Cash for Clunkers Ends Monday (08/24/09)

Per the AP (Obama admin. to end cash for clunkers on Monday)


WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration plans to end the popular $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program on Monday, giving car shoppers a few more days to take advantage of big government incentives.

The Transportation Department said Thursday the government will wind down the program on Monday at 8 p.m. EDT. Car buyers can receive rebates of $3,500 or $4,500 for trading in older vehicles for new, more fuel-efficient models.

"It's been a thrill to be part of the best economic news story in America," Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement. "Now we are working toward an orderly wind down of this very popular program."

Through Thursday, auto dealers have made deals worth $1.9 billion and are on pace to exhaust the program's $3 billion in early September. The incentives have generated more than 457,000 vehicle sales. Administration officials said they have reviewed nearly 40 percent of the transactions and have already paid out $145 million to dealers.

Administration officials said applications for rebates will not be accepted after 8 p.m. EDT Monday and dealers should not make additional sales without receiving all the necessary paperwork from their customers. Dealers will be able to resubmit rejected applications after the deadline.

President Barack Obama said in an interview Thursday that the program has been "successful beyond anybody's imagination" but dealers were overwhelmed by the response of consumers. He pledged that dealers "will get their money."

Dealers have complained of delays in getting reimbursed and backlogs of vehicle paperwork getting processed in the program. Dealers have said they face a risk of not being reimbursed but LaHood has pledged that dealers will get paid for the incentives.

The administration has said it has tripled the number of staffers sorting through the dealer paperwork.

Just saw this too on CNN.

Cash for Clunkers shutting down - Aug. 20, 2009

So how long was that? ~28 days?

I am glad to see this clause: "Dealers will be able to resubmit rejected applications after the deadline."

I guess it's kind of like April 15th. Just get it in.

Out with the C4C, in with the package price increases.

Here's to the money that helped to see us
Out of a clunker and into a Prius.
RIP C4C

Will it become a buyers market for the 2010 Prius? I plan to go car shopping in April 2010.

I didn't start looking at the Prius until the C4C program was in effect. Was the 2010 model selling for less than MSRP before that, or was low stock and high demand keeping negotiations pretty much off the table as it currently is?

Soon the car dealerships will be going back to the same old same old days. And, those days might not look so good for awhile.

On a base II model, going rate here was anywhere from -600 to -400 off sticker. The loaded options ones could be had more off sticker I believe.

Woo! Hoo! Now when I buy a car when my lease is up in December the dealers will be destitute and desperate to give me a good deal again!

At some of the largest dealers in California, they were plentiful and hardly moving off the lot (especially the loaded Vs with AT) and can be had for $750 under MSRP.

One of my Employees went out last night to score a car under the C4C and the dealer had already discontinued the program.

I don't know what brand or dealer she went too.

Well I'm glad I bought when I did. I originally planned to wait a year to let Toyota work any bugs out, and wanted a V with the AT package. I'm happy with my car, but have been afraid a AT package would show up right after I bought mine! I keep telling myself I got $4500 for my truck and didn't pay the $4500 for the AT. Therefore I saved $9000. . .

Don't tell me my logic is wrong -- I won't listen!

"blah blah blah" (hands over ears).

If you bought a V with NAV, you only saved 2300 on not getting the AT package. I know, as I did the same buying my V with Nav, $2,300 less than the AT package, but my wife would not budge. (If you had bought a V with no package, then you would have saved $4,500.)

Still, saving $6,800 is a heck of a deal! Congrats!

The Prius price will go down after C4C. Please wait....

It has been absolutely fascinating watching the automobile industry for the last month (Friday, July 24 - Monday, August 24). The heavy hand of government took a major industry that was stagnant and created a market frenzy with only 3 billion dollars. The automobile industry suddenly re-hired thousands of idle workers and started producing thousands of cars again.

Now that the Cash for Clunkers program is over (or nearly so), will the public keep on buying new cars (and the auto factories keep running), or will the auto industry settle back into the general economic recession that is affecting the rest of the economy?

Time will tell (and I don't think that we'll have to wait very long).

Keith

No, that's perfect logic! And I say that not only because that's the same logic I used, surely. I was wanting a IV with a moon roof, but when I realized there was a state CFC program that put a $25,000 limit on the car you could buy, and that it could be used in conjunction with the federal program, I got on the ball and found the first 2010 Prius under $25,000 I could get my hands on. With a good amount of luck, all the stars aligned and I managed to get the $3,500 from the state, $4,500 for the feds, and a beautiful Blizzard White Prius II to call my own! Who needs all those fancy packages when you can say you managed to get $8,000 for your old POS clunker. :love:

If this program is so good for the economy, why not fund it through the end of the year?

I'm betting most of these sales were like me. I was buying a Prius in Aug-Sept-Oct anyway. When the C4C came up I had to be a fool not to jump on it. So a sale that would have been in September was logged in July. We should see a slow down in Sept-Dec this year.
830K a month in sales is the rate we were averaging now we just added 750K sales in the last four weeks. So over the next six months we could see a drop into the 600K-700K per month range until the demand picks back up in six months or so. I see auto sales not picking up until next March-April.

I would not have bought a new car without the clunkers program - I think I wa sthe targeted audience. It worked.

just another observation - this program has been running for less than 30 days and there is an "Outcry" from dealers that they haven't been reimbursed yet?? I don't get it - do they pay their invoices in less than net 15 or even net 30? Most companies don't- it seems that getting the payments rolling in the first couple weeks is pretty good.

Good idea. A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon we're talking about real money - Senator Everett Dirksen

Seriously - money isn't free, there is always a price to be paid. We the tax payers will have to pay all this money back, plus interest. Hindsight is better than foresight. Maybe the program should have only given a maximum of $ 3,000 per vehicle and extended it to allow for older vehicles which really pollute and are far less fuel efficient.

Keith