How to Avoid the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Snarl
When car dealers start doing business with the federal government, whaddya expect? Perfect harmony?
VIDEO: Some dealers stopped Cash for Clunkers program August 18th, 2009
http://www.kmov.com/video/localnews-...ml?nvid=390368
By Rick Newman
Yahoo
Of course not. Several weeks into the "cash for clunkers" program it turns out that delivering a couple of billion dollars worth of rebates to hundreds of thousands of car buyers can generate a few flat tires. The Department of Transportation's latest update on the Car Allowance Rebate System shows that the government has received applications for about 412,000 rebates totaling $1.7 billion. But so far, the feds have approved only a fraction of those, leaving dealers furious.
The Transportation Department won't say exactly what the rejection rate is, but in an Automotive News survey, some dealers said up to 80 percent of their rebate applications had been rejected. Some dealers are waiting for payments totaling as much as $200,000, the survey found. About 13 percent of dealers said they've suspended clunker deals because of red tape and concern about getting paid by the government.
Continues: http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/auto...lunkers-snarl/