Last night, President Obama signed the CARS Act. NHTSA has 30 days to finalize the rules of the program and to execute it. Under the terms of the program, it begins with sales effective July 1. However, the final rules will not be announced until July 24th at the latest. Therefore dealers that try to leverage the program prior to the rules being announced are at risk of not completing all the steps that would be required to claim the incentive. The NADA and the Government are strongly recommending that dealers wait for the rules to be in place before selling vehicles under the program. Dealers are certainly encouraged to prepare to take advantage of this program and make plans for a fast start when all the rules are in place.
We have received many questions form the dealers about how to claim the incentive, timing of payment, how to scrap the vehicle and who is entitled to the scrap value of the vehicle. Those are all the questions that will be answered when NHTSA provides the final rules in the next 30 days.
