What's up with Cash for Clunkers?

Lots of information swirling around about the longevity of the Cash for Clunkers or Cars program (www.cars.gov). And it is causing confusion within the public sector and within the dealerships. Visiting several dealerships with week, it was exciting to actually see floor traffic again, and Internet departments are reporting higher than normal lead counts. But the questions are abounding, from everyone. Standing at the business desk for a while yesterday, I heard customer after customer and salesperson after salesperson come up and ask questions about eligibility, ordering vs. delivery, mpg guidelines etc. The key to the program is that pent up customers, those that want or need to buy a car, are finally coming out to the showrooms. Dealers worth their salt, are selling cars, whether the vehicles are eligible or not. Now the worry is that the money will run out before the program has made much of a dent. The numbers are all over the place. The Cash for Clunkers Twitter account (which is arguably not very reliable) stated yesterday that only $98M of the $1B had been spent. News media is reporting that the money is running out faster than that. The news media may be closer to the truth because talking to dealers this week, they were far behind in the paperwork processing phase of the project. With month end hitting, there is more to do than usual at the neighborhood dealer.

Regardless, how great is it to see busy dealerships again.

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