Cash For Clunkers | featured news

Disappointing performance underscores concerns about the timing and durability of a recovery.

They were waiting down at Gibson Chevrolet near Chicago for a couple of five-gallon cans of sodium silicate — liquid glass, they call it — to poison and kill the clunkers when the latest condemned car pulled up.

Pedal to the metal, Congress sent President Barack Obama legislation Thursday night with an additional $2 billion for "cash for clunkers," the economy-boosting rebate program that caught the fancy of car buyers and instantly increased sales for an auto industry long mired in recession.

Sales under the U.S. government's "cash for clunkers" auto incentive topped 180,000 with Toyota Motor Corp overtaking Ford Motor Co with the top-selling vehicle, officials said on Wednesday.

The U.S. Senate will approve a $2 billion extension of the "cash for clunkers" auto sales incentive by week's end, Majority Leader Harry Reid said on Tuesday, giving new life to a successful program that has boosted industry sales to a 2009 high.

The "cash for clunkers" program could be ended as early as Tuesday unless the Senate approves $2 billion in additional funding, as consumers have jumped at the chance to trade in their aging gas guzzlers.

The popular "cash for clunkers" program will continue at least through this weekend, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Friday.

The U.S. government's $1 billion "cash for clunkers" auto sales incentive program reached its funding limit unexpectedly after an avalanche of business exhausted its funds, an Obama administration official said late Thursday.

Facing a glut of unsold 2009 inventory, automakers and car dealers hope the government incentive can help them reduce supply before 2010 models arrive.