'AutoNation also quits from Clunkers program'

AutoNation also quits from Clunkers program

09/02/09 08:18

AutoNation, the country's largest chain of automobile dealers, decided to end its Cash for Clunker campaign last Friday, three days before the Monday deadline set by the federal government, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

Cash for Clunkers is the financial stimulus program created by the Obama administration to boost sales in the automobile industry and remove inefficient vehicles off the roads. Under the program, owners who will trade in their old vehicles will be given rebates of up to $4500 to purchase new and more efficient cars and trucks.

According to the report, AutoNation wanted to process all rebates of the 10,500 sales it had made just right before the 8p.m. EDT deadline set by the government.

The government has been under heavy criticism for the slow process of making the necessary refunds, when the program showed to be surprisingly famous, draining up the original $1 billion fund allocated to the program by the Congress.

Lawmakers had to scramble to give an additional $2 billion funding to the program after the original allocation was drained up after just a week of sales. Continuous advertisements by the auto dealers, the car companies, and the federal government were responsible for the surprising results.

For consumers, the early closing of AutoNation is considered a loss, especially since the company operates around 220 dealerships across 15 states in the country. For the company, however, I guess that this is a brilliant move. The government is not that quick with processing the necessary paperwork, so I guess it's just practical to end it up right there.

A group of car dealers in the New York metro area has also stopped participating in the Clunkers program earlier this month, but for the primary reason that the dealers no longer had the necessary fund to make more rebates.

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