Under the proviso of ‘Cash for Clunkers’, each ‘Clunker’ a dealer received required immobilizing the engine, sent to the junkyard with a dose of sodium silicate.
According to this article in Yahoo Auto News
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.
During Episode 7 of the Solid Principles Podcast, we spoke to Chad Manning the General Sales Manager of Jim Burke Ford of Bakersfield. We posed the question, what if the the rebate from cars.gov doesn’t come through?
The overlooked aspect of ‘Cash for Clunkers’ is that Dealers were in effect creditors to U.S Government. Perhaps, the next time a Tax Payer backed incentive program of this magnitude comes along, that industry might back off and be less prepared to foot the tab (until Uncle Sam ponies up 1st).
Craig Edwards
Solid Principles Co-Founder
