News

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.

Car dealers participating in the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) and who plan to use the NHTSA CARS logo in the marketing and advertising campaigns need to follow new rules published on the NHTSA dealer support website.

Here are the rules as posted on July 18, 2009:

NHTSA will permit the CARS logo to be used in advertisements (print, Web or television), provided:

• The logo is displayed in immediate proximity to a description of the CARS.gov program — and not so it is associated generally with the contents of the entire advertisement.
• The user makes no alterations to the CARS logo, which includes the www.cars.gov internet address.
• Each advertisement utilizing the CARS logo displays the following required disclaimer (which may appear as a pop-up during mouse-over on the Web):“CARS is a program of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (www.cars.gov)”
• Advertisements do not include quotes from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) Administrator or any other federal employee.

For additional details, car dealers are suggested to visit: http://www.cars.gov/index.php/dealer/marketing-material/advertising-usage-guidelines

The consumer interest in the Cash for Clunkers (CFC) program is  red hot.  If your dealership is not preparing for the Cash for Clunkers program start date (July 1st) you better get moving.  Some consumers have been holding back to purchase a new car as they waited to see if the bill would pass the House and Senate votes.  Thursday, Senate Republicans failed to strip the Cash for Clunkers provision from the wartime spending bill.  Now, it’s a green light to the President’s desk.

The bill is all but signed and it is attached to the wartime spending bill that has to be signed. Dealers can start to prepare and educate their staff on the program.  The big problem for car dealers is that while the program starts on July 1st, there is no define systems in place outlining how they will get paid. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will be picking a vendor to implement the dealer back-end system this week.

Car dealers will have to prepare for the “float” of monies that will be due to them as cars are sold.  A car dealership selling 100 cars in the first 30 days could have close to a half a million dollars owed to them.  Aside from the money issues, dealers need to prepare for the storage and salvaging of the cars that are traded.  The process and paperwork has not been defined for qualifying trade-ins yet so it looks like dealers will have to stockpile these cars until it is clear what paperwork and validation must be in place before the car can be scrapped.

Cash for Clunkers: Holiday or Headache?

For a sales professionals in high demand brands (see below), Cash for Clunkers will be a holiday celebration.  For dealer principles, this will be a compliance headache as well as added liability.  From data collected from www.cashforclunkersfacts.com the top 10 brands that consumers have indicated they will buy are:

1. Toyota 18.2%
2. Honda 14.7%
3. Ford 13.3%
4. Chevrolet 10.1%
5. Nissan 5.4%
6. Hyundai 4.1%
7. Dodge 3.6%
8. Volkswagen 3.3%
9. Acura 3.2%
10. Kia 2.9%

 To view the top 20 list visit: Cash for Clunkers Top 20 List

Cash for Clunkers Website

The website the Pasch Consulting Group was asked to create to help car dealers and consumers with the Cash for Clunkers program has been a great success. We are responding to over 100 emails and 200 calls per day from people asking about the Cash for Clunkers program.

For car dealers, we have created a National Cash for Clunkers Dealer directory and a Participating Dealer logo to display on your website.  The directory is voluntary of course and will not replace the registration that dealers will have to do with the federal government.  To be added to the directory follow these instructions: 3 Steps for CFC Directory

We have also made up some free CFC banners branded with your dealership car brands, if you want to use them in email blasts or on your website.  Logos and banners are free.   Banners can be download on Vox.

Consumers Aware of Cash for Clunkers Program

On Friday June 19, 2009 we had over 65,000 visitors to the www.cashforclunkersfacts.com website which confirms that consumers are aware and ready to purchase a new car with their Cash for Clunkers voucher.

For additional information on the Cash for Clunkers program, read our FAQ sheet which gets updated almost daily.  Cash for Clunkers Answers