Last-minute cash for clunkers customers may want to act sooner rather than later given the red tape and computer issues that have delayed government payments to dealers.

“As long as the computer line is open and accepting applications we will be selling cars,” said Bob Wheat, general manager of Village Ford in Dearborn. “But I have to have 100% of the paperwork completed by 8 p.m. Monday.”

While the $3 billion allocated to the program is almost gone, the Transportation Department said Thursday it had only processed 37% of the applications. Some dealers have stopped taking applications because they are owed more than $500,000 in vouchers under the program. Most major automakers have offered interest-free financing or other indirect support to dealers that are pinched for cash.

Meanwhile, some consumers are waiting for delivery of cars they committed to buy weeks ago.

“They submitted the paperwork for my purchase on July 29 and I still don’t have my car,” said Pam Neamonitis, who signed a purchase agreement with Rinke Buick-Pontiac-GMC to turn in her 1998 GMC Savana van for a new Pontiac Vibe. A call to Rinke Buick-Pontiac-GMC was not returned.

Despite bureaucratic glitches, the program, which launched July 24, has induced hundreds of thousands of consumers to buy new vehicles that are more fuel efficient than those they turned in. All the clunkers have been crushed and recycled to the maximum extent they can be.