cash for clunkers stimulus

cash for clunkers stimulus

The old blue Ford in Lawrence Anthony's driveway is bound for destruction.

The federal government's “cash for clunkers” program officially rolls out today, and Anthony, 41, plans to roll the gas-guzzler down the road to Performance Toyota in LaVista in exchange for a new Tacoma pickup — Saturday morning, if all goes as planned.

“That's too bad it's going to be crushed,” he said, a little wistfully, recalling that the 1991 Ford F150 was the first new vehicle he bought. “But she was starting to rot out.”

New-car dealers in the Omaha-Council Bluffs and Lincoln areas expect to be busy as the government unveils final details today, or some of them anyway, of the new-car stimulus program. Many have been lining up deals for weeks but remained uncertain Thursday about when they would be able to finalize sales and release new vehicles to buyers.

Dealers expect consumers to quickly devour the $1 billion that Congress committed to the program last month.

“What we've heard from the manufacturers is a two- to three-week window before the money is gone,” said Kevin Brennan, new-vehicle director at Edwards Subaru Hyundai Inc. in Council Bluffs. “There's a finite amount of money out there, and I don't want people to miss out on it.”

The program, officially known as the Car Allowance Rebate System, or CARS, is to last until the $1 billion is gone or Nov. 1, whichever comes first, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The program offers consumers a $3,500 or $4,500 credit toward a new vehicle if they turn in a qualifying low-gas-mileage vehicle. The program is intended to spur recession-battered sales of new cars — and at the same time replace some older cars and trucks with newer, greener models.

“It would shock me if the money lasts a month,” said Mike Miller, a salesman at Performance Toyota who said cash-for-clunker interest was “off the chart.”

Such urgent talk is not just a sales tactic, said Brennan.

“Honestly, I think it's going to go shockingly fast. I think it's going to be gone before you know it,” he said. “If I thought the money was going to stick around a while, I wouldn't be taking deposits.”

Nick Hunke, general manager at Sid Dillon Lincoln, said the dealership was bringing in extra part time employees to help process cash-for-clunker sales and handle new shoppers.

“We're going to have a full staff,” Hunke said, adding that no one is allowed to take off today or Saturday. “We're willing to put in the extra work to help them out and help us out in return.”

Rob Rodriguez, sales manager at Honda Cars of Bellevue, said his dealership already had lined up rebates totaling nearly $100,000. In four or five cases, Rodriguez said, his company made sales even after people discovered that their old vehicles wouldn't qualify as clunkers under the government program.

A Web site, www.cars.gov, has provided official but general guidelines about the program. Final rules — expected today, according to the site — will launch the program into gear.

The responsibility falls on the dealer to verify that a car qualifies and for what amount, dealers said.

“The people have to get a letter and have a number for their car they are trading in,” Rodriguez said. “Until we get that number and they are authorized, it would be crazy for a dealer to deliver a car without knowing what the rebate money really is.

“There are manufacturers already doing that, but they are taking a lot of chances,” he said.

New incentives pegged to the cash-for-clunkers program are emerging, too.

Chrysler Group LLC announced Wednesday that is offering new-car buyers as much as $4,500 in cash, potentially doubling a consumer's savings.