I also suspect many purchasers of "used" Volts will attempt to claim the $7500 tax credit for themselves, thus bringing the total tax subsidy on such transactions to $15,000 if not disallowed by the IRS. The intent (even if misguided) of the $7500 tax credit offered on the Chevy Volt is to encourage consumers to buy "green" vehicles, not to offer an opportunity for dealerships to game the system and maximize profits at the expense of the taxpayers. This practice is one of the more egregious abuses to date purloined upon taxpayers as a result of the GM bailout. When I asked if I was eligible for the $7500 tax credit, I was told that I probably wasn't since the dealership was applying for the subsidy.
This also raises the question of why GM or Chevy dealerships would be selling Volts to other manufacturers' dealerships when they claim that there are not enough of the cars to meet retail demand.Ī Chevy dealer in Chicago was more upfront with the info given on a "used" Chevy Volt with only 10 miles on it. I later called the same dealership back posing as a potential customer and confirmed that a "used" Volt with only 30 miles on it was available. I was then told by a sales manager that the Volts offered at that dealership were rental cars with higher mileage on them. After I identified myself as being an associate with the National Legal and Policy Center, I was placed on hold. A Kia dealership in California that I contacted seemed to suspect that they were doing something a bit underhanded when I called them to inquire about a "used" Volt for sale with only 30 miles on it. While most of the dealerships offering "used" Chevy Volts for sale are Chevy dealers, I also found other manufacturers selling Volts with low mileage as "used" cars. In addition to qualifying dealerships for a $7,500 tax subsidy, the titling process also allows GM to record Volt sales even if the cars are sitting on dealership lots. It is also very rare for dealerships to part with any model that has higher demand than supply, as GM claims is the case with the Volt. What is very unusual is for the receiving dealership to be able to maximize profits at the expense of taxpayers by claiming tax credits of $7,500. "Dealer trades" are done all the time in the industry. The practice of dealerships purchasing from one another is not uncommon. The cars are then offered to retail customers as "used" vehicles. The process of titling the Volts technically makes the dealerships the first owners of the vehicles, which gives them the ability to claim the subsidies. Many Volts with practically no miles on them are being sold as "used" vehicles, enabling the dealerships to benefit from the $7,500 credit supplied by the American taxpayers on each car. But I discovered something far more disturbing during my search. A web search on vehicle locator sites such as Autotrader and exhibit sufficient supply of the Volt, one dealership within 70 miles of my location had six new Volts available for sale.Įven Ebay lists vehicles, many had no bids and one listing in Texas hadn't even met reserve with only one day of bidding time remaining. It was not hard to discover that this is not the case as retail sales remain dismal. I recently set out to determine how honest General Motors is being when it claims that demand for the Chevy Volt is exceeding supply. According to a report GM dealers are selling their Volts to each other in order to claim the $7,500 tax credit for themselves and later on proceed with selling the same car to the end buyer as "used" who will no longer be able to apply for the credit because it was already used for the vehicle.Īre GM Dealerships Gaming Chevy Volt Tax Credit? Well folks yesterday GM dealer network hit a new low.
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