Cash For Clunkers : Supended : No More Cash

[Stan Ames]

As someone who works with government folks I might suggest standing back for a moment and looking carefully at the press anouncement. It said the program was overwhelmed and was being suspended not ending. From my research on this the CARS program was simply not set up to handle the vast number of submissions and I think they have no clue as to how to handle the backlog and figure our who qualifies and who does not. Stay tuned. I will bet there will be a lot more on this topic before its all over.

Stan

[ridegsxr714]

wow i am blwn away at how quickly (in one day) we could go from having only used 10% of he funds to it being gone. it doesn't make any sense.
they definatley need to kick this up again, if it was that successful then we need more, it seems like it will really help the economy.

[eddiehaskell]

Well, if they don't get more funds, I guess the government made my decision for me. After hearing about low ground clearance scraping the paint, the $75 oil changes and fighting with dealers that wouldn't budge more than $200 off sticker, I can't say I'd be too sad if it didn't come back. Granted, I have a clunker worth ~$3000....if I had one worth $1000, I'd be pretty upset at losing $3500!

[LoraJ]

Originally Posted by Stan Ames

As someone who works with government folks I might suggest standing back for a moment and looking carefully at the press anouncement. It said the program was overwhelmed and was being suspended not ending. From my research on this the CARS program was simply not set up to handle the vast number of submissions and I think they have no clue as to how to handle the backlog and figure our who qualifies and who does not. Stay tuned. I will bet there will be a lot more on this topic before its all over.

Stan

That's how I read it too.

[Tech_Guy]

Originally Posted by Stan Ames

As someone who works with government folks I might suggest standing back for a moment and looking carefully at the press anouncement. It said the program was overwhelmed and was being suspended not ending. From my research on this the CARS program was simply not set up to handle the vast number of submissions and I think they have no clue as to how to handle the backlog and figure our who qualifies and who does not. Stay tuned. I will bet there will be a lot more on this topic before its all over.

Stan

It appears that there are two basic issues with this program:

1) Having the funds to adequately fund the program, and
2) Administration of a complex program that was an immediate runaway success.

With the program being suspended and congress going on their 30 day August vacation, it looks like there will be an un-intended 30 day cooling off period to figure out how to: a) handle this program from an administration perspective and b) to figure how deep in debt the public (taxpayers) are willing to go to fund the program.

Is the short term success worth the long term consequences? As great as this program looks, there is no free ride.

Keith

[MiddPrius]

Originally Posted by Stan Ames

As someone who works with government folks I might suggest standing back for a moment and looking carefully at the press anouncement. It said the program was overwhelmed and was being suspended not ending. From my research on this the CARS program was simply not set up to handle the vast number of submissions and I think they have no clue as to how to handle the backlog and figure our who qualifies and who does not. Stay tuned. I will bet there will be a lot more on this topic before its all over.

Stan

But rough estimate provided by cashforclunkersfact suggests that the money is long gone.
Average number of clunkers/registered dealer is 11-15 depending on the source, but I don't know any dealer who took in less than 15 clunkers.

Anyway, I think it's better to rewrite the program with the Net-10 clause instead of the bogus maximum 18mpg number.

[fuzzy1]

wow i am blwn away at how quickly (in one day) we could go from having only used 10% of he funds to it being gone. it doesn't make any sense.

The 10% is what had been processed. The unprocessed backlog that dealers are trying to get submitted appears to be far larger.

[LRKingII]

"As of late Thursday, the government had committed roughly $850 million of the program’s $1 billion, according to calculations by NADA and various congressional offices. It’s unclear whether and how the CARS program could be restarted."

[Jabber]

As I mentioned in the other thread. Nobody had any clue as to how much money is actually spent. The cars.gov "fuel tank" was strictly a funded amount. Our dealership has over 40 deals that have not been funded yet. The suspension (as reported by AP) is temporary. Since every dealer is scrambling to get their paperwork into the government, the website keeps crashing. Nobody has a total as to how much money is actually gone. My guess is they suspended it to let all the dealers who have them written get their paperwork in and get caught up. Once they see how much money is gone, then they can resume and tell dealers that there is only $xx amount left.

And a Pelosi aide said that numerous politicians have already begun stating that they want more money to continue the program as it is the single most effective stimulant on the economy. This billion has done more for one of the largest industries than the previous trillion they have given away/spent.

[ridegsxr714]

that is what i thought by the word suspended, just means it is on hold for a while to let dealers catch up. i hope that this is the case.