Low Impact Living: Oh Please — Chrysler Offering $2.99 Gas for 3 Years

Editor’s note: There’s no doubt: Americans are feeling the pinch at the gas pump (even if we’re still paying less than residents of most other developed nations). Our friends at Low Impact Living, though, think Chrysler’s attempt to lure car buyers with the promise of gas at $2.99/gallon is, well, lame. This post was originally published on Friday, May 23rd, 2008.

Chrysler has recently launched its “Let’s Refuel America” campaign in which it claims to offer Americans protection from rising gas prices. Anyone buying a Chrysler in the month of May will get the deal. Here’s how it works: each qualifying buyer will get a ‘gas card’ that has been linked to their own credit card, but when they gas-up they will only pay $2.99 a gallon with Chrysler charged the difference. You can read more about it here.

This is a really lame-brained scheme. It reminds me of the McCain-Clinton proposal to cut federal gas taxes during the summer– it’s the wrong solution for our economic woes. Yes, we’re all hurting from gas prices and we need relief (what are the oil companies offering consumers in terms of help, hmmmm? anyone? hello?). But what Chrysler is offering is an incentive for consumers to ignore gas prices and drive, drive, drive– producing more green house gases and increasing global warming.

• » See also: CARB Unveils DriveClean, a New Web Tool to Help Consumers Pick Green Cars
• » Get Gas 2.0 by RSS or sign up by email.

Why doesn’t Chrysler just give buyers a rebate? It’s hard to estimate the potential cost to Chrysler of their offer over the three year period, but it could be huge. Let’s say that gas stays at $4 per gallon for the rest of this year and then goes to $4.25/gallon in 2009 (probably too conservative), and then to $4.50/gallon in 2010. The average American drives 12,000 miles per year and gets 25 MPG… so that’s over $1800 that Chrysler would have to pay to cover the gas price differential. How about just offering buyers a $1000 rebate? That would 1) help Americans NOW; 2) save Chrysler money over time and 3) reduce the incentive to burn fuel and pollute our skies.

We understand Chrysler is desperate to sell cars — but they’d probably be doing a whole lot better if they’d developed more fuel-efficient cars years ago. Hey, it’s Friday afternoon so I think I’ll jump in my Prius and get 43 MPG on the way home….

Read more about (real) Fuel Efficiency:

• Can Improved Spark Plugs Boost Both Fuel Economy and Performance?
• Goodbye Trucks and SUVs; Hello Gas Saving… Geo Metro?
• How to Get 70 MPG Out of a Honda Civic

Image source: Chrysler News

Tweet This Post