Dealers riding clunkers to the bank

The federal promotion - which offers buyers an instant discount of up to $4,500 when a qualifying vehicle is traded in for a new, fuel-efficient model - was rolled out over the weekend, and by yesterday dealers were reporting a jump in sales. Buyers have an additional incentive, too - avoiding the 25 percent increase in the state sales tax that takes effect Saturday.

While there have been complaints that the program is too complicated and won’t ultimately cure automakers’ ills, for now area dealers are just happy to see customers flocking to their showrooms.

“It’s the best week in several years for people in the automotive industry,’’ said Dan Quirk, president of Quirk Auto Dealerships. Quirk said the prospect of shaving thousands of dollars off the price of a car is driving up activity at his 10 showrooms.

Quirk said he usually sells about 1,500 cars a month, but expects to do significantly better in July. “We’ve probably sold 350 just this weekend, 120 through cash for clunkers,’’ he said.

Kevin Haggerty, 60, of Pembroke was shopping at Quirk Chevrolet in Braintree on Monday, hoping to trade in his 1999 Ford F-150, which he estimates is worth around $1,600, as a clunker. The Chevrolet Colorado he was eyeing had already been sold, but Haggerty expects to eventually buy a new car under the voucher program.

“I’m 90 percent sure that I’m going to make a move, unless something is too pricey,’’ he said.

Juan Banos, lead sales manager at Expressway Toyota in Dorchester, said his dealership closed about 30 cash for clunkers deals over the weekend alone. Banos said that even if the program increases monthly sales modestly, he’ll consider it a success.

“An extra 10 to 30 deals, we make at least an average of $1,000 per deal, that’s $30,000 for the dealership just in one weekend,’’ he said. “That could either make it or break it, as far as quotas go.’’

Gregg McCutcheon of Brockton said he was motivated to shop by the promise of cash for clunkers, formally the Car Allowance Rebate System, or CARS. The $1 billion program, which will run through Nov. 1 - or as long as the funds last - allows $3,500 to $4,500 trade-ins on cars that get less than 18 miles per gallon and are less than 25 years old. The money can be applied only toward new cars, and there are other restrictions.

“Cash for clunkers is what got us out here,’’ said McCutcheon, 57, after he bought a car from Mansfield Jeep-Chrysler. But McCutcheon ended up with a 2007 Chrysler Town & Country van instead of a current model.

“I’m 6-foot-6,’’ he said. “The dashboards on the new ones seemed to come out a little bit further, so I picked up a used one.’’

Not buying a new car meant McCutcheon wasn’t eligible for the CARS program, however.

Despite the upbeat moods in showrooms, some dealers said the paperwork associated with the federal program has been overwhelming. Reidar Davies, general sales manager of Prime Honda in West Roxbury, said his dealership has already written more than 40 cash for clunkers deals, but it has required a lot of extra effort.

“The paperwork is extremely, extremely rigorous and demanding,’’ he said. “It requires a ton of data entry.’’

And submitting the deals for government approval online has been painfully slow, Davies said.

Melissa Steffy, general manager at Herb Chambers BMW and Mini in Boston, said sales made with customers over the weekend are just now getting processed online.

“It’s a matrix to put these deals together,’’ Steffy said.

Even signing up to participate in the program was a headache for some dealers. Karen Aldana, a spokeswoman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said more than 20,000 of the nation’s 25,000 auto dealers have enrolled in the program. But the demand was so high that some dealers could not get onto the agency’s website, she said.

Some local auto industry officials are trying to put the promotion in perspective. With Chrysler merging with Fiat to survive, and General Motors emerging from bankruptcy propped up by $50 billion in taxpayer funds, no one is saying automakers’ troubles are history.

“It’s a $1 billion program and the money will go fast,’’ Quirk said of cash for clunkers. The funding translates to about 225,000 vehicles - just one week of sales across the country.

Sean Sposito can be reached at ssposito@globe.com.