The last weekend of cash for clunkers proved to be quite successful

August 24, 2009 – 10:04 am – No Comment

This was the last weekend of the Cash for Clunkers program and it looked like car buyers came out in droves to trade in their old gas guzzlers for the discount. The program, which ended two weeks earlier than the government had intended, burned through the $3 billion that was allotted quickly and the entire program will be over by 8:00 pm Eastern time tonight.

Many dealerships have decided to stop their participation in the program sooner than the 8:00 pm deadline just to make sure that the government doesn’t run out of money before they have the chance to collect on the money. Of course, this deadline meant that customers would be flooding in the dealerships to participate in the program.

The program was seen as a success to some, as I have mentioned before. It spurred a huge deal of new car sales and was able to meet its goal of getting gas guzzlers off the roads.

On Friday, the program has boasted that half a million new cars had been sold through the program. Of course, many dealerships have been worried that the government won’t be reimbursing them for the car sales that were created through the program. As of Friday, many of the dealerships had only been reimbursed for a small percentage of the sales done through the program.