Clunked Out

clipped from www.nola.com Roy McDonald, a salesman with Levis Used Car Clearance Center in Slidell, can't wait for the Cash for Clunkers program to end. "It's our worst month ever. It's killing us," McDonald said. "Customers are not even coming to the used car lot. They're going straight to new cars." The program, officially known as the Car Allowance Rebate System, offers federal subsidies of as much as $4,500 to those who trade in their old vehicles for new, more fuel-efficient ones. The program, which is scheduled to end on Monday, has jumpstarted sales of new vehicles. But used car dealers in the metro New Orleans area say they've been shut out of the party. That's because the Cash for Clunkers program does not allow participants to purchase used vehicles. It also requires dealers to destroy the clunker trade-ins they receive, a move that shrinks the number of older cars on the market and drives up the price of used vehicles. McDonald said sales over the past month have fallen at least 60 percent.