Cars Pile Up In Scrap Yards

Car Dealership Experiences Flood Of Customers

Reported By Regina Raccuglia


NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- After thousands of clunkers were cashed in across Tennessee, there's now beginning to be a different kind of backup.

From the standard lemon to a ride nicer than many on the road, Town and Country Ford was wiped out of close to 70 Cash for Clunkers trade-ins.

"It was nuts, and the flood of customers we had," said Angela Stewart of Town and Country Ford. "We finally had to stop dealer trading because we had nothing."

Stewart is still working through the paperwork for all the Cash for Clunkers deals. She said the demand for the used car lot went through the roof.

"Our general manager went to Florida to an auction to get us cars," she said.

As Town and Country's lots fill back up, Express Auto Salvage in LaVergne can't empty its lots fast enough. About 600 clunkers are piled up there, waiting to meet their doom.

"There's some vehicles that are nice and some that ain't so nice," said Larry Weeks of Towing Clunkers.

Several junk yards Channel 4 spoke with across middle Tennessee can't say enough about how Cash for Clunkers filled their pockets.

"(It) picked up the car industry a little bit. You know, it's gave us work, too," said Weeks.

But some said that of those who most needed this deal, most didn't make the cut.

"It didn't help people that don't have the credit or really need a vehicle. It didn't help the people that were in the need," said Stewart. "I guess it's to make things greener."

But Stewart and others said the guidelines the federal government placed on the program may not mean a greener middle Tennessee.

"The way Cash for Clunkers was set up, you could get 3,005 incentive for going one mile per gallon better on a vehicle, you know, on trucks," said Stewart.

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