thanks for this post. I'm one of those people that's waiting for my dealer to give the car up. I'm making some calls tomorrow!

Thanks,

Mike

 

Great catch on the updated CARS site!!!

That clears up a whole bunch of questions and problems that people here have had. Many of the things reported in the news have had to do with dealers sitting on the cars and not releasing them.

Be sure to check out the extra stuff in the FAQ section:

Contingent Deals

Generally

A dealer has demanded that I sign an agreement that requires me to pay the dealer $4500 [or $3500] if the dealer's credit application is rejected. Am I required to agree to this?


No.To participate in the CARS program, you do not have to sign an agreement to pay back the dealer the CARS credit amount if the deal is rejected.
---

The dealer says that I should take my trade-in car home after I sign the purchase agreement for a new car under the CARS Program, and that I can pick up my new car after the dealer is paid by the government. Can I do this?

No. The dealer must take possession of your trade-in vehicle in order to submit a credit for reimbursement under the CARS Program. You may not keep possession of your old car.



Specifically

A dealer has demanded that I sign an agreement that requires me to pay the dealer if the credit application is rejected because I submit incorrect information regarding my name, residence address, driver's license number, or the title to my trade-in car. Am I required to agree to this?


No. However, be aware that to participate in the CARS program you must certify under penalty of law that all information you provide is true. If your CARS program credit is denied because of a false statement made by you, the dealer may take action to recover the money or vehicle regardless of whether you sign such an agreement.
---

A dealer has demanded that I leave a signed check or credit card authorization in the CARS credit amount ($4500 or $3500) that he will return to me if the credit application is approved, but keep if the credit application is rejected. Is the dealer allowed to do this?


No. The dealer must reduce the price of the new vehicle by the credit amount. If a dealer has a check or credit card authorization given by you at the time of the sale, the dealer has not actually reduced the price as required by the CARS program. Please contact NHTSA immediately and take your trade-in to another dealer if a dealer requires this.
---

A dealer said he will wait to extend me the CARS program credit amount until after the dealer gets the money from the government. Is the dealer allowed to do this?


No. The dealer must certify in its application for reimbursement that the dealer has already reduced the price of the new vehicle in the amount of the CARS program credit it requests.
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A dealer has included in the purchase agreement a requirement that I return the new car or pay the dealer the amount of the CARS program credit if the credit application is rejected. Do I have to sign this in order to participate in the CARS Program?


No. You are not required to sign an agreement like this to participate in the CARS Program. However, you may agree to such a term, but your choice to agree is between you and the dealer.
---

The dealer has told me that I cannot take my new car home and that I have to wait until the CARS credit application is approved before I can take possession of my new car. Can the dealer do this?


No. If the dealer has the new car, the dealer must allow you to take possession of the car before the dealer may submit the CARS credit application to the government. Please report any dealer to NHTSA that does not allow you take possession of a new car purchased under the CARS Program.

---

 

Thanks for the update cliqu. AMAZINGLY THE DEALER WHO HAS BEEN YANKING MY CHAIN FOR OVER 3 weeks called this AM saying we might be able to do the deal TODAY. Now I know why.The NTSD must have heard my wife when she was trying to explain the law to them yesterday.

 

After over three weeks of listening to legal reasons(BS) not to get my car, today's new notice on cars.gov motivated my dealer to finally GIVE IT UP My BBP Sport MT Sport is happily sitting in my driveway getting rained on.

P.S a big thanks to Taffeta White for her support through a gruelling ordeal. Dealership rolled over like a playful puppy after seeing this A.M.s announcement.
Good Luck to the rest of you stuck in CLUNKER LIMBO

 

YES! Excellent! Good job! I thought of you when I read Clicq's post.

I am sure they were trying to cover their butt. If you followed the news posts, the Dealers association suggested all kinds of WRONG things to the dealers.

Hopefully a LOT of people will be picking up their cars today!

 

Bump for new people that might have dealer stories to tell!!!

 

We had a ’96 Explorer with 90K, and had been looking at Fits for a year. We went to a local dealer a couple days before the program was to become law, and had a deal in hand and an appointment to come in Friday to get the car.

We got a call Friday morning telling us to instead come in Saturday. Then we got a call Saturday morning telling us to come in on Monday , and were also told we needed to obtain a copy of our old registration, which was going to take two weeks to get.

On Tuesday we talked again to the salesman and told him – a very nice gentleman who just wanted to sell a car despite the dealership’s fumbling things – that we were going to call around to see if other dealerships would take the documentation we had without the old registration. He said okay and within three hours we had a Fit at home.

And as fate would obviously have it when we got home there was a call on the machine from the original salesman telling us that his dealership would now take the documentation we had and didn’t need the old registration.

So we have our Fit for about 600 miles and are enjoying the ride.

 

And here is the clunker I traded in for my Fit. :-) I know it looks nice on this pic but this was before a front end winter fender bender damage, cracked windshield, rusted fenders, etc.

 

Just in case anybody's still holding out for CFC... you might want to act sooner rather than later since it might be ending sooner than you think... (LA Times):

"The government will announce a plan as soon as today for winding down its popular but problem-plagued 'cash for clunkers' program.

The announcement by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood came as a New York dealership group said that hundreds of its members had stopped doing clunker transactions because of delays in getting reimbursed by the federal government."

I think the goal is more to give dealers confidence that they'll be paid for the deals they make, since, as we saw with what happened earlier, nobody's sure when the money's out since there's such a backlog.

 

Just paid for my FIT, now the dealer will not release the car to me until they get paid from the government-clearly illegal. Anyone have any ideas. So now since they also have my clunker, my new FIT is sitting right in there lot with my plates on it and my insurance. Oh yeah and he will “try” to get the application filed tomorrow, I’m ready to call the papers cept I’m afraid he’ll just forget to file the paperwork and I’ll be totally screwed. Please send me ideas!

 

Sorry to see so many horror stories involving the CARS program. My transaction was quick, smooth and on the up and up.

I bought an Orange 09' AT Sport without Navigation. Lorenz Honda in Greenfield MA were honest and straight forward about the short time line and limited availability.

Things went off without a hitch, I purchased gap insurance and insisted they include floor mats at no cost. I paid invoice with a $4500 CARS discount.

Goodbye Astro Van

This is a link to my clunker's tribute page. I have already began the customization process on the Fit and will post pics soon.

Cheers~

 

Completed my deal deal last week, it was not with out drama.
My clunker had what the dealer deemed a possible "registration issue".
I went ahead and completed and submitted all paperwork and signed the contract before the dealer would even turn it into the government for approval.
The dealer told me I would know something in 72 hours (3 days).
On the 5th day I went to the dealer and told them to give me the title to my clunker back, cancel the deal and shred the paperwork, they tried to get me to sign the paperwork to make me pay the $4500.00 if they did not get it from the clunker program -at this point I still had not received the new car.
I told them "no thanks" cancel the deal, 30 minutes later I received a call on my cell phone and they said they would eat the $4500.00 if they did not get it from the clunker program if I came back and picked up the car that day.
Was not horrible- just wasted a lot of time over several days.

 

My dealer did the same thing, then after two weeks they called me and said that I could come and pick up the Fit. They decided that it was best to not wait for the govt to pay them, and allow everyone to come and pick up their new cars. I'm sure that about 100 angry customers may have had a little something to do with it as well!

Picked up my new silver sport and I love it! It's so much fun to drive.

 

Paid for my FIT in full at a North Shore Long Island Honda Dealer (feel free to contact me for more dettails), they have my clunker since Wednesday, have received the confirmation from cars.gov, have my money, the FIT is insured by me and has my plates on it and dealer won't give it to me until they receive the money from the government. Showed the dealer the law, he couldn't care less - we are so disappointed with Honda, 5 memebrs of my family have Hondas and this is our first experience with a non-USA built car. Filed with the CARS hotline American Honda and calling to file a complaint on Monday with the local DA and the Attorney General. ):

 

Thanks so much to TaffetaWhite for good info to locate law info on the CARS program!

 

Or perhaps the possibility of criminal and civil charges regarding breaking the laws set forth in the CARS program was an incentive?

With fines that can be three times the amount, I'm guessing, per incident.

I haven't heard of any fines yet, but those may come after the program is over. Dealers might be given some leniency, if they make right on all the deals in the end. Because really, all people want to do is buy or sell a car.

And the waiting parts will fade in memory after people do get their cars. I hope so.

One good part about the whole program is that manufacturers now have a good idea on what it would take to really drive sales. Rebates may not work alone...guarantee people money for their old clunker, and encourage the people to buy more fuel-efficient cars.

Rather than battling it out at the sales desk, wheeling and dealing to get some discount off MSRP, charge everyone MSRP and give a guaranteed trade-in amount.

Manufacturers could use the same basic premise to prevent abuse, of having the car be registered and insured for a year. But open up the dates of the gross polluters, get some of the older cars off the road. Older than what was acceptable under the CARS program.

They could make it a minimum of a 10 mpg increase. From whatever the old car is to whatever the new one is.

That opens up the door for people who were driving efficient vehicles to get an even MORE efficient vehicle. And the vehicles traded in would not necessarily have to destroyed, thereby increasing the number of efficient used cars for the market.

Then folks could trade in an older Honda for a new Insight, for instance.

1990 Honda Civic 4-door wagon, isn't worth much according to the guide at Edmunds. Under $200 bucks selling it outright. And it wouldn't have qualified for the CARS program, with 29 mpg combined.

BUT, if Honda offered a $2,000 incentive, to trade in for a vehicle that got at least 10 mpg better than the old car, the Civic wagon suddenly becomes worth $2,000.

The dealer can recoup some of that, by reselling the vehicle, which on Edmunds lists for about $1,000. And the dealer will have made some money on the new car.

Cars getting 21 mpg will qualify for a Fit purchase.

Honda could sell truckloads of Insights and Fits, while increasing their used car inventory. Many trade-ins will go right to the crapper, aka the crusher. Especially the ones that catch on fire.

 

You're certainly welcome.

I know it's a really tense situation for you. It's that way for the dealer too.

When people get scared, worried, and tense, lawyers get involved. LOL!

But really, the most important part is you getting your car, and the dealer getting their money. It's supposed to be in that order too, you get the car, THEN the dealer can apply for the reimbursement.

Even though the dealer is supposed to have done a bunch of things, they really are NOT trying to screw you over. They aren't. They aren't trying to be mean or cruel or make you suffer. I can't say that enough times.

It's their business and their livelihood to sell cars. As long as they have that car on their lot, they haven't lost anything. But if they let you take the car, and government goofs, then there is the problem of the $4,500 dollars.

They're scared they won't get their cash. You're scared you won't get your car with the cash reduction.

It will probably be all fine, as long as the dealer has been otherwise honest with the rest of the paperwork.

Hope for the best, prepare for the worst.

Keep us updated!

 

Just completed the CARS thing on Friday. We had a 2001 Ford Escape XLT (6 cyl.) with ~200K on it. It had been a good car, but we'd had to put well over 2K into repairs this year and then the transmission was starting to slip. Two cars going belly-up in a few months just has NOT been good. I had been looking at the Fit for a while to replace my Focus, but when the Escape started to go, and it qualified for CARS, the decision was made.

DH was not thrilled about getting a Fit, as he wanted another SUV. Right now, I told him to suck it up, that it makes sense to use the rebate. He can drive the Fit for now as he has the long commute. Then he can buy his SUV when finances allow and I get the Fit.

After spending today driving it all over the place, he loves it. So, next car may be another Fit .

The dealer did not give us any problems. We came in with a printout from CARS with both the Escape and Fit on it, the Escape and the registration and ins. info. We asked for the sport MT, in Blue Sensation Pearl or Blackberry Pearl. They did not have one on the lot and couldn't find one close by. (I also called around and couldn't find one) This was Monday. In the meantime, all the financing was taken care of and on Thursday we got the call that they had the BSP Sport MT for us. We came in on Fri. and finished signing the papers and handing over the lien release for the Escape and got the new Fit tagged and registered and took it home. The Escape was left there on Monday along w/ the paperwork, we were never asked to take it back home. We did not have to wait for things to be processed before getting the Fit or to sign a contingency agreement.

Overall, the dealership was -PACKED- (with people) and pretty much out of cars. I've never seen a dealer lot so empty, and salespeople so frazzled trying to help multiple customers at the same time.

 

hahahahaha, just as I thought! First you said he wanted another SUV and then after having the Fit ONE DAY, he loves it! I knew it!

Next thing you know he'll be offering to run to pick up a gallon of milk, and be gone for 4 hours. It's because he decided really fresh milk right from a dairy farm was important, especially because of the twisty roads required to get there.

Glad you got in early last week to get the majority of the paperwork done, as well as doing your homework to expedite the process. And you had a good dealer too!

There are a few two-Fit-families here. It's the car that makes so much sense, you want to have one for each family member! LOL!

 

And small enough so you can "fit" evryones FIT in the driveway! LOL!