Saturday, August 1, 2009

Cash for Clunkers - Recipe for Fraud

The objective of cash for clunkers, as I understand it, is two-fold - provide a stimulus to the auto manufacturer and dealer industries AND take un-green (?) cars off the road. The rules are complex and vary by type of vehicle but here's one example - consumer brings in car that gets 18MPG and buys car that gets 22MPG. That would get the consumer a $3500 allowance towards the 22MPG car. The dealer is then required to destroy the engine of the car and then can send the car to the scrap yard.

I'm sure we have all known an unethical car dealer, mechanic or auto body repair shop owner in our time. There would be no hesitation on their part to commit fraud in some way through this program. If the government cannot even get the system up and running in time for the program to go live, do you think they're going to be able to check to see if fraud is being commited? Of course not. This program will result in a massive amount of fraud as cars are traded in, driven out the back door and put back on the road for additional money OR they are retraded in.

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