DOT's NHTSA Announces Decision; Partial Victory for Consumers Explains Edmunds.com
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DOT's NHTSA Announces Decision; Partial Victory for Consumers Explains Edmunds.com
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — July 30, 2009 — Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive consumer information, pressed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) yesterday for an answer on a common issue facing consumers from the Cash for Clunkers program. The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has ruled that cash for clunkers trade-ins based on old mileage numbers and consummated before July 24 will be honored, but deals consummated after July 24 on vehicles that no longer qualify as clunkers due to mileage ratings changes will not be honored.
DOT spokesman Rae Tyson told Edmunds' AutoObserver.com today that transactions involving clunkers that turned qualified to disqualified will be honored by the government if they were consummated before the July 24 program launch date. Transactions on vehicles that became ineligible as clunkers made after July 24 will not be honored. Vehicles that previously were not eligible as clunkers but became eligible with the EPA changes will be honored if the transactions were consummated after July 24.
"This is only a partial victory for consumers," said Kevin Smith, Editorial Director, Edmunds.com. "We are disappointed that consumers that purchased vehicles over the weekend before the EPA acknowledged the mileage changes will not have their transactions honored."
For more information, please visit Edmunds' AutoObserver.com story "Some Clunkers Deals Based on Old EPA Numbers Will Be Honored, DOT Rules" at http://www.autoobserver.com/2009/07/some-clunker-deals-based-on-old-epa-numbers-will-be-honored-dot-rules.html.
For more information on Cash for Clunkers, please visit http://www.edmunds.com/cash-for-clunkers/. Lively discussions about Cash for Clunkers are taking place on Edmunds' CarSpace.com message boards at http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f1db290.
About Edmunds
Edmunds.com publishes four Web sites that empower, engage and educate automotive consumers and enthusiasts. Edmunds.com, the premier online resource for automotive consumer information, launched in 1995 as the first automotive information Web site. Its most popular feature, the Edmunds.com True Market Value® , is relied upon by millions of people seeking current transaction prices for new and used vehicles. Edmunds.com was named "Best Car Research Site" by Forbes ASAP, has been selected by consumers as the "Most Useful Web Site" according to every J.D. Power and Associates New Autoshopper.com Study(SM), was ranked first in the Survey of Car-Shopping Web Sites by The Wall Street Journal and was rated "#1" in Keynote's study of third-party automotive Web sites. Inside Line launched in January 2005 and is the most-read automotive enthusiast Web site. CarSpace launched in February 2006 and is an automotive social networking Web site and home to the oldest and most established automotive community. Edmunds is headquartered in Santa Monica, California, and maintains a satellite office in suburban Detroit.
