Ending cash for clunkers: New Hampshire dealers ask the buyers to pay for the rebates
Much like everything else that the government does the cash for clunkers program has become bogged down in bureaucratic red tape. The government did not have the money to pay the promised rebates– this problem was exacerbated when the cash for clunkers program proved more popular than the government though it would be– so the government had the auto dealers pay the cash for clunkers rebate money and promised them that the check would be in the mail and that they would be reimbursed.
Reimbursement has been slow in coming, the government still does not have the money and with the popularity of the program the government has to try to come up with the money sooner than it had expected. Dealerships that were already struggling are now finding themselves at an even bigger loss as they wait for the checks which may never come. This has led to hundreds of dealerships in New York and New Mexico (probably other states as well) to drop the cash for clunkers program altogether.
Many dealerships in New Hampshire have taken a different tactic when dealing with the notoriously slow and seemingly disinterested government’s handling of the rebate checks. Many New Hampshire dealerships, one of which is owed $500,000 by the government (what would happen to the dealer if it owed the government the same amount of money?) are making the buyers sign an agreement that if the government does not come up with the rebate money the buyer will be on the hook for the $4,500.
Needless to say, the people who couldn’t afford to buy a new vehicle without the rebate are not signing this agreement, they are walking away.
The cash for clunkers program was the one program in the stimulus bill that I will give credit to for actually doing some stimulating. The program got people out buying cars that they would not have bought without the program but the program was initially underfunded and it has continued to be mismanaged. The government miscalculated the popularity of the program and continues to withhold payment of the rebates even as the president heads to Martha’s Vineyard for a vacation.
Last week the government announced that the cash for clunkers program was going to end after this weekend. For the dealerships that have had to contend with this ill-run program the end just can’t come soon enough. Neither can the money they were promised.
America's Watchtower 
I hope the agreement to sign will be made clear to the buyers or there will be a whole other set of problems there. Yeah, they won’t be selling any more cars for a while. Really can’t blame them, they have to get their money somehow. See how the gubment just makes things 100x worse by trying to “help”? Hmmmm…… I guess President Reagan was right, and Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine, and Patrick Henry, shall I go on? I think that Obama is going to M.V. on vaca b/c of something to do with Ted Kennedy. Big compassion photo-op, or maybe Ted isn’t expected to last much longer…..
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This is a perfect example of how the government screws everything up, it should be used as a “teachable moment.”
Isn’t Teddy in Florida? I think he is being treated there while Boston is considered to have the best hospitals so he can avoid the Massachusetts death tax.
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Oh yeah, I forgot about the death tax. Well I guess Brry just wants to be with the “in crowd”.
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Cash for Clunkers a totally bad idea—taking in good cars in many cases and sending them to the junk pile. Destroying something that works just doesn’t sit right with me. And the payments to the dealers—the government is always slow and they will be slow in a Nationalized Health Care program, while people die waiting for those government panels to make life and death decisions. I see another clunkers program on the horizon one for those that are too old to contribute to the welfare of the state—THE FINAL SOLUTION!
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We are told that we live in a wasteful society and then we watch the government destroy perfectly good cars. Cars that people who cannot afford new cars would normally buy. That will drive up the prices of used cars and hurt those people who would have bought them. There are so many unitended consequences to this program that we really haven’t even thought about.
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AVALANCHE!!!
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Its better to donate your car to charities and while this ensures the car is put to proper use to benefit the community, it also gives you access to tax offs. http://www.donatecarusa.com handles linkages for 40 charities where you can donate your car.
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