8 p.m. EDT Monday Marks the End for ’Clunkers Cash’

8 p.m. EDT Monday Marks the End for ’Clunkers Cash’

This weekend is it for the Cash-for-Clunkers program! U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood finally called a halt to the wildly successful program after NADA and dealers across the country warned the program was in danger of running out of funds within days. LaHood said in making the announcement that there is enough incentive money left in the pot to cover what’s expected to be a brisk final weekend of sales.

”This program has been a lifeline to the automobile industry, jump-starting a major sector of the economy and putting people back to work,” LaHood said, adding that it had taken a great many old and polluting cars off the road and helped put quite a few consumers in new, fuel efficient vehicles.”

The Car Allowance Rebate System has registered nearly 460,000 vehicle deals worth $1.91 billion in rebates since it began just three weeks ago. Franchise dealers have been submitting about $100 million worth of rebate claims per day since the program started. It is expected that rate will accelerate somewhat from Friday of this week through Monday of next week.

Transportation Department officials estimate about $400 million in vouchers have yet to be submitted by dealers and the department believes there will be about $100 million in administration costs for the program. That leaves $600 million for the transactions expected to be executed this weekend.

LaHood emphasized that applications for rebates will not be accepted after 8 p.m. eastern time Monday, and dealers should not make further sales without receiving all the necessary paperwork from their customers. NHTSA said any applications submitted prior to the deadline and then rejected may still be funded if the applications are subsequently corrected, even if the corrections are submitted after the deadline. It is not clear, however, what it will do if its computer system cannot handle the expected weekend rush of submissions, how and whether it will deal with submissions that cannot be processed because of a possible system failure and what will happen to those who do submit rebate requests but the fund is out of money.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers thanked the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ”for working closely with manufacturers and dealers to ensure consumers could benefit from one of the most economically stimulative programs this country has ever seen.

The Department of Transportation now has more than 1,200 government and contract employees processing dealer applications for rebates, but it remains unclear how quickly the monies will begin flowing to dealers who collectively are owed nearly 80% of the $1.91 billion in rebate requests already submitted.

NADA said in a statement that it will continue to work with NHTSA ”to reduce the backlog of pending applications and ensure that all dealers are reimbursed for valid ’clunkers’ deals.”