Fox News, CNN, and several other news outlets are reporting that the popular Cash for Clunkers Bill may be suspended as early as today (Friday the 31st), only a week after it officially began. The Cash For Clunkers Program was supposed to last from July 1 – Nov 1, or until all the funds were depleted. Lawmakers are concerned the $1 billion allocated to the program may already be gone.
Has the Cash for Clunkers Program run out of money?
The government allocated $1 billion to the program, which is enough to fund the purchase of roughly 250,000 new vehicles at the $3,500 to $4,500 rebate (Is your car eligible for Cash for Clunkers?). Through Wednesday, over 22,000 vehicles had been purchased through the program, totaling nearly $96 million in government funded rebates. However, some dealers have brought up the possibility of delays in processing the claims and many people think the actual number is higher.
Will the Cash for Clunkers Program (CARS) resume?
Right now, the Cash for Clunkers Program is on hiatus until government officials can determine the status of the program, including exactly how many legitimate claims have been processed and how many legitimate claims have yet to be processed. Assuming there are still funds available, the program should resume.
Will the government allocate more funds to the Cash For Clunkers Program?
If the funds have already run out in less than a month, there will be a lot of pressure for the government to allocate more funds to the program. The auto industry is going through troubled times right now, and many dealerships have been forced to close their doors. Although it may be a short term help, there will be pressure from many people to add more funds to the program.
Update: House Moves to add $2 Billion more to CARS Program
The Cash for Clunkers program was enormously successful, and Congress is already moving to add $2 billion more to the Cash for Clunkers program. The goal is to have the funds approved by the end of the day so people who were planning on doing some weekend car shopping can still take advantage of the Cash for Clunkers deals.
Update 2: CARS Program set to end
Update: Cash for Clunkers Program Will End Monday, August 24th at 8 p.m. ET.
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Read this article: The Real Reason for the “Cash for Clunkers” Suspension. The ex car salesman blog shares exactly why they stopped the program. Even reports that some sales managers are calling asking for the money back because they were denied the rebate when the final paperwork was submitted but their car was already ruined by dumping a solution in the engine. They now have no car. Scary. See: http://tinyurl.com/ml9sdo
Sally,
that is interesting, I have heard similar things, just about how unorganized and rushed the whole thing was. It is always important to think through the details!
The simple math will tell you that there was no way that the program could last more than a few weeks no matter what Congress did. If the new average new car sales are in America are in the 9 million unit range, down from 13 million at its peak, that would equate to approximately 750k cars sold a month or 187,500 new cars a week. Are we really surprised that Congress’ poor solution ran out of money? There wasn’t enough money allocated to the program to start with.
Hank, that may be true, but what percentage of those sales qualify for the program? Certainly not all of them. Not everyone is trading in a low mileage car, or any car at all for that matter. Not all of them are buying new cars with high enough mileage to qualify.
Knowing what percentage of purchases qualify – 10%? 25%? 50%? – is a vital piece of information missing from your math.
The latest is that they replenished the program with 2b more.
Sorry, but this is another pork-program disaster designed to bailout the auto industry that we taxpayers will ultimately regret.
Just as I predicted to Ryan… possible to declare it a total success or a total disaster depending on what facts you wish to pick & the perspective you are predisposed to take.
Sorry to comment on this again, but something interesting occurred to me. The meaning of “pork” in political terms has a very specific meaning. It’s money dedicated to a particular congressman’s district, often for one particular project that benefits no one else. It’s considered wasteful because it benefits only that narrow focus, where there may be better uses for the money even to that beneficiary.
How you call a program “pork” when it’s nationwide, benefits tens of thousands of all different stripes around the country, I don’ t know. Now you don’t have to agree with the program, but throwing around the word “pork” for anything you don’t like is kinda silly.