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CAPITAL REGION
Program swamps dealerships
Car sellers glad to see deal extended despite problems
BY AMEERAH CETAWAYO Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Ameerah Cetawayo at 395-3040 or acetawayo@dailygazette.net.

    Local dealers have many opinions about the government’s “cash for clunkers” program, but one question remains: If $1 billion lasted less than a week, how long will $2 billion last?
    Albany Dodge salesman Bernard Hills was so busy with customers Saturday that he rushed to get off the phone during an interview.
    Hills said the response from customers has been positive — but there are parts of the program that have generated confusion.
    “I’m talking with customers as I’m talking with you,” Hills said. “It’s been positive, except for the little bit of paperwork.
    “What’s happening is that people don’t know that they need to bring like two years’ worth of documentation as far as registration and insurance is concerned,” Hills said.
    While the program has generated a lot interest from buyers, some dealers say the administrative side of the program is “ridiculous,” with processing delays that have created a nightmare and some cash flow problems.
    Alex Isabella, owner of H&P Chrysler Dodge in Gloversville, sat at his office computer Saturday, watching to see if an online Car Allowance Rebate System application would process.
    “We cannot get our applications for the government to refund us processed,” Isabella said. “We’re not a very large dealership. We’ve got four deals that we’re trying to get paperwork through. It’s a very bad bottleneck on their computer site. They obviously didn’t allow for the volume of the traffic that needs to be going back and forth on that site. They’ve improved it a little bit, but it’s way too slow.”
    Even though the program was talked about for nearly a month before becoming available, dealers could not register to participate until a day before the program began, which created a bottleneck for two days, Isabella said.
    To add to that problem, a 136-page manual was handed to dealerships — not exactly a quick read.
    “Almost every day there’s new changes to it,” Isabella said.
    The CARS program offers owners of old cars and trucks $3,500 or $4,500 toward a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle in exchange for scrapping their old vehicle. Congress last month approved the plan to boost auto sales and remove some inefficient cars and trucks from the roads.
    The program was scheduled to last through Nov. 1 or until the money ran out, but few predicted that the fund would run out so quickly. The $1 billion in funding was expected to lead to up to 250,000 new car sales. ..........>>>>.....................>>>>..............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01600

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‘Cash for clunkers’ makes July top month for auto sales
BY KEN THOMAS AND TOM KRISHER The Associated Press

    DETROIT — The government’s “cash-for-clunkers” program drew car and truck buyers back to American showrooms last month, making July the best month for auto sales in nearly a year and offering powerful evidence that the rebates were working as senators debate whether to continue them.
    In fact, some automakers, dealers and government officials declared an end to the industry slump that nearly claimed the lives of General Motors and Chrysler.
    “We certainly expect that we’ve seen the worst of it,” said Dave Zuchowski, Hyundai Motor Co.’s vice president of U.S. sales, whose sales rose 12 percent over July of last year, the second-best in the industry, behind only Suzuki.
    “We’re not saying it’s going to be a high bounce back. We think it will be good, solid, steady growth.”
    Even though the overall U.S. market fell 12 percent when compared with July of last year, gleeful automakers reported vastly better sales than in the dismal first half of 2009.
    In Washington, the White House urged the Senate to approve $2 billion without delay or risk ending the big rebates for car buyers by week’s end.
    Buyer demand was so strong that the government had nearly spent in one week the $1 billion that Congress had expected to last until Nov. 1.
    “I think probably this is the greatest one-week energy conservation program that may have come out of Washington or anywhere else,” said George Pipas, Ford’s top sales analyst.
    Without the clunkers program, July sales probably would have been about the same as June, Pipas said.
    Democrats remained concerned about lining up enough support for the incentives, which offer up to $4,500 per vehicle. The House approved the rebates last week before heading home for the August recess.
    Automakers and the Obama administration said the clunkers program did everything it was designed to do — replace inefficient sport utility vehicles with more efficient cars, boost auto sales and help lead the economy out of recession.
Gas-guzzling vehicles from the 1990s were stacked up on nearly every new car lot in America. As of Saturday, the government reported that 83 percent of the trade-ins under the clunker program were trucks, and 60 percent of the vehicles purchased were cars. July was the best sales month since August 2008, when the industry sold more than 1.2 million vehicles before the financial meltdown began. Still, the sudden spike in sales depleted dealer stocks of nearly every major automaker, leading many observers to predict that prices will almost certainly climb later this year. The Ford Focus, which gets 35 mpg on the highway, was the No. 1 purchase of those trading in clunkers.
    While the cash-for-clunkers program surely drew out buyers who would have come later in the year, Zuchowski and others said much of the clunker sales were from pent-up demand — consumers waiting on the sidelines for months for fear the economy would not recover. ..............>>>>.................>>>>.............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00500&AppName=1

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Obama administration withholds data on program       
Aug 4 01:08 PM US/Eastern
By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE
Associated Press Writer      

          WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration is refusing to release government records on its "cash-for-clunkers" rebate program that would substantiate—or undercut—White House claims of the program's success, even as the president presses the Senate for a quick vote for $2 billion to boost car sales.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Sunday the government would release electronic records about the program, and President Barack Obama has pledged greater transparency for his administration. But the Transportation Department, which has collected details about 157,000 rebate requests, won't release sales data that dealers provided showing how much U.S. car manufacturers are benefiting from the $1 billion initially pumped into the program.

The Associated Press has sought release of the data since last week. But the public and Senate Republicans demanding more information will have to wait for details because federal officials running the program don't have time to turn over data delivered by car dealers, said Rae Tyson, spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

LaHood said in an interview Sunday he would make the electronic records available. "I can't think of any reason why we wouldn't do it," he said.

DOT officials already have received electronic details from car dealers of each trade-in transaction. The agency regularly analyzes the data internally, producing helpful talking points for LaHood, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs and other officials to use when urging more funding.

LaHood, the program's chief salesman, has pitched the rebates as good for America, good for car buyers, good for the environment, good for the economy. But it's difficult to determine whether the administration is overselling the claim without seeing what's being sold, what's being traded in and where the cars are being sold.

LaHood, for example, promotes the fact that the Ford Focus so far is at the top of the list of new cars purchased under the program. But the limited information released so far shows most buyers are not picking Ford, Chrysler or General Motors vehicles, and six of the top 10 vehicles purchased are Honda, Toyota and Hyundai.

LaHood has called the popular rebates to car buyers "the lifeline that will bring back the automobile industry in America." He and other advocates are citing program data to promote passage of another $2 billion for the incentives -- claiming dealers sold cars that are 61 percent more fuel efficient than trade-ins and Ford's Focus is the top seller.

LaHood also said this week that even if buyers aren't choosing cars made by U.S. automobile manufacturers, many of the Honda, Toyota and Hyundai cars sold were made in those companies' American plants.

But there's no way to verify his claims without access to DOT's data.

Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has argued against quick approval of $2 billion for the program because little is known about the first round of $3,500 and $4,500 rebates.

"We don't have the results of the first $1 billion," McConnell spokesman Don Stewart said. "You don't have them. We don't have them. DOT doesn't have all of it. We'd hate to make a mistake on something like that."

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Now your an expert on Cash 4 Clunkers Bumblebutt.  You never cease to amaze us!

Quoted from 391

Now your an expert on Cash 4 Clunkers Bumblebutt.  You never cease to amaze us!