Cash For Clunkers a huge success

July 29, 2:24 AMBirmingham Autos ExaminerJonathan Alexander

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The first official day of business for the CARS program saw huge numbers.

The government-funded Car Allowance Rebate System, better known as "Cash For Clunkers", officially kicked off yesterday and it looks to have a warm reception thus far.

The program, allowing you to recieve up to $4,500 towards the purchase of a new vehicle in exchange for your old, gas guzzling ride has been heavily promoted by car dealerships and manufacturers alike and it is obvious by the numbers reported for the first day of business for the program.

The official website for the program has seen reportedly 1.5 million unique visits and the Cash For Clunkers hotline has recieved over 45,000 calls. The interest from the public and the desire to purchase newer, fuel efficient cars is definately there. The government says the program will fund over 250,000 new car purchases and could be renewed to fund even more.

“We need to see if it the program is successful. We think it will be,” Transportation Secretary LaHood said. “We’re going to monitor it every week. We’re going to know pretty quickly if we are going to run through the billion dollars or not.”

The program is not intended to favor one car maker over the other, although most interest seems to be in Toyota and Honda vehicles. As of early yesterday morning, 69 people had already purchased cars using the $3,500 and $4,500 vouchers. According to the Detroit News, 18 were Hondas, 17 were Toyotas and 9 were Fords.

You can find more information on the Cash For Clunkers government rebate system here, and there is also a detailed report on the top cars to purchase using your Cash For Clunkers vouchers available.

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