'Cash for Clunkers' gets green light listen

Listen to this entire show:

Tags:

The three biggest car makers in America called a bottom to the long decline in U.S. auto sales as the industry reported its smallest monthly sales drop this year.

According to the market-research firm Autodata Corp., new vehicle sales in June fell 28 percent from a year earlier to 860,000 cars and light trucks. But that would be the smallest decline in any month this year.

Auto sales are expected to pick up as well now that President Barack Obama has signed into law what is known as the "cash for clunkers" program, which will allow people to turn in their cars and trucks and receive a credit of $3,500 or $4,500 toward a new vehicle. The amount of the credit will depend on the fuel efficiency rating of the car.

Ken Strauss is a CPA with the accounting firm Berkowitz, Dick, Pollen and Brant, which has offices in South Florida. We spoke to him late yesterday about the new federal program, created as a way to stimulate the car industry and get gas guzzlers off the road.

Learn more about it by going at cars.gov.