Let's Refuel America - Chrysler Incentive Program

When I first read about this on The_Confounding_Variable's (www.xanga.com/The_Confounding_Variable) xanga, I thought that it was super amazing. It really makes me think about buying one of them cars since gas is so expensive nowadays.

But then again I quickly slap myself silly and go back to the Japanese brand ones. I started to question this program: "What if their limit of gas per month is a ridiculously low amount of gallons?" was my first thought. 

I went to their website and they allocate enough to cover for 1,000 miles ran every month. I do at least 1,200 miles. Thinking that any help is better than no help at all, this program would definetly help me out, but again, their vehicles are not as mpg efficient as the Japanese ones, which makes sense when you realize that their calculation also take into consideration the MPG of each car. My car was supposed to get 30 mpg on the highway but no matter how I drive it, it never comes to 30 - I can only imagine what the discrepancy is for Chrysler vehicles.

Besides people who would buy a Jeep would probably go for the bigger ones since there's this gas incentive: yes they would save some money, but on the other hand, with the gas prices this high and the limitation of 1,000 miles a month calculated by the MPG, they might find themselves covered with a short blanket.

Buying a fuel efficient car might still be a better idea in their case - Nissan Altima Hybrid and the Saturn VUE Hybrid carries a federal tax incentive of over $1,000 bucks (I think the Altima actually goes for around $1,200) - which on the bottom line might even be cheaper than having this program offered by Chrysler.

These hybrids have now warranties out of their wazoo. Their most expensive part, the battery, has a factory warranty of 8 years I believe, or something big like that, so no longer people need to worry about the costly battery replacement (at least in 5 or 6 years, but again, most people will only keep their cars for so long).

I think this is a legitimate effort by Chrysler to do something about these gas prices, that is without question. But I'm afraid that some people will take this program and use it to more than it was designed for and will probably yield some very angry, uninformed, car owners.

*I'll post about Cirque du Soleil later today!!!!*