I found my next bump in the road, when appending the carry over file I found that if the car moves again in the same month and has a date in file1 and not file2 it messes with the date matching:

I get this:
ACFX 28523 L 5/30/13 5/10/13 HALLIBURT-C        
ACFX 28523 L 5/1/13          HALLIBURT-C
should look like this:
ACFX 28523 L 5/30/13         HALLIBURT        
ACFX 28523 L 5/1/13 5/10/13  HALLIBURT-C
[download]

I wrote a quick script that compares the date and outputs the car numbers and I can manually fix but would like to avoid having to touch the file (more room for user error) The duplicate car number also picks up the -C when it is not a carryover. Your genius will be much appreciated.

yes they are..thanks