There seems to be some misinformation as to what happens to these cars as I was at the junkyard today and they have an abundance of them out in the yard and many already had parts pulled off of them. The engines had day-glo green paint sprayed on them and there was a paper stating that a silica solution had been put in the engine to render it useless. Otherwise they were fair game for strip down so they are not going directly to be crushed.
So it is the same as any other tradein that the dealer would choose to dump. I dubt that you could consider them "govmint popity" either. However it would be prperty of the dealer therfore taking any pats off it would be stealing just as if it was any other tradein.
Rick W.