The U.S government's cash for clunkers program has proved to be quite successful. A report claims that so many Americans have resorted to swapping out such huge numbers of clunkers that the government at a certain juncture had to make arrangements for more funding.

The cash for clunkers program offered $3500 to $4500 rebates for customers who had agreed for trading in their old vehicles for the modern, better fuel efficient and environment conscious ones. The declining automobile industry has definitely received a great boost through increased sale on account of the program. Car dealership business has revived, gas guzzlers have been taken off roads, and the auto factories have got the much needed boost.

However certain inherent program flaws have resulted in some dealers dropping out in frustration on account of long delays in receiving the money from the government.

• Congress: It relied wrongly on the automobile industry's prediction that the cash for clunkers program would not significantly affect moribund sales. Going by this prediction the Congress made the blunder of seriously underestimating the number of people who would rush to dealerships lured by the discounts ranging from $3500 to $4500. Their initial commitment of $1 billion just got burnt within a few weeks time necessitating urgent fund allocation.

• Department of transportation: The agency officials did not get adequate time to make arrangements for keeping adequate resources and staff. They had got a mere 30 days time for setting up and running of the program. Quite naturally these people were not in a proper position to handle the overwhelmingly heavy consumer responses. Those systems that were set up for handling and reimbursing claims of dealers were swamped.

• Bureaucracy: Some of the government regulations that were formulated to prevent fraud created a great deal of paperwork which the dealers could not fully comprehend.

• Dealers: Some of the dealers wanting sales desperately went about making cash for clunkers deals ahead of time even though they were warned against it. Thus they began promoting the deals one week before the time the program was officially supposed to begin. This consequently resulted in development of a huge backlog. Repeated government efforts have still not been able to resolve confusions relating to bad paperwork which have held up many dealer claims. Dealers no doubt are truly amazed at the sales revival but what they are saying about the government is also true. They are saying that more planning time prior to start up of the program would have removed any flaws and thus the cash for clunkers program would have been an absolute success.

However notwithstanding the flaws, this program has greatly benefited not only the consumers, manufacturers, dealers and automobile insurance providers but also the environmental pollution level has decreased. Thus in overall terms it can be safely concluded that this program has attained sufficient success. Though this program had a premature ending in the last week of August 2009, the fact that it was a highly successful initiative cannot be undermined.