“The next least-expensive diesel that I saw was almost $6,000 for a car that I think is maybe the same year as the one I’m looking at here, had less miles, but it rattled, shook and shimmied, and I could tell it hadn’t been maintained,” Lennington said.

Lennington has spent two months looking for a second car and until today she says hasn’t had much luck. There’s a shortage of cars on the market priced at less than $5,000. Lennington guesses the Cash for Clunkers program is to blame. Nearly 700,000 cars were destroyed to try to jump start the production of new ones.

“I feel sorry for anyone looking for anything $2,500 or under because now you’re looking at a real heap of poo because most of those got turned in,” Lennington said.

Many of the used cars at dealerships in Central Ohio come from the Groveport Auto Auction. Every Wednesday hundreds of dealership owners and salesmen come in search of cars for their inventory. Keith Whann is the CEO of the auction. He says two years ago the auction showed more than 3,000 cars a week, but lately that number is down to 2,000. Whann confirms the Cash for Clunkers program is one reason supply’s down, but it also has a lot to do with the production and sale of new cars.

“When you think about the fact that there are a number of millions of less transactions taking place on the new car side and traditionally roughly 60 percent of those generate a trade-in, there’s a vast number of used cars that aren’t being traded-in to dealers. And when you combine almost seven-hundred thousand cars leaving the road, there’s a real shortage of used cars,” Whann said.

College Car Company manager Mike Hinterschied watched as Lennington negotiated the sale of the Volkswagen. He says the demand for affordable cars hasn’t changed, but the supply has forced prices up. The average sale price for cars at his dealership has increased from five to $6,000 to nine to $10,000- and the higher price may not mean a better car.

“I can perceive a difference in the quality between what I can sell for under $6,000, and what I used to sell for six. I think it’s less for your dollar right now.”

Hinterschied says he expects it will be some time before the automotive industry is thriving again. This, for consumers, means fewer options and higher prices. Lennington knows. She did buy the Jetta and says it was a good deal in a tough market.

“It’s manual windows, no sunroof, it’s a stick-shift, you know, but it has air conditioning, it has heat, and it has a stereo I’m happy,” she said.

About 500 cars, trucks and SUVs in the “Cash For Clunkers” program ended up here, at Buckeye Auto Parts on Columbus’ west side. Vice President of the company, Scott Fine, says it requires almost three hours to take a vehicle apart.

“We dismantle the vehicle, drain the fluids and dispose of the engines and then we flatten the cars when we’re done,” he says.

Spare parts of the vehicles like doors, tires, front or rear axles are sold. Fine pointed to a stack of about 300 cars ready for crushing.

Business has been strong since “Cash For Clunkers” began in late July. The federal program offered up to $4,500 to car buyers who traded in gas guzzlers. Fine has hired three more employees. Under the program, the cars are required to be crushed or shredded within six months of the date when the vehicle is transferred from the dealership. Once the car is crushed, the metal is sold for scrap.

Fine says he could use more time to finish the job and he’s happy the Automotive Recycling Association is pushing congress to get that.

” The six months is coming to an end and that’s why our automotive recycling association is trying to get us more time so that we can still process these vehicles,” says Fine.

On the east side at Wirthman Brothers Auto and Truck Parts, Bill Wirthman, says his business has jumped but he wouldn’t say by how much.

” There’s kind of been an influx of vehicles faster than what we normally take in and its kind of prevented us from taking in other vehicles other than that, but it’s a good program,” he says. “Its created a lot of work for us and hopefully it’ll create a lot of business in the future.”

Wirthman is optimistic he can meet the disposal deadline even though he is still picking up cars from dealers. The six month deadline to crush the vehicles never took into account the additional vehicles sold when congress expanded the program. The original $1 billion price tag tripled because of buyer demand.

“I do believe that going into the spring months, those are the people that would have been in the market then that have decided to trade now,” says Gadd.

Germain Ford salesman Jason Harris says there was also a lull in sales between July 1st – when the program was announced – and July 24th – when the program details were released and sales could begin.

“People were waiting – so these were people I would call up and see if they were ready. They wanted to hold off and see what was going to happen with the Clunkers. So it was very slow before the Clunker program, so we slowed down quite a bit and lost quite a bit of business that way,” says Harris.

Harris says the depletion of their inventory – the lot has gone from holding an average of 300 cars down to 110 – has hurt their ability to provide choices for customers.

Gadd says out of their 77 Clunker deals. The dealership has yet to receive a single government check. He says, it’s not a problem right now.

“But it will be, obviously, in the event that they don’t pay us,” says Gadd.