What is Cash for Clunkers (C.A.R.S.) Doing for YOU?

[chris (blog)]

I seems this program has really become a mess. I am curious, to the dealers out there - if this program were to be offered again, would you participate or avoid all together? Is all of this mess worth the extra sales? In other words, has the "gift horse" that government has handed out to you too (I assume Net Sales for most dealerships benifited greatly, although I do not have any data to back that up at my fingertips), to the dealers become a "white elephant"? As for me, the dealership and I are coming to a mutually acceptable outcome so, please, do not take my above question in the context that I might have some "ax to grind".

Thank you - Chris

 

[MapleGirl]

So here's the million dollar question:

Should consumers push the dealers to release a car bought with the CARS program or should we sit tight and continue to wait for the approval from the government?

We submitted our application on July 27th. Our dealer put it into the system that night. "Our" new car and clunker have been sitting on the dealer's lot since then. We really want our new car and I'm sure the dealer really wants us to take it (and stop calling them). It seems as though the dealer is breaking the law by making us wait for the approval on our clunker. (Silly law really..... why should the dealer have to take a financial risk on our clunker deal?)

Should I call the NHTSA and VW of America to report them? Should I wait to call them until after we get the car? Should I sit tight and do nothing?

The dealer also listed the salvage value of our clunker as $50, so he said we won’t get anything from that. Our clunker is a ’92 GMC Yukon. Where can I find the actual salvage value?

 

[John Quinn]

My advice is to certainly sit-tight. Like you said -- you both have the same goal. There are now 2000 people going through the applications -- should start to pick-up. On another note... I've seen a couple of mentions now regarding the "Salvage Value." Consumers need to understand that absolutely nowhere, anywhere, is it written or stated that the consumer is to be refunded any salvage value over the $50 alloted for "administrative" funds. This has been discussed in depth during NHTSA/NADA webinars on the CARS program. The rules do say the dealer is allowed to keep $50 for administrative costs, but again NOWHERE state that the consumer should be given the difference. Some dealers may choose to refund the difference, some may not, opining that there are costs incurred other than "administrative" in nature. Perhaps NHTSA will clarify at a later date, but it is factually erroneous for consumers to expect to receive salvage value in excess of $50 "by law." At best, the rules are enormously vague.

 

[Mindy]

Is anyone having problems accessing the CARS invoice web site this morning? I have not been able to get on to check the status of my invoices this morn...

 

[John Quinn]

I was on this morning for a while, but getting an error message now...

 

[Mindy]

thanks... at least i know it's not something i'm doing wrong...

 

[Steve (blog)]

Anyone know the deal with the scrap value? Does the dealership get a scap value for the "clunker" when they take possession of the trade-in, when they disable it, or do they do that before all the paperwork is in? I have a feeling my dealership didn't do this properly and only put $50 for the actual scrap value to cover a certain fee b/c they didn't want to worry about giving more money back to the consumer...

 

[Rick]

err

 

[John Quinn]

Steve, Please see a couple of posts above.

 

[robyn]

wow. ya'll actually got people on the phone at the number? i never actually heard a voice except for the new recording of a different voice telling me to push another number on the menu.. then i would hold for about 2 hours and then it would cut me off. i wasn't able to submit my actual paperwork until midnight. i wasted at least a weeks worth of time submitting paperwork only to get kicked out and not able to log back in.. then i would have to resubmit it all over again..it only worked for me about 11pm each night. today, i finally was able to logon this afternoon to check the status and they are still under review. i tried logging on this morning and their server down. go figure.