It sounds like such a good deal.

Devise a program that takes gas-guzzling older cars and trucks off the road while simultaneously stimulating sales of new cars. Give federally supported inflated credits for trade-ins. Spend $1 billion, or $3 billion, and Greater Detroit will live again.

The only problem is, say independent used car dealers, the program is eliminating the supply of moderately priced vehicles – transportation cars, go-to-work cars, survival cars.

Clunkers maybe, but those clunkers have long supported a niche among dealers and a niche among buyers.

Fewer cars means higher prices. Fewer cars means tougher times. The unintended consequence of the “Cash for Clunkers” program is taking the used-car business into waters perhaps as choppy as those faced by new car dealers at the height, or the depth, of the latest recession.

“It’s harder to find the cars we’re looking for – under $10,000,” said Gary Johnson Jr., whose family owns GT Auto Sales on South Tacoma Way. “It’s harder to replace them. They’re not getting traded in to the new car dealerships. We’re not getting the trade-ins, and we’re not getting them at auctions.”

Johnson attended a wholesale auction earlier this week.

“There were half the cars there used to be,” he said. “If there’s less cars, the price goes up. We’re paying more. It’s just harder to replace a vehicle. You have to pay more, and you have to charge the customer more. You have to spend more time looking for the cars.”

Johnson’s dealership typically has 60-70 vehicles for sale. “That’s about what we’ve always had,” he said. “But we have to spend more time finding them. We also go to Craig’s List.”

In the past few months, he said, sales have increased even as the prices have risen and the profit margins tightened. Two months ago, he said, the dealership was selling perhaps 20 vehicles each month. Now, that volume has risen by at least half again. By Thursday of this week, sales staff had closed 18 deals for the month, Johnson said.

“It’s definitely cutting into our ability to find cars, and it brings the price up,” said Gary Johnson Sr. “You go to the auction, the prices are ridiculous.”

Those high prices do not necessarily translate into higher profits for GT Auto Sales, and those high prices are proving difficult for some of the Johnsons’ customers.

“They say ‘I’ve got $500, I’ve got a grand.’ Good luck finding something like that any more,” said Gary Sr. “They’re the people getting hurt the most – kids just graduating from school, families that can’t afford payments who just need a good reliable car. There aren’t those out there.”

Bill Heald owns Maple Leaf Motors, also located along “Auto Row” on South Tacoma Way.

The clunkers program, he said this week, “is drawing away too many good cars. It’s really a shame. It almost makes you want to cry. They’re just destroying the cars.”

He mentions one such car that has lately been taken from the market and killed. It’s a 1998 Oldsmobile Bravado.

“It was as clean as a 2008, a beautiful car,” he said. “It’s just being destroyed. Because of the market value, and the trade-in bonus, the thing gets destroyed, and people who could have been using it for another four or five years of service …”

His voice trails away as if he were mourning of the sudden absence of a family member.

But those are the rules. When a new-car dealer takes in a vehicle under the Car Allowance Rebate System, the vehicle is immediately immobilized, never to run again.

Which is not bad news for Portland-based Schnitzer Steel, which operates a large crush-and-cut operation at the Port of Tacoma.

According to a recent company press release, Schnitzer and its subsidiaries GreenLeaf Auto Recyclers and Pick-N-Pull Auto Dismantlers have “gained a significant response from new car dealers receiving trade-ins of ‘clunker’ vehicles.”

A company spokesman did not release information concerning the breadth of the “significant response” or how beneficial the program has been for Schnitzer, but a company official did say in the release, without elaborating, that the program “is good for the consumer.”

Some consumers, perhaps. But not for consumers who are looking for a good used car.

“It’s becoming a difficult situation to supply vehicles,” said Kellie Shore, branch manager for Auto Solution in Bellevue.

Shore’s firm is a broker for new and used cars, and the service is primarily aimed at members of credit unions.

“We should have been prepared to have more inventory,” she said this week. “Dealers have to drive their prices up. For people who don’t have a clunker to trade, we’re telling them to definitely wait. Pricing will go back down. Now, dealers are going above sticker (price). They call it ‘second sticker.’ ”

J.D. Wilson, chief operating officer of the Texas-based National Independent Automobile Dealers Association, said this week that he is not ready, yet, to claim even a minor Armageddon for the used-car business.

“I think it’s premature,” he said. “Is there that potential? There is. Demand for cars has climbed because inventory has slipped. Let’s just wait for the second wave. We’re not ready to say that (the program) has had a major impact. The situation is more fluid than you might perceive.”

“It’s not just a Tacoma problem, it’s an America problem,” said Heald, of Maple Leaf Motors.

He is a former member of the national dealers’ association board, and is currently chairman of the Washington State Independent Auto Dealers.

“As the supply gets worse, it’s going to be tough for people to find a (used) car at a good price,” he said.

“It’s going to take so many people out of the market. It’s going to be a real supply-and-demand problem.”

Which can benefit people who wish simply to let go of their vehicles for cash, clunkers or not.

Said Gary Johnson Jr., “It’s a good time for people who are selling their cars.”

C.R. Roberts: 253-597-8535

c.r.roberts@thenewstribune.com

By the Numbers

Independent used car dealers in 2008

32.1 percent: Market share of used cars sold

11.7 million: Number of used cars sold

1,358,931: Number of Ford F Series trucks, the top-selling vehicle, sold by independent and franchise dealers

55.9: Percentage transactions for used vehicles paid in cash

$7,893: Average price of vehicles sold

4,129: Drop in number of dealers in business nationwide 2007-2008

7: The age at which the greatest number of used vehicles were sold