I thought it would be nice to have a thread where people who have completed the Cash for Clunkers/CARS sales transaction to post here about their experiences.

What was your Clunker? Was the dealership busy or crowded? Did the staff at the dealership seem to have a handle on the program?

Did you put a deposit on the car before the day you took it home? Did you do all the paperwork at the dealership, but have to wait for them to get up to speed on the registration (since the computers couldn't handle the traffic) before being able to take your car home?

Had you already visited the dealership before the day you bought the Fit under the CARS program? Did you pick out a car before the day you bought it?

That's just some of the questions I have in my mind, and everyone is free to answer them or ignore them.

I know there are threads about questions, people talking about what they were going to trade in, but I'm not hearing a lot about the actual experience AT the dealership.

So, how was it?

 

Trade: 2001 Mitsubishi Diamante LS (135K miles)
New: 2009 Honda Fit Sport MT (OR)

I'm not there yet but should be done by Monday. I have all the paperwork completed and put a down payment to hold the car a week and half ago. Paperwork was simple but I think the dealer is trying hard to catch up. The showroom floor was packed with cars with sold signs (luckily mine was parked indoors too since golf-ball sized hail came through the area - the Honda dealer was spared but not Toyota).

I dropped by today to confirm that they have all the paperwork they needed from me. It's just a waiting game now.

Looking forward to bringing it home.

 

I also have a deal in place for Monday. Dealership was out of Fit Sports but said they'd have what I want this Monday. We'll see how it goes...

 

I started working on this about 3 weeks ago. I thought I had reached a deal with one dealer, but then they got cold feet, and said they didn't know if they were going to participate in the CARS program. Since they had also engaged in the "I'll have to talk with my boss" bit, I was glad they backed out of the deal. The second dealer quoted me to the dollar the Edmunds invoice + delivery charge price. I hope to pick up Fit Sport AT on Wednesday -- by which time I hope that things will have settled down a little.

I've printed off various forms, and have read through the entire text of the CARS submission to the Federal Register. The only glitch so far has been that the fuel economy for my trade (1996 Nissan Quest) on Fuel Economy mysteriously went from 17mpg combined on Wednesday (a figure that had been constant ever since I started looking into CARS) to 18mpg combined on Friday -- still qualifies, but I'm on the bubble.

One of the CARS bits that is easy to miss is on pp.36-37:

"The CARS Act requires dealers to disclose to purchasers trading in an eligible vehicle the best estimate of the scrap value of the vehicle, and permits the dealer to retain $50 of any amount paid to the dealer for scrappage of the vehicle as payment for the administrative costs of participation in the program. The agency has restated this requirement in section 599.300(d)(1) and in the dealer certifications in Appendix A, certifications section."

At least some sites are arguing that any scrap value in excess of $50 has to be applied to the purchase cost in addition to, not in place of, the CARS rebate. The problem is the language "best estimate of the scrap value." This could be a point of contention with the dealer, but don't get your hopes up.

 

Trade: 1991 Cadillac Coupe Deville 70k miles
New: 2009 Fit Sport/nav/auto tidewater blue

Similar story with me. I've had a deposit down on a Fit Sport since July 1st. When I thought the CARS thing was supposed to take effect. 7/24 I signed the paperwork. I'm just waiting for the dealer to be registered with the program and i have the ok to pick it up.
I'm interested to see what they say the "scap value" will be. I've only junked one car in my life..10yrs ago I junked a 1983 Chrysler E class..they gave me $100 and I loaded it up w/ garbage and sent it on its way. That car didn't run at all. The Caddy is in far better condition in comparison.

As far as dealer traffic the dealer told me he has 30 Cars transactions all waiting for the green light. And as i signed the paperwork my dealer took about 4 calls all having to do with the Cars rebate program.

 

Put a deposit down Wednesday night on a SSM sport MT, Had test drove the Fit and Hyundai Accent SE on the previous Sunday. Decided on the Fit, and the dealer had 3 SSM sport MT's on the lot, so it really wasn't any problem on Tuesday to get it taken care of.

Scheduled delivery for Monday so it would be post rules release, I didn't hear anything different today, so I'm figuring Monday will be ok.

Been planning on doing this since I first heard about it, I'd have been lucky to get $600 - $800 out of my '92 F150 if I sold it to someone. Wanted to get a deal in line before the rules release, got a feeling this moneuy is going to go fairly quickly.

I've got all my paperwork gathered up on my end, title, 2 years of registrations, insurance docs. Printed out the forms from the PDF, and spent this morning alternating between scanning and reading. I'm also curious to see how they handle the "scrap value" situation. Guessing they just say the value is $50, although if that becomes common with dealers, I can see this issue becoming some kind of lawsuit eventually.

 

It's "in addition to".
"The program requires the scrapping of your eligible trade-in vehicle and that the dealer disclose to you an estimate of the scrap value of your trade-in. The scrap value, however minimal, will be in addition to the rebate, and not in place of the rebate. "
http://www.examiner.com/x-16611-Birmingham-Autos-Examiner~y2009m7d16-Autos-101-Everything-you-need-to-know-about-CARS-aka

and:
It looks like it might be possible to get more than $4,500 for your trade-in, because any scrap value that the trade-in has can be added to the rebate.
Rules for CARS, the cash for clunkers bill, released | Daily Autos Blog

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And scrap is down as a commodity:
Recycler's Exchange Index

Specifically this section:
Automotive Recycling Section -- Recycler's World

The scrap process is pretty interesting. From what I've been reading, only due to the CARS program. They talk about prices in tons. And individual parts have different prices.

The greater the worldwide demand for steel, the greater the price. Get an idea of some of what goes on here (complete with highlighted words used in my search):
Iron and steel scrap
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For my 1986 VW Cabriolet, I got free towing and $75.00. Oooh. Ahhh.

Regardless of the fact that I had put in $1,000 into it before it died again, and had a new radiator, and some other new stuff.

If the folks at the place my old car went to can dismantle and sell those parts, good on them. I don't generally give away money like that, but I needed my parking spot for my new Fit, coming home the very same day.

If you get $25.00-$50.00 EXTRA, that's about it. Unless you have a massive tank you're trading in...

 

Hmm come to think about it, I was thinking about heading to the junkyard and putting on a set of doughnut tires on my Cadillac before trade in. I'm sure the Rims and the tires which have less than 10k miles on them would be worth more than the $50 scrap value or whatever.

 

Gosh, maybe if you pull the seats out, you can get another $25.00. LOL!

Edmunds. Go there. Your car, without options, as a trade-in...$249.00

But through this miracle program, you can get $3,500-$4,500 for it.

Realize that the only part that for sure must be scrapped is the engine and drive train. Give 'em the wheels, for crying out loud. LOL!

Say, you're not one of those people who takes home extra ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper from fast food places so you don't have to buy those things, are you?

Read this recent newsblurb:

Several car dealers expressed concern the allotted funds will run out long before November.


''There are thousands of dealerships across the country that will be selling vehicles under this program and a finite amount of money,'' Marlo Halliday, operations coordinator of Apostolakis Honda in Cortland said. ''I easily can see the funding run out before it is scheduled to end.''


Chuck Eddy also worries that the program will be so popular that some dealer vehicle inventories might run out.


New vehicle shoppers are expected to be flooding the market prepared to make the best deal they can, and obtain the maximum dealership and manufacturer discounts available. The federal credits under the Cash for Clunkers programs are given on top of the final negotiated price.


Mark Fabian, general sales manager of Greenwood Chevrolet, said he knows some people who have put off the purchase of their new vehicles so they would qualify for the program.

"I've been in the car business for 16 years and there has never been a time when someone can bring in a car that is 15 to 20 years old that now may be worth $300 and receive several thousand dollars for a new vehicle. We expect this program will give the industry a shot in the arm.''

More here:
http://www.tribtoday.com/page/conten....html?nav=5021

 

Traded: 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee
Got: 2009 Honda Fit A/T

I just waited until Friday, the 24th. Dad told me to meet him at the dealership at 2PM (which is when they apparently started...we had no idea so we got lucky). Dealership was not that crowded throughout the entire day actually...to my surprise. My salesman seemed to know a lot about the CARS program. We just did the normal procedure of getting a normal car except they checked out the clunker and made sure it was working and that we qualified. Everything else seemed like normal procedure. The dealership also seemed well prepared for it (Norm Reeves Honda Cerritos).

I did swing by a few days earlier just to take a look at the 09 Fits, but I didn't place a hold on any of them. We pretty much did everythingggg on the day the program "started" (which I think might be the 27th now..not sure). Didn't put a deposit beforehand or anything. Although signing the papers and such took a while, they say it was only because we were one of the first customers to do this with them so they had to make sure they got everything done correctly. Everything flowed well, though. We didn't run into any mishaps or confusion- actually, it was all done extremely nicely..just really time consuming. We got there at 2PM and I walked out with my Fit at 7PM.

The wait was worth it by far.
I love my Fit too much.

PS- if anyone wants to know, my jeep's scrap value was $1.

 

No....but i'm a napkin hog!! LOL

 

While the dealer is required to disclose the value of the eligible trade-in vehicle, I have been unable to find anything in the submission to the Federal Register that says the dealer has to pass the value of the trade-in on to the buyer. The Summary of Sale/Lease & Certifications Form has a box that says only: "Dealer’s Best Estimate of Trade-In Vehicle Scrappage Value." This is in a section that includes other credits, rebates, and incentives, so I think it's reasonable to believe that this is the intent of the regulation, but I'm afraid that I have a fairly low view of the ethics of many automobile salesmen. And the issue of "dealer's best estimate" remains.

I'm just saying to watch out for this part of the program, as it looks like one of the few loopholes. Overall, I was very impressed with the amount of effort that went into the CARS program to prevent fraud, and to make sure that clunkers would be destroyed as intended. Whether they should be destroyed is another matter, but the law is what it is, not what we might wish it to be.

 

Subpart C – Qualifying Transactions and Reimbursement
§ 599.300 Requirements for qualifying transactions.
(d) Trade-In Vehicle – Disclosure of Scrap Value, Engine Disablement, and Title
Marking. As part of a qualifying transaction under this part, and prior to submitting an
application for reimbursement under §599.302, the dealer shall:
(1) During the transaction, disclose to the person purchasing or leasing an eligible new vehicle and trading in an eligible trade-in vehicle, the best estimate of the scrap value of the trade-in vehicle, inform that person that the dealer is authorized to retain $50 of this amount as payment for its administrative costs of participation in the program, and certify, as provided in Appendix A to this part, certifications section, that it has made
such disclosure;

Form on page 122, which you mentioned, is a plus/minus summary, starting with MSRP as the plus, and the rest are minuses.

Form, page 124:
• I have disclosed to the Purchaser the best estimate of the scrappage value of the trade-in
vehicle.
• I have retained no more than $50.00 of the scrappage value as payment for any of the
dealer’s administrative costs in connection with this CARS transaction.


The above is from the download of "The Rule" pdf thingie, that is 136 pages long.

By the way, I'm totally digging the word "scrappage".

 

That's bogus. A dollar? That's what they said?

Did they charge you any fee at all? The rules say that the dealer cannot retain any more than $50.00 of the scrappage value. And that they can't charge you a fee. If they tried to wrangle $50.00 for "administrative costs" in some other way, they are really pushing it.

 

I think that's about how long it takes usually. It's like a half-day thing.

There's no bar code, and no checkout line to quickly buy your car.

 

QED. "The scrap value of your car is only a dollar, but because we like you, we're going to eat the $49 administrative overhead fee." I don't believe in going into a deal with an adversarial mentality, but it's always good to keep your eyes open.

 

That's no estimate they gave to Sai. That will be corrected.

-----

Edit add-on, from the same link/story I posted above:

"
James Reynolds of Mecca was left shaking his head last week after he found out the 1993 Buick Station Wagon he had scrapped in recent months for $200 would have earned him thousands of dollars on a trade-in under the new federal program.
''My goodness gracious, that's awful!'' Reynolds said Thursday. ''I would have kept the thing.''
Instead, he said he had turned the old Buick over to J&S scrap yard on state Route 88 for $200 and later purchased a 2008 Toyota Hilander.
http://www.tribtoday.com/page/conten....html?nav=5021

 

so i went and did this friday...

i traded in an 01 nissan xterra 4x4 manual which avg 16 mpg.

since i was getting the fit (28mpg) i was up for 4500.

My dealer wasnt registered yet, but the only reason i couldnt drive off is we had a small problem with the title on my exhisiting car, which i am taking care of today.

I should* be picking it up today.

I paid 13.8$ OTD after the 4500 for a MT sport

 

Traded in my old beater '96 Grand Voyager w/187k on it, for a 2009 Fit Sport. OTD $14,143. However that was with $1 credit for "scrap" and a $50 "charge" for CARS admin fees.

From reading here, my experience was neither unique, nor legal!

I'm thinking we should buy a set of the matching door guards to ward off door dings. Anyone else done this? Like them? Hate them?

Thanks
Sandy

 

Here's the Fraud page for the CARS program:
CARS.gov - Car Allowance Rebate System - Helpful Q&As for Consumers - Formerly Referred to as “Cash for Clunkers”

They cannot charge you a FEE for the program, and can ONLY withhold $50.00 from the scrap value. Not from anything else.

What they've done is taken your $50 bucks AND the TOTAL scrap value of your car.

Was it the same dealer?

And yes, several people have the door guards. I will get around to having them put on my car eventually.