No doubt the Cash for Clunkers or CARS program has been successful at driving customers to our dealerships. It has been great to see increased traffic and particularly increased sales. In fact at our current pace we would have our largest new vehicle sales month by almost 200% and would be close to out of inventory by the end of the month.
Despite the great success of the program I am not sure if it is a blessing or a curse. Currently we have not been paid on a single Cash for Clunker voucher that we have submitted. Not only is the process to get our money time consuming and at certain points absurdly inefficient but the payment process has been worse. Just today it took over an hour holding on the phone to learn that some of our submissions were rejected due to a government computer error and they would have to be resubmitted and put back at the end of the line for payment. Despite not being paid by the government and having over $100,000 in receivables we continue to give customers what the government says is their money in hopes that we the dealer will be reimbursed in the future. I guess at this point all I can do is cross my fingers and hope the Obama administration holds true to their word.
