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

[Jon Groenig]

Is it just me or does this look like it is turning into an ongoing PR nightmare for dealers? Most of the problems lie on the government end and the dealers are the scapegoat, just my observation of customers involved in this thread. People on the industry side of this know for a fact that the last thing a dealer ever wants to do is call back a customer with an issue after a vehicle has been delivered, so you know before the call is made they have made every effort to find a loophole to get around the problem.

 

[Jon Groenig]

So Alex, how many cars have you taken in on the program and how many have you been paid on? I know you guys started earlier than most on this program, so I am sure you have a staggering number of cars lining your back lot.

 

[Alex Snyder (blog)]

Jon - we were finally paid for a deal. Which means we are almost at 3% being funded.

 

[jj14268]

nicole-
To cancel something that is in review, please e‑mail this unwieldy address [email protected] from the e‑mail account that was used to register with the site. In the subject field type in “cancel” and follow that with the invoice number.

 

[jj14268]

alex-
were you actually paid, or approved for a deal?

 

[Michael (blog)]

I have had deals pending review since July 30th that have still not been looked at. Is this normal?

 

[jj14268]

according to the deeler support group at nhtsa, it is. we have 0 rejections, and 0 approvals dating back to the 28th. The big fear is having 3 week old submissions rejected, only to start the waiting game again...

 

[John Quinn]

I function as the CARS Czar for a large dealership -- we've submitted over 200 invoices and have been successful with 14 so far -- none currently in rejection status. Dealers who are worried about submissions being rejected need to adopt the following philosophy: Make it Simple! Do not give the Auditors an opportunity to reject the deal. In my role as the Czar here, I eyeball all the paperwork before we sign-off on it -- while the customer is still here. And it's very simple: if it's not perfect, the deal doesn't get done! Now at first, we had some miffed Sales Managers, but after sending them back a dozen times to re-write sloppy deals, get better copies of insurance, etc., they got the picture. I will then literally spell-it-out for the auditors on the copies before I scan them: "Insurance Page 1 of 3: Qualifying Date," "Current Reg, Title Date of Issue 5-14-95, Please see title above." Spell it out for them and make it easy: pretend you are sumbitting documents to 10-year-olds who need all the help they can get! This is truly an area foreign to us car people: we really need to slow-down to speed-up. Last tip: if you haven't actually read the checklist, take 25 minutes and ingest it thoroughly. It really is an A-B-C approach to submitting vouchers and gaining approvals -- another instance where simply slowing-down and taking 25 minutes will save you days or even weeks in the future.

 

[jj14268]

I don't think I'm too worried about accuracy of the submissions. It's the horror stories of errors without codes, inconsistent approvals, and the like. Human error will take place in some circumstances, but it's impossible to know that you've made a mistake when you are under review for weeks without any indication that you've done something right or wrong. I know of 4 dealers within 5 miles of my place that have pulled out of the prgram due to lack of supporting funds. I can't remember a more ironic situation in 20 years of doing this. Stimulating the auto industry by making dealers front billions of dollars. Very frustrating.

 

[lfinney]

Question for the Car Czar - the Clunker Queen at mid-size Nissan Suzuki store. I have a question for you... Many employees and man hours would you estimate are tied up in submiting 200 invoices. We have 65 deals "on the street" and if we get even close to caught up Friday/Satuday sales just put us back in the weeds on submission. Not to mention as you said not collecting all paperwork up front.

Just curious... How payments have you guys seen?