Car buyers and dealerships are high on the Cash for Clunkers program, but not everyone is benefiting

The government?s Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS), or Cash for Clunkers program, at one point seemed to be headed for the scrap heap, a victim of its own popularity. But it got a new infusion of $2 billion from Congress late last week and Petalumans are heeding the call.

?This is the first time I can honestly say, as a small business owner, that a stimulus package has made it down to the average American citizen,? says wine merchant Dick Warner.

Warner negotiated a deal at Hansel Honda for wife Julie?s brand new Civic that she?ll use for her catering/landscaping business.

?I spent six days checking out cars, up until the program was cut off July 30,? says Warner. ?We traded in Julie?s 1987 Volvo Turbo Wagon that had 275,000 miles on the odometer when it broke last year.?

Julie Warner?s new wheels give her 33 miles per gallon as compared with her old Volvo?s 18 mpg. A clunker has to deliver 18 mpg or less to quality for a reimbursement.

The program also attracted Sonoma State University student Nicole Fletcher and her mother, Judy, who came into the Honda dealership on Saturday. The Fletchers drove off the lot with a 2010 4-wheel drive Honda Pilot (18 mpg) after turning in a 1997 Ford 2-wheel drive Escape (16 mpg).

?The Pilot will be mine,? said Judy Fletcher, ?and there?s another clunker at home that will be Nicole?s. It?s the better of the two clunkers.?

According to Ryan Seaman, salesman for both the Warners and the Fletchers, ?We?re seeing a lot of Explorers, minivans and other big vehicles being replaced by 4-cylinder cars like the Civic and the Insight.?

Seaman acknowledges that he has not read the entire 136-page book of rules and instructions. ?It?s in this huge binder,? he says. His general sales manager, Jeff Hendrickson, is the go-to guy for the sales staff in regards to the CARS Act.

Hendrickson is tracking about 40 sales per week as compared to approximately 25 before the program was implemented.

According to Terry Morehead, sales manager for Henry Curtis Ford-Mercury, ?The program is going very well for us. Our sales are up about 50 percent.?

Retiree Maureen Macdonald is not impressed. She says the program ?will force people to go deeper into debt because they can?t really afford a new car and they?re blinded by the $4,500 rebate.?

Macdonald also feels salvage yards will suffer as will customers who need body work for their automobiles.

?Last month I had a broken window on the passenger side of my 2008 Corvette,? she says. ?I went to Victory Chevrolet and had to wait over three weeks for them to find a replacement ? in Missouri! These clunkers have to be completely destroyed, so there?ll be fewer windshields, doors and other parts for car restorers.?

The Department of Transportation stipulates that only tires, catalytic converters, batteries, condensers and radiators can be recycled.

Cars for Clunkers is also no friend to non-profits. Robert DeLeo, executive director of the Polly Klaas Foundation says, ?We, as all other non-profits, depend a great deal on vehicle donations, but with the economic downturn people have been hanging on to their old cars longer, so that hurt us, and a lot of nonprofits have already gone under. (The Polly Klaas Foundation) won?t know for another four to five weeks the full significance of Cash for Clunkers, but I think it?ll show we?re being [hammered].?

(Contact Bob Canning at argus@arguscourier.com)

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