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Cash for Clunkers

DEALERS' CLUNKER PAYMENTS START TODAY, FEDS SAY

DOT chief: 'We fixed our Web site problems'

NEIL ROLAND
AUTOMOTIVE NEWS
AUGUST 4, 2009 - 12:28 PM ET

WASHINGTON -- Dealers will start getting reimbursed today for cash-for-clunkers credits paid to consumers, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said today.

"We fixed our Web site problems," LaHood said at a news conference here. "We believe processing will go much smoother."

He said dealers had filed 157,000 applications for $664 million in rebates.

The company contracted to handle the Transportation Department's computer system is Oracle Corp. Clerical processing is being handled by Citigroup Inc.

Citigroup has added staff in Delaware to handle the surge of dealer applications. LaHood said he believed both companies have made changes to improve their response time but gave no details.

Dealers are supposed to get paid within 10 days after filing for a rebate of the $3,500 or $4,500 credits given to customers. Because of bottlenecks in the Transportation Department's computer reporting system, many dealers have had problems filing applications since the program began July 24. Many dealers had begun making deals weeks in advance, adding to the initial backlog problem.

If the Senate follows the House, which last week passed a $2 billion cash-for-clunkers extension, funding should be adequate through Labor Day, LaHood said.

The Senate is scheduled to begin a month-long recess Saturday.
 
Here is a situation that is taking place in my world today.... I have a lady that purchased a new 2010 Equinox in Ohio almost two weeks ago while it was in transit. They scratched the door getting in off of the truck and then backed into it while it was at the body shop to get the door fixed. Needless to say she didn't want it anymore. The problem is that the dealership had already filed the paperwork with the CARS program. The dealership has told her that they have reversed the deal, and she shouldn't have a problem buying from us. However, my GM isn't willing to do the deal until he has some type of verification from the CARS people that we aren't going to get rejected for filing a duplicate claim on the same clunker... Any ideas?
 
I ran into a situation the other day (imagine that) with the cars program I wonder if anyone else has run into. I had a special finance cash for clunkers deal come in yesterday. F&I got it approved, but we decided not to take the deal because the particular lender we were going to have to use is slow getting the deals funded. I hate to leave any deal out there that we could have wrapped up, but this situation looked like It could have easily left us subject to some exposure with the program ending on Monday. What do you think? Would you guys have done the same thing?
 
I think it depends largely on if you believe the government will back its word when it says that deals completed by Monday at 8PM EST will be funded. I personally believe they will honor what they say. I believe credibility is a big deal to Obama and therefore wouldn't allow the NHTSA to not reimburse dealers.