Clunkers bring business for dealers

The popular Cash for Clunkers program has overwhelmed the Olympia Auto Mall.

Last weekend, the dealers at the local auto mall sold 291 vehicles, nearly twice as many as they sell in a normal weekend.   They attribute it to the federal program which rewards car owners who turn in their “polluting clunker” for a better mileage cleaner burning car.

Dealers say that as many as one-quarter of all sales however, are awaiting final approval by the government and may not go through. 

But even many those who don’t qualify for the $4500 rebate are still buying a new car.  “Once they get in that buying frenzy, many of them will go ahead anyway,” a dealer told me.

But there’s a hole in the cloud’s silver lining.  Dealers are concerned that the federal money has brought a whirlwind of buyers, that may have bought at a later date. 

As one told me “I’m anxious about how many buyers we’re going to have in two months.  Maybe everyone who wants a car is buying now.”