Friends of mine, a husband and wife, work for a dealership and I was talking to them last night about this program. The wife is in accounting and she said that the program has brought in LOTS of customers. She also said that she brought home the government program packet to familiarize herself with the program and found that it was 109 pages of legal jargon.
She submitted six deals to the government on Thursday and was waiting to see if they would be accepted or rejected. Her co-worker submitted the dealer’s first “cash for clunkers” deal to the government and it was rejected. Apparently there was an error or errors in the submission. She’s trying to figure out where in all the paperwork there might be a typo.
One customer came in for the deal and discovered that his “clunker”, a 2000 Pontiac Bonneville, was not eligible for the program because the factory specs said that that car got 19 MPG and the “clunker” must have a rating of 18 MPG or less. It’s amazing that mileage and age are not taken into account by the program. No way that car still gets 19 MPG.
Additionally, the dealer has to “make the sale” before submitting the paperwork and take the title of the clunker. Then liquid glass is to be poured into the motor. If the paperwork is rejected the buyer is on the hook for the $3,500 or $4,500 dollars. The seller is not to write up the contract as dependant on acceptance but if he did and the car was destroyed and the application for clunker money was rejected, the buyer would only be reimbursed $100 for the destroyed car.