LOS ANGELES AND WASHINGTON — With surprising swiftness, the government's "cash for clunkers" program has burned through its $1-billion budget in less than a week as car buyers swarmed dealerships, and federal officials were scrambling late Thursday night to find more money to keep it going.
The program, designed to jump-start car sales and improve the fuel efficiency of the nation's auto fleet, unleashed a wave of pent-up demand that threatened to exhaust funds before dealers could be fully reimbursed for rebates under the plan.
As word got out Thursday that the program might be suspended at midnight, some car dealers reported a surge in nighttime buyers. But government officials later said the program -- dubbed CARS for Car Allowance Rebate System -- was not going to be suspended overnight.
"We are working tonight to assess the situation facing what is obviously an incredibly popular program," the White House said. "Auto dealers and consumers should have confidence that all valid CARS transactions that have taken place to date will be honored."
Buyers rushed to dealerships before the money ran out. At Toyota of Hollywood, general manager Don Mushin said he expected to sell 15 vehicles before closing Thursday.
"It's a mad rush right now with people bringing in their clunkers," he said. "The whole place is full."
Car sales have been in the tank for more than a year as the nation's deepening recession and growing ranks of unemployed turned the market into the worst one in decades and helped send General Motors Corp. and Chrysler into filing for bankruptcy protection this year.
The federal program provided rebates of $3,500 or $4,500 to consumers who traded in vehicles with combined city/highway mileage of 18 miles per gallon or less and bought more fuel-efficient new cars or trucks.
The program was designed to run until Nov. 1 or until 250,000 cars had been sold, whichever came first. Many analysts had expected the money to last at least until Labor Day.
So far the program has paid about $150 million to car dealers and reserved as much as $850 million more for pending applications, according to congressional aides. That brought the total dangerously close to the plan's funding limit.
Congress could appropriate more funding, but it's unclear whether that will happen. Lawmakers authorized $4 billion but appropriated only $1 billion for the program.
