Allow the obituary on cash for clunkers to be delivered with five words from the Toyota dealer in Pittsburgh:

"It's just been wonderfully crazy."

Amen.

Goodbye, cash for clunkers. We hardly knew ya.

Intended to last until November, it never got out of August.

Intended to spur demand in an industry mired in quicksand, it created a buying frenzy.

Intended to be simple, it was maddeningly flawed, disorganized and chaotic.

But perhaps we shouldn't forget this in the eulogy: A simple idea again proves to be simply irresistible.

Four summers ago, employee pricing kept America buying. Four autumns before that, "Keep America Rolling" kept an industry afloat.

But clunkers was even more complex, more amplified, more necessary and perhaps more poignant. It held a mirror up to the industry, and the image of those involved was an interesting one.

-- Buyers: Clunkers proved that, even in miserable times, Americans are eager to buy, especially if they think they have a deal -- and even if they don't get the best deal possible. Trade in a car worth $2,000 and get $3,500 in a voucher? Sold!

-- Automakers: Desperate for good news but ill-prepared for the buzz, car companies were caught flat-footed on inventory.

-- The government: The execution was flawed. The communication was clunky. And the result was maddening for dealers.

-- Dealers: Most won, many felt lost, but hardly anyone knows where the money is. If they get paid for all of the transactions, this will make August look like the post-9/11 or employee pricing days -- which brings us to a conclusion ...

The industry has spent this year reducing cost, cutting capacity and becoming better aligned to make real money.

But sustainability and a return to the norm (anything above 10 million units a year) has to be built on real consumption, not a return to artificial sweeteners.

Was cash for clunkers dynamic? Yes. Was it fascinating, deeply flawed and very dysfunctional? Yes, yup and you bet.

It proved that a simple idea can get Americans into the showroom.

We felt good for a while.

But will we be better off in the end?