Did You Get $ For Your Clunker's Scrap Value?

WORTHINGTON, Ohio -- Did last year's Cash for Clunkers program really help local vehicle dealerships? And did consumers get all of the cash they were entitled?

NBC 4 got answers from one local dealer and the Ohio Attorney General's Office.

One local dealership said it still is seeing a positive impact from the $3 billion program months later.

The weather has gone cold at Jack Maxton Chevrolet in Worthington. Sales are anything but, though. Jack Maxton Chevrolet Owner Jeff Mauk credited the federal government's program for getting the ball rolling.

“It was a stimulus program that worked,” Mauk said. “It drew people into the showroom. It sold cars. It did what it was supposed to do."

The incentive program offered consumers as much as $4,500 to trade in gas-guzzlers for more fuel-efficient vehicles. Trade-ins could not be older than 25 years or get more than 18 miles per gallon -- in most cases.

Mauk said 134 people traded in their clunkers at Jack Maxton for anywhere from $3,500 to $4,500 off a more fuel-efficient vehicle, during the several-week program in July and August 2009. Customers continue to walk through the dealership's front door, too, Mauk said.

“We're on a pretty good roll,” Mauk said. “Our business was up in November 58 percent, and December final numbers are going to be close to that, and service is just off the charts right now.”

Mauk attributed the boost in sales not just to the clunker program but also what he feels is a boost in confidence in regards to the economy.

A recent report by The Boston Globe claimed some dealers withheld money they should have given their customers for the scrap value of their clunkers: But although many buyers did not know it, they were also potentially eligible for up to hundreds of dollars more for the scrap value of their old cars. The law called on dealers to share with customers the estimated amount each trade-in was worth as scrap. The dealers were allowed to keep $50 of that value, with the rest “negotiable between the consumer and the dealer,’’ according to Eric Bolton, a spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which ran Cash for Clunkers.

Mauk said his dealership followed the rules to the letter.

“We knew what we were getting from the cars from the junk yards. So we knew what we had to give customers. It was a nonissue. I hear around the country it has been an issue though -- not giving them money and make a little extra profit,” Mauk said.

If you traded in a clunker, the law said the dealer must have disclosed the scrap value of the car.

While the dealer was allowed to keep $50, you were allowed to negotiate who kept the remaining value.

If you did not get the money for the scrap value on your clunker, call the Ohio Attorney General’s Office at 800-282-0515 or visit http://www.speakoutohio.gov.

The Ohio Attorney General's office currently has received two complaints on the clunker scrap-value issue.

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