Chrysler (NYSE: DCX) announced this week that it will cover gasoline costs above $2.99 a gallon for customers who buy or lease a new vehicle from the company. The offer is limited to the first three years customers use their cars and covers up to 12,000 miles per year.
According the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), Chrysler is trying to fool consumers into overlooking its vehicles’ poor fuel economy and environmental performance. The savings the Chrysler program offers don’t measure up to the savings one would get from purchasing a fuel-efficient vehicle, the organization says.
"Chrysler is trying to pull a fast one on potential car buyers," David Friedman, research director for UCS’s Clean Vehicles Program, said. "Rather than sticking customers with gas guzzlers, Chrysler should focus on delivering more miles per gallon. That would not only save their customers money at the pump, it would help cut America’s oil addiction and reduce global warming pollution at the same time.
At the current price of $3.61 a gallon, the buyer of an average Chrysler vehicle would save $400 a year under Chrysler’s deal, according to UCS’s numbers. A mere 3-miles-per-gallon-boost would yield the same savings over the 15,000 miles per year typically driven in the first three years of ownership.
Over the lifetime of a vehicle, such a fuel economy increase would save drivers more than $3,000, according to UCS.
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