Uh-oh! Cash for Clunkers has officially ended; did you make your move? CARS was a program for people to trade in their used, old, beat up gas guzzlers for a more gas efficient one. They could receive up to a $4,500 credit towards a new purchase of a car. CARS stands for Car Allowance Rebate System. Some of the rules to qualify for the CARS program are that the car must be at least a year 2008 model or newer, can’t cost more than $45,000, and be purchased between July 1, 2009 and November 1, 2009. Your clunker has to be drivable and the name of the person on the title of the clunker car has to be the same person who is buying the new car. There are more rules and regulations that you need to qualify for before you can just go out and get this $4,500 rebate on a new car purchase.
According to the CARS website, the program has offered an economic boost to car dealers, the auto manufacturers, and the people who provide consumer loans and the scrap yards. But, if you have been following the news lately you would have been hearing that your time has run out and the CARS allowance has expired. There were some rumors going around that they ran out of money almost as soon as they began and that this offer was no longer available as of a few weeks ago. However, White House officials said that they were going to review their options to keep it going. The original budget for this program $1 billion. When I was looking on Yahoo for some facts about the program I found out that just at the end of July, only a month into it, there had already been 22,782 clunkers purchased with almost $96 million spent. As of now the money is GONE and your chance is GONE as well.
Now is the time I wish I drove a clunker just for the pure fact of getting a new car! Of course, a new car wouldn’t come for free. It seems like a great deal that the government will give you up to $4,500 to buy a new car. However, the question is how many people are taking this opportunity without realizing that they will have to spend money…money they might not have. This maybe the season to invest in a town truck to start repossessing all the cars people are buying without being able to actually pay for them.
