There is no similar relief program for mutual fund investors, but there is also no need for one. You can turn in your clunker of a fund for cash any time, provided you recognize your fund for what it is.

Alas, the criteria for a clunker of a fund are not set in stone, like the rules the government uses to determine what qualifies for a trade-in. That is why investors should see whether their funds have any of the earmarks of a clunker; if your fund behaves like a gas-guzzler and drives like an old beater, turn it in for something better.

Your mutual fund might be a clunker if:

It cannot keep up with traffic. You do not need the fastest car on the road, but your investment vehicle needs some pickup. If your funds cannot keep pace with their benchmarks - a minimal standard for doing the job you picked them for - you are falling behind, and it will take you longer to reach your financial destination.

One measure of whether your fund can keep up: See whether the fund lost more than its benchmark during the market's down slope (early October 2007 through early March of this year) and has lagged its index on the way back up (performance since March 9). If it has, you have one of the worst investment vehicles on the road.

It guzzles your gas. "Cash for Clunkers" is all about turning in cars with low fuel efficiency for newer models that are more fuel-friendly. In mutual funds, your money is the fuel, and the expense ratio is your miles per gallon.

In this case, lower is better. The average expense ratio for a stock fund is roughly 1.4 percent; it is 1 percent for a bond fund. If there is nothing to justify the bigger price tag - what is the fund doing that you are willing to pay extra to get? - look for something that is more efficient with your financial fuel.

It needs constant engine repairs. The manager is your fund's power plant. If the manager keeps changing engines, you could wake up one morning to find that the big V-8 you bought has been replaced by two hamsters and a treadmill. Manager change is always a worry, but excessive turnover is a problem; good funds do not go through three managers in a decade.

Looks like a sports car, drives like a lawn mower. There are a lot of complex, newfangled, and fancy funds these days, from "absolute return" issues to 130/30 funds, long-short and market-neutral products, leveraged and inverse-leveraged deals, and more. These are all built to maximize performance or to deliver returns in specific market conditions, but few live up to the hype. If the Porsche fund you were sold drives like a Yugo, get a new ride.

It will not stay in its lane. Just as you would not feel safe if your car strayed all over the road, you want a fund to do the job it was meant for. If you buy a fund for exposure to small-cap stocks, you do not want management to start buying big stocks.

Look at what you wanted from the fund when you first bought it, then look at the fund as it exists today; if it is not doing the job, you could be overdue for a change.

It is made by the fund world's equivalent of the "Big Three." Huge brokerage firms, foreign insurance companies, and multinational banking giants see mutual funds more as a sideline business - something to flesh out the product line - rather than a primary focus.

As such, the firms seldom give their funds the house's top investment talent. Moreover, the firms tend to program their funds for mediocrity, wanting to protect the brand name from risk more than they want to deliver superior investment results. Occasionally, a Big Three fund breaks the mold, but if your fund is not that rare standout, consider trading up for a fund run by a company that makes mutual funds its primary business.