Family Life

08.20.09 | FL News Team

(Detroit, MI)  --  General Motors will make cash advances available to its dealers to cover "Cash for Clunkers" rebates being processed by the government.  GM says doing so will give dealers liquidity to run their businesses until the federal reimbursements come through.

The Detroit automaker says the "Clunkers" program has been a big factor in its recent improved sales figures.  In the last two months, GM's sales have exceeded its projections by more than 60-thousand vehicles.  The "Clunkers" program offers a rebate of up to 45-hundred dollars on the trade-in of an older gas-guzzling vehicle for a new, more fuel-efficient one.

Meanwhile, hundreds of New York car dealerships are threatening to pull out of the government "Cash For Clunkers" program.  The Greater New York Automobile Dealers Associations says the successful program has hit a bump in the road with care dealers not receiving timely payments from the federal government, leaving them holding the bag.

The group's president, Mark Schienberg, says there has been poor coordination between the federal government and local dealers.  Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood is assuring dealers the money for the program won't run out.