Cash For Clunkers : Supended : No More Cash

Now the White House is reviewing the progam.
White House reviewing 'cash for clunkers' program - Yahoo! News

I find the whole fiasco somewhat amusing but at the same time feel sorry for the people who have been put in limbo/might be screwed.

Just on Wednesday night (7/29), Nightly Business Report ran a story about the program and mentioned how painful it was for some dealers (Nightly Business Report . The CARS Program May Hit Some Potholes | PBS).

 

I do not know. A former coworker of mine had been considering a new car for awhile because of C4C since he said his beat up mid-90s Previa qualified as a "clunker". I sent him an email on Saturday 7/25 linking to my posts here about some stats (284K vehicles tops, 1.2 million vehicles sold in the US in August 08, sales down over 30% YTD, etc.).

I spoke to him on Tuesday about the mail, numbers, etc. and he seemed unconcerned. He said something about his dad being out of the country until mid August, his dad's name being on the title, etc. and that he'll wait until mid August. I told him: "dude, you have to act now. They money will be gone by then unless they extend it. Can't you do something like get power of attorney to get it signed over?"

I emailed him today when the bad news broke and he was surprised by how quick the money ran out.

 

Oh Jeez, Jabber. I agree! It's been a string of "working till midnight" nights and our store's owed nearly $350,000 in clunker cash. All we need on the back lot now is a mean mangy dog and a chain link fence around about 80 cars back there. You know I didn't walk out the door tonight till 12:00 again.

 

Regardless of the limbo state of the program, I found Brakes put on 'cash for clunkers' plan - USATODAY.com to have some interesting tidbits. Great quote:

 

It's true. Cash for Clunkers is suspended. This is my first post and I am the proud owner of a 2010 Prius that I picked up today at 4pm Hawaii time. I planned to pick up the Prius on Friday but when I read on the internet about the suspension, I left work immediately, towed--then drove my clunker onto the dealer's lot, and picked up my Prius (was I stressed!!). The salesman said I was so lucky bec the management at the dealer had made a deadline of 430pm for all salespeople to submit their clunker paperwork (for cars that were to be delivered today)...the dealer would not honor any other clunker deals after 430pm!! I was the second to the last clunker deal that was approved. The salesman told me that basically, if the dealer is not able to get the clunker cash for the approved deals from the Feds, they will just eat the loss.

 

I had been told that there was always the chance that if money ran out and for whatever reason your sale did not make it they would either be asking you for an add'l $4500 to keep the car, or return your car to you and take back the Sale. Has anyone else heard that? That would suck.

 

Did you get that in writing?

 

For everyone who attempted to trade their car this past week for the Cash for Clunkers, i hope press secretary Gibbs is correct that all applications to date will be honored. And for the industry folks burning the midnight oil, take solace in the fact the program is a boost and not a bust. Since we are a consumer driven economy, lets hope this fuels a long term positive trend. --TK

 

I hope the program can get re-funded quickly. Our 2010 is due Monday. I don't want to cancel the order because this would be the second time I would have done that and we need to replace a 17 year old car. The first time I cancelled was in November when I almost got laid off and instead took 32% pay cut. This $4500 was going to make buying the new car feasible since my pay has not yet been restored. My salesman will be unhappy if I cancel yet another deal.

Maybe we are not destined to own a Prius.

 

Everyone remain calm. Congress has processed 250 million in cash for clunkers and the White House has just released a statement as of 7AM Pacific Time, the program will continue until further notice.

 

The experience with my business is that coupons and discounts create a rush of orders with a bigger than expected drop off in sales after the promotion ends. It does bring some extra people in but it also speeds up the buying process for those who were planning on buying later.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a drop in sales for Aug/Sept. Once everyone has a new car sales can't continue to go up.

Also on the calculations of cash, I suspect that they blew out at least 2 billion in cash this week. Even our small dealers here have 20 CFC deals. So if the average is 25 deals x 16,000 dealers (see link below) x 4500 that equals 1.8 billion!!!

Edit: I had to take out the link because they changed the story... At any rate NADA was reporting 16,000 dealers participating.

G

 

Your 250 million figure could very well be correct on the amount that has been funded already. A quick straw poll (phpone calls trying to find out if anyone has been funded on anything yet) of a few friends in the business gives me 11 dealers that have not been funded on a single deal yet. To the tune of roughly 25 million. So, just 11 dealers, out of 21,500 have 10% of what has already been funded waiting to get paid. The biggest reason is that we can't get through to the gov site to save all the docs that we upload. It keeps crashing.

Dianne, has your dealership actually gotten paid on even one deal yet? For that matter, has any dealer gotten funded yet? Every one we have submitted has been rejected. They have been rejecting the paperwork saying it is incorrect, even though we have exactly what they asked for. One of the rejections said the back of the title was incorrect. How in the heck can the back of the title be incorrect? It was copied, marked as junk, scanned in according to the program rules, and submitted. I'm not sure what else I can do on that one but re-submit it and pray.

 

Wow. Now this is very odd. A Government program not working as planned? Who would have thought? And with all the Congressional discussions prior to passing; of course with no special interest groups taking part...

Well at least they got the program's timeframe right. Right? A scheduled 3 month program running out in 4 days. And now refunded with more future tax dollars.

I'd guess this is a valid gvt program in many respects. But here we go again - hoping our kids and grandkids have deep pockets.

 

This P****s me off to no end. Unless he is planning to pay out of his own pocket, he is promising more money without approval from congress. Don't get me wrong, I hope more money is approved and I hope the program is expanded in the future to allow more people to participate. I just don't like the idea of someone talking out of their a$$ committing other people's money before it has been approved through the proper channels.

 

That may be the case, but I stand by my suggestion that there may be 2 billion dollars in CFC deals in the pipeline.

G

 

Yoo Hoo! Money!

I am sitting next to a Bank Certified Check in the amount of $ 19, 054.48 made out to the Dealer.

Prius 2 basic at MSRP with only stupid add ons of white color surcharge and the fully rip off floor mats.

Our car with free pinstriping and free dumb back PRIUS applique has been sitting on the lot now for over a week. They have certified my original clunker title as JUNK... and have hopefully submitted that.


Having no title, I suspect my registration and insurance are no longer valid yet I drive the clunker about until someone calls.

Then again if this deal happens I get free oil changes, tires and batteries for life of the car and other small stuff. Also got a nice scrapping fee, no state sales tax... so what me worry?

LOL!