‘Cash For Clunkers’ has been so successful in getting Americans to visit car dealerships and consider purchasing new cars Congress is putting it on the fast track for continued funding.

However, some in the region’s auto industry are asking if this program is a waste of resources.

Under the program, gas guzzling vehicles can be traded in for far more than they would have fetched given their appraisal values.

Then the old engines are disabled, and the cars are sold as junk, all in the name of stimulating the economy and saving the environment.

The first $1 billion in funding accounted for about 250,000 trade-ins, and the second appropriation of $2 billion would fund the removal of another half a million vehicles from the nation’s roadways.

“First of all, in the short-term, I think it’s good for the new car dealers, it’s good for consumers and it’s good for the salvage yards — in the short-term,” McNair Auto Sales Owner Phil McNair said. “That being said, I personally think that in the long-term, it’s going to hurt all of us, because this money’s got to come from somewhere, and I think our taxes are going to have to go up in the future to support all of these government giveaways.”

He said even if he did sell new cars, he would not be able to support programs that give away billions of dollars from a government that’s operating on a deficit with a large debt.

He also said the poor bare the brunt of the consequences of ‘Cash For Clunkers’ because the availability of affordable used cars is hurt.

“It’s always hard to find good cars that you can pay cash for, and get for $3,000 or $4,000 or $5,000,” McNair said. “This will just make it harder to find them.”

Auto Recyclers of Laurinburg owner Kathy Strickland said she hasn’t received any salvage vehicles from the federal program yet, but her understanding is they’ll be sold at auction for the parts that can still be salvaged.

“It’s something that we’ll have to wait and see how it works, but I’m glad we can sell any parts at all off them,” she said.

She explained the Auto Recycler’s Association fought a lobbying battle to obtain any parts from the cars, and they weren’t able to salvage the engines out of the deal.

Under the program’s regulations, liquid silicon is poured into the engines, causing them to seize up. Other parts that don’t emit greenhouse gases will be allowed to be salvaged, though.

“I think they’re wasting a lot of good engines,” she said. “I wonder if they’re really saving all that much in greenhouse gases when they have to manufacture a whole new car, but it’s been a good stimulus for the new car dealers.”

In the end, however, losing the whole vehicle “would have been a tremendous waste,” Strickland remarked.

“I haven’t notice anything, really, as far as it affecting me,” said Brian Driggers of Eastside Auto in Rockingham said. “From what I understand it’s only new car dealers, and they have to scrap them, so I’ve heard of people taking advantage of it but it hasn’t hit me.”

He said their business has been strong over the past several months, and isn’t concerned about reduced availability of clunkers for the used lots.

“If anything, this economy’s probably pushed people back to buying used cars instead of new ones, but really most of my customers don’t have the credit to go buy a new car anyway.”

McNair summed up his feelings about the program.

“I just feel like there’s no free lunch, and down the road someone’s going to pay for these programs whether it be ‘Cash For Clunkers’ or the bank bailouts, someone’s going to have to pay,” McNair said.