"The deadline will give car dealers and buyers time to complete purchases and apply for rebates from the remainder of the $3 billion provided by Congress, the department said. Dealers have complained of difficulty running their businesses while awaiting program payments, and the agency said it’s adding workers to help process claims faster.
“Obviously there was a lot more latent demand than many thought,” said Michael Robinet, an analyst at CSM Worldwide Inc. in Northville, Michigan. “That bodes well for the market. But we are past the honeymoon now and we have to see what the market looks like in the post-clunker environment.”
Applications for rebates won’t be accepted after 8 p.m. New York time on Aug. 24, the agency said.
The Transportation Department said it has handled 167,000, or 37 percent, of the 457,476 dealer requests submitted. The agency didn’t say how many of the processed transactions have been paid out and how many were rejected or sent back for further information.
Some $145 million, or less than 8 percent, has been paid out so far to dealers, a senior administration official said on a call with reporters yesterday.
Wind-Down Plan
Officials from the National Automobile Dealers Association trade group met two days ago with the Transportation Department to discuss concerns that payment delays add to the burden on retailers of trying to recover from a sales slump. The association also urged the agency to outline a plan to wind down the effort so retailers know when to stop accepting trade-ins.
Representative Joe Sestak, a Pennsylvania Democrat, said last week the effort had paid retailers for only 2 percent of their claims.
The program is formally known as the Car Allowance Rebate System, or CARS.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, asked Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood in a letter yesterday to speed up payments, saying “dealers have been forced to effectively finance the CARS vouchers for buyers until the dealers are reimbursed by the federal government, placing a strain on dealers’ balance sheets that, if prolonged, could eventually offset some of the benefits of the program.”
"Obviously there was a lot more latent demand than many thought...??" Well, of course, when one is stealing from our grandchildren and passing out the cash to incentivize debt for instant gratification.Except the gub'mint has left the participating dealers holding the bag on millions of dollars of debt while awaiting reimbursement, or as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said "placing a strain on dealers’ balance sheets that, if prolonged, could eventually offset some of the benefits of the program."
Placing a strain? Offset some of the benefits of the program? Oh. That's gub'mint-ese for going belly-up and laying off all your employees cause you're bankrupt!
These are the same morons who want to run our health care, so let's switch Ol' Harry's words, shall we?
"Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, asked HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in a letter yesterday to speed up payments, saying “hospitals have been forced to effectively finance medical procedure vouchers for patients until the hospitals are reimbursed by the federal government, placing a strain on hospitals’ balance sheets that, if prolonged, could eventually contribute to the deaths of patients."
Car Dealers Survey Says Cash for Clunkers is a Failure.
A shameless TY to this guy for stealing his idea.