Cash for clunkers reimbursement continues to lag

After weeks of complaints from dealers about the slow pace of reimbursement checks being issued to dealers — and weeks of promises from the Department of Transportation that they were fixing the system — new data from dealer associations shows that only a tiny percentage of claims have been paid. Automotive News reports:

Dealers in four states have been reimbursed by the government for 5.7 percent of their cash-for-clunkers transactions, the latest dealer association surveys show.

Polls in North Carolina, Virginia, Louisiana and Alabama last week found that dealers had been reimbursed for 2,701 of the 47,693 transactions submitted for rebates.

“It’s like watching paint dry,” said Donald Hall, president of the Virginia Automobile Dealers Association, which conducted one survey. “The government doesn’t see the sense of urgency in paying money back to dealers.”

The president of the Automobile Dealers Association of Alabama told Automotive News, “The problem was that you didn’t have a bureaucracy set up and had to create one overnight. I personally think these problems are understandable.” And he’s right, it’s understandable. But there are dealerships who have had to put out millions of dollars of their own money, money that would otherwise go for operating expenses.