‘Cash for clunkers’ brings consumers back to showrooms

lawrence dealers see boost in automobile sales

Like elsewhere in the United States, the federal “cash for clunkers” program has accelerated auto sales in Lawrence.

Crown Automotive, which sells Toyotas, Scions and Chevrolets, has enjoyed increased sales and is continuing to make deals as if the program still has enough money to run, said Dale Backs, general manager.

But at Laird Noller Ford, where sales personnel have been “extremely busy,” so-called clunker deals are on hold. The Lawrence dealership wants to be sure the government will back any deals that have yet to materialize.

“There’s been some real glitches on getting things claimed,” said Gary Bennett, general manager. “The Web site the government set up wasn’t set up to handle this kind of volume.”

Not that he’s complaining.

“It’s been extremely popular,” he said. “We’re as busy as we can be.”

Dale Willey, president of Dale Willey Automotive, said the program was helping him move plenty of GM vehicles, while allowing him to take clunkers off the streets permanently.

Detroit ? The government’s “cash-for-clunkers” program drew car and truck buyers back to American showrooms last month, making July the best month for auto sales in nearly a year and offering powerful evidence that the rebates were working as senators debate whether to continue them.

In fact, some automakers, dealers and government officials declared an end to the industry slump that nearly claimed the lives of General Motors and Chrysler.

“We certainly expect that we’ve seen the worst of it,” said Dave Zuchowski, Hyundai Motor Co.’s vice president of U.S. sales, whose sales rose 12 percent over July of last year, the second-best in the industry, behind only Suzuki.

“We’re not saying it’s going to be a high bounce back. We think it will be good, solid, steady growth.”

Even though the overall U.S. market fell 12 percent when compared with July of last year, gleeful automakers reported vastly better sales than in the dismal first half of 2009.

In Washington, the White House urged the Senate to approve $2 billion without delay or risk ending the big rebates for car buyers by week’s end.

Buyer demand was so strong that the government had nearly spent in one week the $1 billion that Congress had expected to last until Nov. 1.

“I think probably this is the greatest one-week energy conservation program that may have come out of Washington or anywhere else,” said George Pipas, Ford’s top sales analyst.

Without the clunkers program, July sales probably would have been about the same as June, Pipas said.

Democrats remained concerned about lining up enough support for the incentives, which offer up to $4,500 per vehicle. The House approved the rebates last week before heading home for the August recess.

Automakers and the Obama administration said the clunkers program did everything it was designed to do — replace inefficient sport utility vehicles with more efficient cars, boost auto sales and help lead the economy out of recession.

Gas-guzzling vehicles from the 1990s were stacked up on nearly every new car lot in America. As of Saturday, the government reported that 83 percent of the trade-ins under the clunker program were trucks, and 60 percent of the vehicles purchased were cars.