CARS: This program has worked, but it's winding down

CARS, the Car Allowance Rebate System, is the economy's best story in six months, and we at DOT are thrilled to be a part of it. It has been a lifeline for the automobile industry and wildly popular with consumers--it has been good news. In fact, it has been such good news that we will soon use up the money available for this. That's why we will wind down the CARS program this Monday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time.

              

In the first 4 days of the program, CARS racked up over 250,000 new car sales.  Altogether, dealers have submitted reimbursement requests for more than $1.9 billion, representing over 457,000 transactions. By any measure, those figures indicate success.

Both Ford and GM have announced they are stepping up production to meet the new demand this Administration has stimulated. Ford is adding shifts to what was supposed to be a shutdown week; GM is calling back over 1300 employees. Can you imagine? In this economy, an automobile manufacturer is calling back its workers. And a recent forecast for the economy's 3rd quarter by IHS Global Insight anticipates growth of 2.5%, almost all of it due to our CARS program. We have helped jump-start the economy.

Now, thanks to this success, it's time to bring the program to a close. Because we expect to use up the remainder of the $3 billion Congress set aside by the end of this weekend, the CARS program will end this Monday at 8:00 p.m.

As I said, we are thrilled to be a part of this economic good news story. And I want to thank the dealers for participating, the auto companies for taking steps to meet demand, and consumers for responding so heartily. Finally, I want to thank the CARS team at NHTSA for helping make this such a success. Thanks to them, this program has worked.

Comments

[mcas]

Over-subscription to a giveaway (tax break = giveaway) are usually due to poor planning.

...maybe so many people signed up so quickly because the MPG requirements were so ridiculously low..?

Sounds like bad planning-- not success to me.

Why don't you bring this back with: 1) Transit Passes for turning in cars and 2) high standards for real MPG reform-- +4 MPG doesn't really do much for the environment...

[Rick Kellis]

PLEASE extend the end of the Cars program through the end of the week rather than the beginning. We are waiting for a pink slip in the mail to complete a deal. (Or a requested duplicate will). PLEASE

[Michael E. Bailey]

This has really been a great program. The only bad thing is that not more funding could have been or could be appropriated to keep it going longer. Government does work. Thank you and best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.

[Vladimir]

Interesting programm. But i think its not in time.

[robert]

I'm confused. On one hand we (the taxpayers) are investing billions of $'s into an effort to get people into new cars and spending billions more to keep the auto manufacturing industry going. Then on the other hand we (again, the taxpayers) are investing additional billions of $'s in transit projects to entice people to get out of their cars.

That's like a Dentist giving out candy bars after every visit, or a gym offering a free bacon/cheeseburger meal with every membership.

[Brian Hoffman]

I agree,the CARS Program has been a huge success.Money well spent that benefited many.My only disapointment has been the lack of enforcement of the rules,specifically program trade-in vehicles being delivered to a non-authorized disposal facility.We filed a report with the OIG concerning this and have had no response.150-200 vehicles in Ft Myers Fl ended up at a scrap yard that was not on the list of approved disposal entities.

[Jin]

Is the CARS Program still existing as of this time? I am really new on car business, and I want to buy one. I hope you can help me here. thank You.