WASHINGTON (AP) Car dealers will have a bit more time to get reimbursed for their Cash for Clunkers deals after the government extended the deadline for filing applications for the $3 billion government incentives into Tuesday.
All sales under the program ended Monday evening. But after already pushing back the deadline to submit records for the car rebate deals to noon Tuesday, the Transportation Department said late Monday that dealers may have more time to submit pending claims, due to continued problems with its Web site.
Government computers set up to handle the filings were deluged by dealers trying to send in their sales agreements at the last minute. Before the extension, all the paperwork was supposed to be submitted by Monday night, but the big rush of submissions shut down the government's computer filing system temporarily. That raised concern among dealers that they wouldn't be repaid for the $3,500 or $4,500 per vehicle incentives, and prompted them to push for an extension.
The government agreed to give dealers until noon Tuesday to provide the proper documentation and ramped up staff to handle the influx. But late Monday, it told dealers that the site wouldn't be fully operational until Tuesday morning.
"We continue to address technical problems with the CARS website, and have determined that the website will not be fully functional before (Tuesday) morning," the Transportation Department said in a statement. "Dealers should be assured that they will be provided time to submit pending deals equivalent to the time that was lost this afternoon while the system was down."
The DOT declined to elaborate further.
Geoff Pohanka, who heads about 15 dealerships in Maryland and Virginia, said he had submitted about 910 clunker deals to the government and had only received payment for 16. He estimated the government owed his dealership about $4 million for the outstanding claims and was hopeful to get the final 90 voucher submissions into the system.
"Every 30 seconds, we're going back to the computer to see if we can get them in," he said. are you sure all these trade in are being crushed i passed a dealership the other day saw an enormous pilke of used cars with sale stickers in windows.
All sales under the program ended Monday evening. But after already pushing back the deadline to submit records for the car rebate deals to noon Tuesday, the Transportation Department said late Monday that dealers may have more time to submit pending claims, due to continued problems with its Web site.
Government computers set up to handle the filings were deluged by dealers trying to send in their sales agreements at the last minute. Before the extension, all the paperwork was supposed to be submitted by Monday night, but the big rush of submissions shut down the government's computer filing system temporarily. That raised concern among dealers that they wouldn't be repaid for the $3,500 or $4,500 per vehicle incentives, and prompted them to push for an extension.
The government agreed to give dealers until noon Tuesday to provide the proper documentation and ramped up staff to handle the influx. But late Monday, it told dealers that the site wouldn't be fully operational until Tuesday morning.
"We continue to address technical problems with the CARS website, and have determined that the website will not be fully functional before (Tuesday) morning," the Transportation Department said in a statement. "Dealers should be assured that they will be provided time to submit pending deals equivalent to the time that was lost this afternoon while the system was down."
The DOT declined to elaborate further.
Geoff Pohanka, who heads about 15 dealerships in Maryland and Virginia, said he had submitted about 910 clunker deals to the government and had only received payment for 16. He estimated the government owed his dealership about $4 million for the outstanding claims and was hopeful to get the final 90 voucher submissions into the system.
"Every 30 seconds, we're going back to the computer to see if we can get them in," he said. are you sure all these trade in are being crushed i passed a dealership the other day saw an enormous pilke of used cars with sale stickers in windows.
