News

One of the unintended consequences of the Cash for Clunkers program is that car dealers are so busy that they unable to handle the third party lead generation services that normally send them leads each month.  Two months ago, dealers could not get enough leads to drive sales to their bottom line.

One of the industries largest lead providers to car dealers responding to an inquiry why our lead sales were down responded that car dealers have cut back on buying leads in August.   From our estimates dealers have cut back anywhere from 25-40% of their normal lead spending.

Thousands Of Leads a Day Up In Smoke

For example, our Cash for Clunkers website has over 800 leads a day that can not be placed with new car dealers.  Imagine the thousands of  leads generated by Edmunds.com, Motortrend.com and other popular lead generation websites each day.  All of these leads will become stagnant and cannot be resold under normal contract terms which dictates that leads have to be send to dealers within 30 minutes of being entered into a website form.

It seems that car dealers are flooded with calls and walk-ins that are interested in buying a car under the Cash for Clunkers program and they don’t need extra leads.  I can understand the rationale especially if the dealer is running low on inventory but I would say that turning away leads may not be in their best interest.

Looking Out To September

Not all third party leads result in an immediate sale. Leads that arrive from 3rd parties can represent consumers in the beginning of the sales cycle or at the end of the cycle.  If the CARS program has awakened the consumer to action, it won’t last for very long.  We predict that the total $3 billion will be used up by Labor Day weekend.

Cutting back on lead purchases now may be a result of dealers being exhausted with all the additional paperwork generated from the Cash for Clunkers program.  But in a few weeks that will be gone and dealers who turn away new leads in August will be creating a sales gap in their September and October pipeline.

Slowed Automotive Support Sales

I also imagine that automotive sales support services may be having a tough time getting new clients in August.  Sales professional calling up a dealership in August  to sell them a new tool to convert more sales, increase their time of their website, or to drive more traffic to their website will most likely be told to call back at the end of September.

So its a good time to be selling cars after a horrible past 12 months and probably rough times for the support industry.

Dealers will have to think of new ways to continue the good times this fall is Congress does not inject more money into the Cash for Clunkers program.  That would mean getting back to the basics.

Interesting times indeed.

Consumers send our staff emails every day with basic questions on the CARS program that are already answered on the NHTSA website (cars.gov) as well as this website. We are pleased to help them but we also decided to make a simple checklist to save on time and energy.

The Cash for Clunkers Consumer Checklist can be downloaded by clicking on the icon on the right.

Print out this checklist on your computer. The form was designed to save consumers time in qualifying for the CARS program as well as submitting their purchase for reimbursement at a local new car dealer.

If you would like a local dealer to contact you about your clunker trade-in, you can complete the form on the left or call any local new car dealer in your area.

Understandably, there are many source of information on the program that may appear to be in conflict. Consumers also do not want to believe that they cannot participate in CARS for small lapses in insurance or registration.

Many consumers have told us stories that due to layoffs or financial stress, their clunkers were taken off insurance for a few months or a late bill cause a lapse in their clunker registration. Unfortunately, these requirements are not flexible under current NHTSA rules.

If consumers want to change the rules, we encourage you to voice your vote by signing the Cash for Clunker Petition at www.nocashforclunkers.com

CARS Consumer Checklist

If you don’t have a printer, we have include the contents of the PDF checklist below:

We have created a consumer checklist that dealers and consumers can use to make sure that if you want to particapte in the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) that you have all the documentation you need to qualify. You can click on the icon on the right, or cick here, to download this form and print it out for your personal checklit.

Please gather the documents listed below before you go to your local dealer.

Be prepared with your clunker information to ensure that you have a smooth transaction.

Better Organization = Smoother Submissions

Before you call or visit a local new car dealer, understand these non-negotiable requirements:

• If you cannot show continuous insurance and registration for 12 months, you will not qualify.
• If you are the new car purchaser, your name must be on the title of the clunker
• If you have a lien on your clunker, you will not qualify.
• If your clunker is not qualified on www.cars.gov , you cannot qualify regardless of your actual mpg.
• You must be able to drive the clunker to the dealership.
• If your car is not listed on www.cars.gov a dealer will not be able to process your sale.

CARS Document Checklist

Please bring these five documents into the dealership when you are ready to place an order for a new car under the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) program. Check www.cars.gov for official program updates before you go to a local dealer.

1. A valid driver’s license.
2. A clear title in your name or jointly owned with your name included. If you recently paid off a lien, you should bring your lien release letter or the previous title that is stamped paid.
3. Proof of continuous insurance for the past 12 months. Documents to bring can include:
   1. A declaration page from your insurance policy showing dates of coverage.
   2. Insurance cards that cover the last 12 months
   3. A letter from your insurance company certifying continuous insurance
4. Proof of continuous registration. Documents to help prove this include:
   1. Registration cards that cover the last 12 months
   2. Experian registration search report (dealer can run this report)
5. A print-out of the www.FuelEconomy.gov website page that shows that your clunker qualifies. This will save you time from assuming that your car currently qualifies.

Today we noticed a change when we visited the official website for the Cash for Clunkers program (www.cars.gov) and clicked on the link for fueleconomy.gov.

The website functionality has been updated and changed to provide a “guided tour” to allow consumers to get the EPA mpg estimates for their cars. The new features will clearly tell consumers if their car or truck qualifies for the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS).

New Design Helps Consumers

The updated link for the website is: http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/CarsSearchIntro.shtml and when you go to this new page, you will see some introduction text and a simple button.

When you click on the button, you are taken through a series of questions starting with whether you are trading in a car or a truck. You are then asked to select the year of the vehicle you want to check. I selected 1988 and the website froze on this URL:

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/CarsSelectModel.jsp?year=1998

I tried it on another computer with the same result. It seems that under heavy loads you will have to wait or refresh your screen to get to a list of manufacturers. It took 2 minutes on Saturday July 25, 2009 for the manufacturer screen to appear.

This looks like another issue with the heavy server load that the NHTSA is experienceing. Then I clicked on Buick and the screen froze on this page:

http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/CarsSelectModel.jsp?year=1998&make=Buick

So after I got the hang of waiting and refreshing, the site moves along to a final answer.

I think that consumers will lose patience with this process until the website speed is improved. They may think the website is down and we have received message from consumers to that effect. It looks like this new update is having some problems that need to be worked out. Once resolved, this new site is perfect to cut down on qualification phone calls to dealers as well as the NHTSA.

New Design is Clear

When you do get to a final screen, the car you selected is CLEARLY identified and consumers get a message whether the car qualifies or not.

We applaud the NHTSA for making these changes to the website to avoid consumers having to read charts that have numbers that can be confused. This will also help car dealers by cutting down on simple verification phone calls from consumers.