Replace Your Ride Program Process in SoCal

I did RYR. I got the 7500 rebate. I got at the end of 2017 though, so it has been a while. At that time, I believe the number of applicants was less than it is now so I think it was a shorter process. Then again, they may have upped the staff handling this as they were still absurdly slow in processing applications (they themselves said only one applicant would be approved every 2 weeks).

Be prepared to wait the stated period of time you were given. Once they approve you though, it'll be a few days before they send the money out to the dealership. After that, they'll contact you and you can immediately go pick up the car. That takes no more than a day. You of course don't have to recycle your car before getting the new car (otherwise you'd have no car).

The biggest hurdle with this incentive is that so few dealers were willing to accept it. I had to really go hunt for a dealer within the RYR approved list (which is extremely short) that would be prepared to hold a car in anticipation that they would get payment from RYR. Because the pre-approval doesn't guarantee them payment. Most dealers weren't willing to wait for that (was a month in my case). The ones that were willing to wait had jacked up the price of their car (which effectively offset the benefit of the rebate). The whole "approved dealer list" thing that RYR does is BS. They should be allowing applicants select from any dealer. By making only select dealers be allowed to take RYR effectively allows them to jack the price of their cars to extract more money from the customers because they know they can't take their RYR approval anywhere else.

 

You guys should be complaining about the rebate itself. Not the dealer or the wait time. I mean it's your taxes paying for something that millions in your state will never receive. Seems a bit unfair imo.

 

This sounds a lot like cash for clunkers part deux.

 

Do they not give you an option to work it through your bank/whoever is financing the car?

It seems silly to have it work through the dealership who is going to jack up the price to max their profit. This program seems more like a dealer subsidy rather than a car buyer one.

 

Anytime somebody else pays for something it’s a great deal.

 

The rest of the Californians see the benefit of this rebate in the form of a cleaner environment (as a result of dirty vehicles being taken off the roads). This is a measure that the SCAQMD instituted to try to accomplish this. I concede maybe it is too generous. But unless you offer solid reasoned arguments in support of that you just sound butt hurt that you are not able to qualify for the rebate.

 

I clearly don't qualify since I don't live in that state. But if I did live there I would strongly object to this program funded with my taxes.

 

Well, you can pay for it in taxes or pay for it with lung problems from poor air quality. Either way you pay.

 

The program is riddled with flaws. You need to own a qualifying vehicle and have it registered for 12 months prior to eligibility. The vehicle may not even be driven much, it's just a junker you own. Then you get a big subsidy to get a more efficient vehicle, that you have no obligation to keep. You can sell the new car for cheap, make some money, and get yourself another junker. Or, you take the new vehicle and move out of state. The state of California takes credit for taking a polluter off the road (may have only been driven twice in the previous 12 months) and you pocket the cash.

Actually, just those in the SCAQMD area. The people in Lake County and Bakersfield are not interested in funding this.

 

Yeah I agree with the poor eligibility criteria of just owning a junker. But nobody is signing up for this with the intention of uprooting and moving out of state to pocket a couple Gs.

But they still get affected by LA's air quality.

 

Lake County? That's about 450 miles NW of Pasadena, and the wind doesn't blow in that direction.

But they have every incentive to flip the new car for a pile of cash in their pocket and that sale could easily be out of state or out of the SCAQMD area.

 

Hey,

I qualified for the incentive as well, also based in LA. I negotiated with the dealers (Toyota NoHo, Hamer Toyota (both in person), even called as far south as Norwalk and Tustin (OC) but once I brought up the RYR 'voucher' all of them told me they can not discount the vehicle (giving me bullshit like 'ah we have the pay fee', 'it's in the RYR contract', ' we have to keep the vehicle for X days'), and only give the official Toyota cashback rebate, jacking up the price by almost 2K compared to what I was offered prior (25700ish discounted (incl cashback rebate) vs now 27500ish (incl rebate) for a basic 2020 Prime LE). Upon having a friendly conversation with one guy, he blatantly told me in my face 'if you're getting money from the government, we're getting a piece of the pie too'. Major cash grab for them.

Which dealer did you use that honored the negotiated dicsount and also took the RYR voucher?

Thank you for your help!

Brad

 

Hey Brad. That's unfortunate. I had that experience as well, and frankly it's what pushed me to get this car since Hamer Toyota were the only ones who somehow didn't give me that bullshit. I got that piece-of-the-pie attitude from all other dealers from other manufacturers.

The only way around it for you think is to call them on their bullshit, report it to the RYR people, just basically get them to admit that they're doing some shady shit.

 

Even Hamer Toyota wouldn't honor it unfortunately when I called. They only had one car on the lot. That was Monday. Maybe I can get them to honor it. So you bought yours through them?

Also, one dealer told me it's in the RYR paperwork that I have to use their financing. I have not found that anywhere, maybe I missed it. I would get a way better rate through my bank or local credit union. Is that true?

Thx

 

For those who participated in the program, what car did you take off the road?

 

I took off a 2003 Civic Hybrid. Yeah I know.

Well I haven't looked at the paperwork of it's been updated. But when I did it I could absolutely use outside financing... I would call bullshit on that claim. Just call them on it, you have the papers yourself, right, ask them to point out where it says that.

 

I talked to my case manager today and you're right, they bullshitted me about the financing. The experience with the dealers so far has been pretty painful. Besides the usual rip-off happening at dealerships, with RYR they only see $$$ in your eyes. It's insane.

Thanks for all the feedback guys!