Dealers relieved Clunkers program over

Local car dealers are relieved that the Cash for Clunkers program is over, and even though it produced a lot of sales, they are still waiting to get reimbursements from the government.

"There were a lot of positives, and some negatives," said Dana Whaley, general manager of Carson City Toyota. "It definitely stimulated, but we will wait to see what happens in the next

60 days."

Whaley said they sold 107 vehicles as part of the program, but have only been reimbursed for 10 so far. He said the government office in charge is understaffed, and the people under-trained, to handle the volume of sales under the program.

"We need the government to speed up the payment process so we can get our working capital back," Whaley said.

Jeff Woodward at Carson Nissan also reported a delay in getting paid.

"The good news is we just got funded on our first deal today," Woodward said. "It only took a little over three weeks."

Woodward said they stopped participating in the program 10 days early after selling 12 cars because "we were stretched as far as I felt we could stretch."

Besides the financial strain, Whaley said his staff was pushed hard in the final weeks of the program, working from 7:30 a.m. until late in the evening.

Overall, the dealers thought the program helped out their customers.

"It was a good program," Woodward said. "It could have been administered a lot easier than it was, but the cars got sold and people made some good buys."

"The good part was it took a lot of gas guzzling vehicles off the roads and replaced them with cars that got twice the fuel mileage," Whaley said.

Whaley also noted that it was good for reducing emissions and improving safety.

"There are some vehicles back there that definitely shouldn't be on our highways," he said.