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| Dealerships finally cash in on clunkers |
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| News | |||
| Written by Jesse Trimble | |||
| Wednesday, 07 October 2009 07:00 | |||
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Although the so-called Cash for Clunkers program ended Aug. 24, some dealerships were still, until a few days ago, in a panic about when they would receive their money. With the government-funded program ending abruptly, some dealership owners thought that, although the program benefited the community, there were several bumps in the road.  Joe O’Barto, general manager of Lang Chevrolet near Paola, said he just received the last check from the program Monday. “We were worried,” he said. “At one point in time, we pulled back — we could have sold more — but there was that fear there that we wouldn’t get paid.” Terri Parkins, the office manager at Lang who dealt with submitting the reports, said she thought the government jumped into it without seeing all of the potential problems. “When we’d receive rejections, sometimes there wouldn’t be a reason for why it was rejected,” she said. Then, Parkins would have to spend an hour or so rescanning paperwork to resubmit the application for the clunker. She emphasized that on top of problems with the Web site, she could never get through to the hotline if she had a question about the process. Now that the program has ended, she said, the lines have freed up considerably. Jason Gudenkauf, owner of Louisburg Ford Sales Inc., said if he was offered the chance to participate in the program again, he would opt out. “It was a mismanaged and misadministrated program,” he said. Every participating dealership nationwide should have received several checks by now, according to government officials. Gudenkauf said his Ford dealership had been paid for everything. But, he noted, there still were several sleepless nights spent wondering how it would all “shake out.” Gudenkauf said Louisburg Ford had 52 clunker sales, and the most popular vehicles were the Fusion, Focus, Escape and F-150 pickup truck . According to the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) Web site, rebate applications worth $2.877 billion were submitted by the deadline; Congres provided $3 billion for the program. O’Barto said Lang Chevrolet had 30 clunker sales. The most popular vehicle purchased from Chevrolet was the HHR wagon, which automaker General Motors Corp. says gets an average of 32 miles per gallon on the highway. Gudenkauf said most dealerships now are trying to recover from the “clunker hangover.” The month of September has seemed relatively slow compared with August, but both Gudenkauf and O’Barto attribute part of that to the time of year as well as to the clunkers program. “The consumers definitely benefit from programs like these, and it was absolutely a good program for that,” Gudenkauf said. Despite some trouble with the process, O’Barto said he’d do it again. “It benefits a lot of the community overall,” he said. Parkins agreed and said it was a good incentive for customers. “And that’s what we’re here for,” she said.
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