CASH FOR CLUNKERS WIND DOWN
CASH FOR CLUNKERS
PROGRAM TO END MONDAY AUGUST 24, 2009
The following is vitally important to dealers:
1. "Clunkers" deals must be submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) by Monday, August 24 at 8:00 p.m. EDT.
2. "Clunkers" deals submitted after Monday, August 24 at 8:00 p.m. EDT will not be processed or paid. This means that merely consummating a deal without submitting the application to NHTSA will NOT be sufficient to meet the deadline.
3. NHTSA has advised that applications submitted prior to the deadline and then rejected may still be subsequently corrected (even if the corrections are submitted after the deadline). [Recap: "Clunkers" deals already submitted and rejected may still be resubmitted irrespective of the deadline.]
With less than 100 hours to submit new "Clunkers" applications, The CAR Association strongly advises dealers to give priority to submitting all unsubmitted deals to NHTSA.
While there is still time remaining to initiate new "Clunkers" deals, each dealer must acknowledge the growing risk of potentially being shut out as the deadline approaches.
Government’s Wind Down Strategy
- The CARS program will remain open until the close of business on Monday, August 24 (8:00pm EST). This period provides opportunity for dealers to complete and submit all outstanding transactions into the DOT system. As of 6 AM on Thursday, more than 450,000 transactions have been submitted by dealers, representing a total of about $1.9 billion. This represents approximately 2/3rds of the $3 billion allocated to the Department of Transportation to operate the CARS program. Based on conservative estimates of valid deals transacted under the program, DOT has projected that the program will be able to continue to accept new submissions until the Monday deadline, consistent with the statutory authority of the program.
- After the program closes, DOT will not allow dealers to submit additional applications. Therefore, in order to ensure an orderly wind down, the Department of Transportation urges dealers to focus today on getting pending deals completed and submitted.
Dealers are strongly encouraged to follow the checklist provided on the cars.gov Web site and submit the completed checklist with their deal to ensure that all required information is present.
- Dealers are also advised not to agree to any more sales in the coming days unless the dealer has received from the consumer all necessary paperwork, so that the dealer can submit the transaction immediately.
- Dealers are strongly advised not to submit applications with incomplete information.
Any submitted applications with significant missing or incomplete information will risk on the rejection.
Reminder: Program Rules Are Stated on the cars.gov Web site
|
