After burning through $3 billion taxpayer dollars and helping auto dealers sell over 750,000 new vehicles, the government’s wildly popular “Cash for Clunkers” program ends Monday. At the same time, the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General is auditing the program to ensure that participating car dealers did not engage in “fraud, waste, and abuse.”
Announcing that the cash for clunkers program would officially end on Monday, Aug. 24 at 8 p.m. EDT, Sec. of Transportation Ray LaHood stated in a press release, “This program has been a lifeline to the automobile industry, jump starting a major sector of the economy and putting people back to work. At the same time, we’ve been able to take old, polluting cars off the road and help consumers purchase fuel efficient vehicles.”
As of August 20, cash for clunkers, or the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS), as the program is officially known, had generated more than 457,000 dealer transactions worth $1.9 billion in rebates.
“It’s been a thrill to be part of the best economic news story in America,” Secretary LaHood said. “Now we are working toward an orderly wind down of this very popular program.”
And Now the Audit: Maybe not so thrilled with cash for clunkers, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), requested that the DOT’s Inspector General conduct an audit of the CARS program to determine whether the agency’s oversight of the program ensured that all cash for clunkers transactions met federal requirements, used accurate and reliable data and protected taxpayers and the government against fraud, waste, and abuse.
Also See:
What Happens to Cash for Clunker Trade-ins?
FTC Warns of Bogus 'Cash for Clunkers' Web Sites
All About Cash for Clunkers (Environment)
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