On the final day of the Cash for Clunkers program, thousands of car dealers are frantically trying to get in all their past sales as well as sales from over the weekend. 

Dealers are required to enter in all sales by today at 8:00 pm. Fear of NOT being paid is driving dealers to attempt to book all their sales by today and now that the website is down, that seems unlikely. 

The NHTSA will have to grant an extension to the submission process.

Here is the message one dealer sent to us when he was trying to enter in sales:

“To better meet the high demand we’re experiencing, we have temporarily shut down the service so we can expand our capacity to more quickly serve your requests. Please visit the site at a later time. We apologize for any inconvenience.”

The NHTSA website obviously could not handle the load and has been temporarily shutdown.  This is not the first time the the NHTSA has experienced server load issues.  When the program went live on July 27, 2009 the web servers were frequently rebooting dealers off during registrations.

Over $3 Billion In Cash for Clunkers Sales

It looks like the NHTSA information technology planners underestimated once again the popularity of the program and how many deals are still not entered into the NHTSA system.  We predict that when the dust settles, the car sales completed under the CARS program will exceed the $3 billion dollars allotted for the program.

Stopping the program early on August 27, 2009 was an attempt to play it safe and not exceed the total $3 billion dollar budget allotted by Congress.  However, Brian Pasch CEO of the Pasch Consulting Group, says that the move was too little too late.

“Today’s website shutdown is just another example of just how many sales were outside of the NHTSA web system.  Thousands of sales still remain outside of the knowledge of the NHTSA and when the dust settles, we predict that the NHTSA will be asking President Obama for more money to reimburse car dealers.”

UPDATE

The NHTSA has released a statement extending the deadline to have all Cash for Clunkers deals submitted.  Dealers now have until Tuesday August 28th at noon to complete the submission on the NHTSA website.  Dealers are not supposed to take in any CARS transactions after 8:00 pm today.

See official statement: http://www.dot.gov/affairs/2009/dot13009.htm 

We will be taking over/under “bets” on whether the deadline will be extended again, if the NHTSA system keeps on crashing.  My take is that it will be impossible for dealers to submit all deals by tomorrow at noon.  Brian

Consumer Feedback Requested

Consumers who have participated in the Cash for Clunkers program, have a new website to document their positive or negative experiences with the NHTSA Cash for Clunkers program.  

Consumers are encouraged to share their experiences at:  http://cash-for-clunkers.cashforclunkersfacts.com