WREX.com – Rockford’s News Leader"Cash for Clunkers" not out of money yet

"Cash for Clunkers" not out of money yet

By Samantha Ptashkin

ROCKFORD (WREX)- Rockford area car dealers and customers breathe a sigh of relief after lawmakers get closer to forking over an additional two billion dollars to save the "Cash for Clunkers" program. There was word the program's billion dollar funding might be running on empty, only a few days after it began. 

Within hours after learning the program might be out of cash, members of the House quickly drew up the two billion dollar bill and it easily passed.

For the Moyer family, that's good news. They've been looking for a new car and when they learned money for the "Cash for Clunkers" program could dry up, they decided to drive their gas guzzler in at full speed. " This is another incentive to go get that vehicle now," Jim Moyer said.

Now he and his family can take a little more time to shop, since additional funding will keep the program alive for at least another couple of weeks. "It will be a great help. Anytime you can get more money off a vehicle in today's economy it's great," Moyer said.

It's also good news for Anderson Toyota. Over the past few days it's sold almost 50 cars, half of them with "clunker" trade-ins. "In four days to sell 49 cars, it's a pretty big accomplishment. Normally you don't sell 10 cars a day," said Anderson Toyota Sales Manager Devin Bloomingdale. "Obviously it's really boosted our sales these past 10 days, so I want more money from the government. Absolutely!"

The government still owes dealers, who have dished out thousands of dollars to get rid of all the gas guzzlers, but they're not worried. "They haven't told us how long it's going to take to get the money, they're saying it could take anywhere from five days, to 10 days, to 15 days," Bloomingdale said.

The Senate will vote on the additional funding next week.