The Emporia Gazette

February 13, 2012

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Auto dealers were scrambling Monday to process their final deals during the last few hours of the popular Cash for Clunkers program.

Dealers were to have all paperwork submitted by the 7 p.m. deadline, but were having trouble because of the crush of last-minute traffic on the government’s CARS Web site. As a result, the deadline for dealer submissions was extended to 11 this morning.

“It’s supposed to be in their computer by 7, but their computer’s been down all day,” Ron Carlson of John North Ford said on Monday. “We’re trying to continue, but the federal computer’s down and we can’t get anything in.”

It might be extended even further, the Associated Press reported today.

Late Monday, the government told dealers that the site wouldn’t be fully operational until this morning.

“We continue to address technical problems with the CARS website, and have determined that the website will not be fully functional before (Tuesday) morning,” the Transportation Department said in a statement. “Dealers should be assured that they will be provided time to submit pending deals equivalent to the time that was lost this afternoon while the system was down.”

Carlson said his dealership was working on its last three deals as the program wound to a close. In all, John North Ford sold more than 30 new vehicles under Cash for Clunkers since the program started on July 27.

It was a similar scene at Emporia Motors, where employees were trying to submit paperwork for four final deals. Owner Creig Agler said his dealership has sold 50 cars under the program, which the dealership discontinued Saturday night to give employees time to meet the deadline.

“It keeps shutting off,” Agler said of the government’s Web site, CARS.gov. “Sometimes it comes up, sometimes it doesn’t. ... About half an hour ago I got half of a deal put in and when I went to the next screen it kicked me out.”

Jeff Longbine of Longbine Autoplaza said on Monday his staff had just finished submitting paperwork for the last of its 30 deals.

“My office manager worked all weekend,” Longbine said. “Nights, early mornings, whatever to try to find times when the system wasn’t down.”

The popularity of the program, which offered consumers either $3,500 or $4,500 to trade in older cars for more fuel-efficient ones, resulted in an unexpectedly large rush of activity on car lots across the country. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, as of Monday morning dealers had submitted 625,000 vouchers amounting to $2.85 billion. Originally funded with $1 billion in stimulus money, the program was expanded to $3 billion after a little more than a week.

That flourish of consumer interest has overwhelmed officials administering the program. In addition to problems submitting forms, many dealers have yet to be reimbursed for the vehicles they’ve sold. Neither John North Ford nor Emporia Motors had seen a single payment as of Monday afternoon. Longbine said he had just received his first payment.

“They’ve been understaffed and it’s just been a nightmare,” Carlson said. “I don’t know the numbers, but I’m sure they haven’t paid 10 percent of the claims that are out there.”

Agler said he anticipates payment within a week to 10 days.

“If not,” he said, “it’ll be a bad deal. It ties up a lot of capital that makes it really tough on any small business. Super tough.”

Throughout the short life of the program, car dealers have had to put up with both the good and bad aspects of the program. But aside from the administrative headaches, they agree the program was good for consumers.

“The paper end of it, the back side of the deal has been an absolute nightmare,” Carlson said. “You can’t explain it any other way. On paper, the program has been incredible, not only to stimulate the economy but to get heavier-polluting, unsafe vehicles off the road and replaced with more fuel-efficient cars.”