More autos news ahead

Don’t park those cash-for-clunkers notebooks just yet.

Automakers release August sales figures Tuesday afternoon, and the closely-watched monthly reports will get an even bigger buzz than usual because they’ll reflect results of the federal Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) program that ended this week.

The $3 billion CARS rebates drove sales of nearly 700,000 vehicles, according to this U.S. Department of Transportation release. According to the breakdown, domestic car companies captured less than 40 percent of those sales, with transplants and foreign automakers luring the majority of buyers.

That’s one angle, depending on the dealer, supplier and factory mix in your territory.

For links to other clunker cash resources, review this past tipsheet.

A recent article from The Arizona Republic noted that although there's a paperwork delay, vehicle sales can be monitored through the number of titles issued by your state's motor vehicle division. And the article also suggested tracking auto sales through taxable-sales reported.

Another still-timely topic: Rebate red tape. Computers glitches snarled paperwork mid-week and I know at least one car buyer who won’t be driving home in her new vehicle for another week or so, until her sales rep has his government cash in hand. How many other deals languish in limbo, and how’s the restricted cash flow affecting auto retailers’ operations?

And what’s the sales plan for the balance of 2009, which some analysts say now is skewed because late-year shoppers rushed in ahead of schedule to snap up rebates. Do local lenders and auto retailers have promotional plans, financing, inventory and other tools at hand to keep the momentum going?

How is this new-car frenzy affecting the used-vehicle market? While traded-in clunkers will be destroyed, not resold, some of the top CARS sellers - including the Toyota Corolla, Honda Accord and Ford F150- are perennial pre-owned favorites. Check the classifieds and Craigslist to see if private and commercial sellers are now stuck with unwanted stock.

From an economic standpoint: the DOT claims that CARS saved 42,000 jobs – do any of them belong to your readers? Ford and GM have boosted production, ostensibly due to increased demand.

For general hints on covering auto sales, check out this earlier tipsheet.

Be sure to sign up at PR Newswire so you’ll get the auto sales reports via e-mail as they trickle out Sept. 1(in no particular order, though Ford usually is first)

If you’re new to covering the automotive industry, get up to speed by reading J.D. Power and Associates’ commentary on the monthly global sales reports they make available free of charge to registered users at their automotive forecasting Web site.

To be really au courant on cars, subscribe to the free e-mail feed at Automotive News.
And in one last shameless plug: My former colleagues at The Detroit News make autos coverage a 24/7 crusade; bookmark their portal for a steady stream of authoritative news, reviews, blogs and special reports.

Come back to Your Daily Tipsheet each morning for advice on where to find sources, background and creative ways to make financial news and trends relevant to your audience.

Clunker cash on last lap

“Cash for Clunkers” may end Monday, but there’s still plenty of mileage left in the Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) story.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) said late Thursday that it will shut down the auto-rebate program after this weekend, with dealers on an 8 p.m. Monday deadline to submit applications. The CARS program, which had originally been expected to last through October, faced unexpected demand and earlier was augmented with an extra $2 billion in funding.

Here’s the DOT’s Thursday press release , and here’s a fact sheet about the "orderly wind down" the agency is hoping for.

Dealers are being urged to focus on paperwork vs. sales over the next few days. The DOT says it’s reviewed about 150,000 CARS deals out of an estimated 450,000-plus eligible transactions. It’s got extra staffers on hand to process applications and held a Webinar earlier this week to reiterate rules to auto retailers.

While the DOT clearly doesn’t want a tidal wave of new buyers to hit showrooms today, you might want to serve your readers by getting a Web story up ASAP reiterating deadlines and rules, as well as what paperwork they’ll need to make a last-minute deal and take advantage of rebates up to $4,500. For background and other resources, check out this earlier tipsheet on the clunkers rebates.

Then, head out to showrooms and set up your weekend or Monday stories. Are dealers in your area awash in claim forms? Will they be holding an all-hands-on-deck marathon paperwork session this weekend, or clocking out as usual? What glitches are they experiencing? How’s traffic on the lots, and which models are moving?

For biz features, get creative with video and audio – cars and engines are natural subjects, especially on a late-summer weekend. If you ferret out the right car owner – one with lots of family snapshots and a knack for storytelling – you could even produce a montage of one clunker’s rise and fall. Maybe it’s my Motor City ties, but whenever a truckload of those crushed cars wheels past, I muse that every single cube of scrap once was someone’s brand-new pride and joy.

Now, here’s a description of dealership workers performing automotive euthanasia. Footage of some cast-off having its engine deliberately seized – juxtaposed with photos from its heyday -- would be informative and poignant.

Getting back to biz: Try for a sit-down with retailers’ general managers and financial officers. What has the CARS program meant to their sales and profits? Do they worry about the oft-repeated claim that it’s merely siphoned demand from the rest of the year? What else do they have in the pipeline to capitalize on momentum and remain viable?

Come back to "Your Daily Tipsheet" each morning for advice on where to find sources, background and creative ways to make financial news and trends relevant to your audience.

Car Stories that Sell

Automotive dealers got the final rules and regulations for the “cash for clunkers” program Friday, and already over the weekend hastily-produced local TV ads were exhorting buyers to take advantage of the deal.

In a nutshell, the federally sponsored “Car Allowance Rebate System,” as it’s formally known, offers credits of up to $4,500 to people who trade in older cars and trucks for more fuel-efficient new models. The credit applies to purchases, and even to auto leases of at least five years. Trade-ins can be foreign or domestic as long they’re less than 25 years old, be drivable, and average 18 miles to the gallon or less.

To ward off “flippers,” the new law also requires that trade-ins be registered to the new-car buyer for the past year. The program will be in effect until Nov. 1 or until the federal funding is exhausted. Complete details about the program are available at the CARS program Web site.

In a year where auto sales so far are hovering around a three-decade low and major domestic manufacturers are closing thousands of dealers, any jump start to car buying is noteworthy.

You might approach this from a dealer perspective and marry it with an update (and infographic) about the status of car retailers in your area. The National Automobile Dealers Association, a trade and lobbying group, also offers commentary, statistics and updates at its site. An interactive map purports to outline the economic impact of auto sales in each state; it’s worth a look.

Or, you could run a consumer affairs or personal finance story instead. There are a couple of caveats in the fine print of the CARS rules worth pointing out:

• Since the new law – predicated on fuel-mileage concerns -- requires the traded-in gas guzzlers to be crushed and scrapped rather than resold, consumers likely won’t get the standard trade-in allowance for their old cars. They’ll want to weigh the lost value against whatever level of CARS credit they’re eligible for.

• The credited amount might not be exempt from sales tax; depends on the laws in your state so worth a call to the treasury department.

• Many older cars – including the 1997 purple Ford Escort sitting in my driveway – won’t make the cut for the credit because they still get make pretty decent miles per gallon. Consumers can look up their car’s eligibility by using this calculator. It’s rather ironic that those of us responsibly driving fuel-sippers all along won’t be able to cash in on the credit, isn’t it?

• The credit must be applied against a new vehicle costing less than $45,000 – so luxury auto dealers probably aren’t going to yield the best CARS color for your story.

Come back to Your Daily Tipsheet each morning for advice on where to find sources, background and creative ways to make financial news and trends relevant to your audience.