Awesome Cash for Clunkers value at Saturn of Honolulu...

Ok... we all heard about the "Cash for Clunkers" program that the U.S. Government is promoting. If not, read about it here http://cars.gov. Anyway, in the recent days there have been many news reports of the cash for clunkers program not being offered any longer due to the difficulties the dealerships are having getting reimbursed for the $3500 or $4500 promotion. This is definitely true. My parents' truck... <--- see that on the left??!!?? Ok, it wasn't always smashed up in the front like that. It did have the fender damage and also other damage on the back that isn't even significant enough to photograph compared to this. It's had the other damage for years, but the front end damage just occured a couple weeks ago amidst the cash for clunkers mayhem. Let me add, this 2001 Ford Explorer Sport Track has been a "Clunker for Cash" since 2001!!!!!!! My dad bought it and it was a brand new truck from Ford. There were all sorts of problems that I told him to see the dealer about to have repaired under the warranty. So many issues that I won't even bother listing them. After all, Ford has enough of a questionable reliability reputation as it is. (Sorry if you are a Ford fanatic.) I took my parents to visit a Nissan dealership on the afternoon of that front end damage because we were immediately looking to take advantage of this cash for clunkers program. After all, would you buy this Ford for $4500?? =P The Nissan dealership here had nothing appealing to my parents. We went home and they drove that Ford home at night with the smashed up headlights (they looked like original carriage/buggy headlamps with candles in them... hahaha). They didn't do anything about getting rid of the Ford for the past couple weeks so I visited them yesterday and we ended up heading to the dealerships again. We first stopped at the Subaru dealership to check out a Subaru Forrester, but the Subaru dealership made an executive decision to stop participating in the cash for clunkers program on Wednesday (the day before)! So we moved along to Saturn. I had suggested to my parents that we get that clunker over to Saturn because they were advertising a promotion of cash for clunkers where they will match another $3500 or $4500 to the government amount. Essentially doubling the cash for clunkers amount. I had calculated on the http://cars.gov website that if the 2001 Ford Explorer Sport Track was turned in for the purchase of the 2009 Saturn Vue 2.4L XE or XR they would receive a $4500 cash for clunker amount and Saturn of Honolulu would double that. That meant a whopping $9000 off the sticker price of a low-mid $20,000 vehicle. That's an awesome ratio!!! Well they took a few hours making our salesman, Mike Gomes, work very hard trying to sort out all the features in the inventory. Mike Gomes is great, he sold my dad my first car back in 1991. It was a 1991 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 5.8L. Mike had to stay beyond closing just to finish the transaction so that my parents could drive home in a new Saturn Vue with headlights because the Ford would have been driving home in the dark if we left w/out a new vehicle. His poor wife had to wait around at a shopping mall for Mike to pick her up. (sorry!) Here it is, the 2009 Saturn Vue. The sticker price is $24,650 plus the taxes and licensing fees. The end price is a few dollars over $17,000. Not bad... don't you think?? Anyway, Saturn of Honolulu says they are ending their cash for clunkers participation as of Monday August 24th because that's when the government advises them to end it. I don't think you should wait beyond today if you are thinking of going to Saturn. Who knows, they boss might decide to end it as of last night or tonight. Good luck!