow operators of bus and rail public transit systems to redeem the allowable value of properly issued vouchers to offset the purchase price of annual or monthly transit passes or any other form of individual transit fare credit designated by the transit system operator.

Sets forth civil penalties for violations of this Act.

Directs the Secretary, for model year 2011, to revise the Program to provide for the issuance of vouchers to offset the purchase of a new battery electric automobile or a new plug-in electric drive automobile.

Written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. All summary versions on Congress.gov