The 10-year-old Dodge minivan's engine made a mechanically sick clunk, stopped, popped and sighed as a cloud of white vapor belched out of the grille and hood seams, and green coolant ran out on the dealership's back lot.
The white Grand Caravan had been traded in at one of the dozen Jim Click Automotive Team dealerships around Tucson within the last month. It was probably one of the first Cash for Clunkers deals. By the time the engine was snuffed Thursday morning, its former owners were probably already used to their new gas-sipping vehicle.
"It's not in that bad shape, a '99 with 137,000 miles. Someone obviously took care of it," said Pete Cates, service director at Jim Click Ford, 6244 E. 22nd St..
No big dents. The interior still looked sharp. It had probably seen a lot of soccer games and family trips. It was certainly no "beater," not an abused vehicle.
Just 10 minutes earlier, shop foreman Ronnie Porcellini was inside the Ford dealership's hangar-sized car hospital — where everyone else was making repairs or doing preventive maintenance — draining the oil from the minivan's crankcase so he could kill the engine.
Porcellini put the drain plug back in the oil pan, lowered the lift, popped the hood, removed the oil filler cap on the clean V6 engine, jammed in a long black funnel and poured in a large plastic bottle full of Engine Seize, sodium silicate — essentially liquid glass.
Cates said the liquid would get thicker as the engine heated, eventually stopping the engine.
With Cates and curious mechanics from neighboring work stations watching, Porcellini withdrew the funnel, grabbed a shop rag from a mechanic who was acting as his assistant, screwed the filler cap back on, shut the hood, got in the driver's seat, started the engine and drove to a rear lot. He backed the van into a parking space and kept his foot on the gas, keeping the revs up.
In a couple of minutes, it started making strained noises, not normal — the kind of clanks and rattles that should make a responsible driver pull over asap.
Within another minute, there was steam coming out from under the hood. Then came that loud CLUNK! — a pop that was probably a radiator hose bursting, followed by a loud hiss as coolant came running out and more steam billowed from the front.
It was 9:02 a.m.. The time was noted and Cates and Porcellini lined up someone to clean up the antifreeze and to come back in exactly one hour to confirm the engine wouldn't start, that it was indeed dead.
Later, this and other program trades that had gotten their final approvals would be picked up by an approved local auction house. There they would be auctioned off, as untitled vehicles, all the parts except the engine available for resale or scrap.
Like other dealers, the Click executives didn't want to kill the engines in the clunkers until they were sure they were going to get reimbursed by the government for the $3,500 to $4,500 rebates they had credited toward the price of a qualifying new car.
Local dealers have done only a handful of engine kills so far.
Clunkers — some hideous heaps, others surprisingly nice vehicles — have been piling up on local dealers' lots as they wait for the paperwork to clear. The dealers don't want to find out they're not going to be reimbursed for the rebate on some technicality, having already destroyed the most valuable part of the car they took in trade.
Click Automotive team executive Sam Khayat said the group's dozen Tucson-area dealerships had accumulated roughly 400 trade-in clunkers parked on death row and awaiting the federal final word and the last rites — the engine-killing process.
That backlog represents $1.4 million to $1.8 million in rebates.
Khayat was upbeat about word Wednesday that the government had hired upward of 1,000 workers to help process the dealers' Cash for Clunkers rebate claims.
Car buyers have only until Monday to cash in
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will end the popular $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program Monday evening, giving car shoppers a few more days to take advantage of big government incentives.
The Transportation Department said Thursday that the government will wind down the program at 5 p.m. Tucson time Monday. Car buyers can receive rebates of $3,500 or $4,500 for trading in older vehicles for new, more fuel-efficient models.
The White House has touted the program's success in providing a targeted boost to the sluggish economy since its inception in late July. Through Thursday, auto dealers have made deals worth $1.9 billion, and the incentives have generated more than 457,000 vehicle sales.
But the administration needed to put a halt to the program to avoid surpassing the $3 billion funding level. Consumers were on pace to exhaust program coffers in early September, and dealers have complained about delays in getting reimbursed for the car incentives.
The Transportation Department said it has reviewed nearly 40 percent of the transactions and already paid out $145 million to dealers. Obama officials said there are no plans to seek additional funding.
Applications for rebates will not be accepted after the Monday deadline, administration officials said. Dealers will be able to resubmit rejected applications after the deadline.
The Transportation Department cautioned dealers about making sales this weekend, advising them to make sales only when the buyer's paperwork is clearly in order and can be submitted immediately for repayment.
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