One way to view the images at a larger size is to use FireFox, and download the "Image Zoom" add on. Then you can right-click on any image and choose the amount of zoom you want. Add-ons are installed using the menu tools|add-ons and selecting "get extensions". The site linked to in my URL (just click on my name) includes a "download firefox" button.

Depending on which model you buy, you'll get up to 2400 gallons over the next three years at $2.99 per gallon. That's a cost of $7176 to you. In my area of LA, gas is currently around $4.59 per gallon, so the real cost of that 2400 gallons is going to be something like $11016. Which means Chrysler will be paying out $3840 over the next three years to everyone they can sucker into buying a Dodge Durango, Nitro, Ram pickup truck, etc. Not to mention those eye-popping "Let's Refuel America Bonus Cash Program" rebates: $4500 for a Dodge Ram 2500/3500.

The whole thing just reeks of desperation...

The Chrysler offer is only good for 12,000 miles per year. After that, you're on your own.

I saw somewhere that taking the rebate (that you give up by accepting the gas offer) is actually the better deal.

That is, if you really want a Chrysler.

Do the math: this only costs Chrysler about $700-800. And the car they deliver is not very likely to LAST three years!

I only saw it once, and for such a Blockbuster(TM) deal like this, you'd think they'd have put more emphasis on it. Something was pecking at the back of my brain about it, but I put it aside (as I try to do with all commercial-related material), and Mr. B. gave it a name. Thank you.

The available cars are listed toward the bottom of http://www.dodge.com/en/refuel/

I rented a car recently from an agency inside a Dodge dealership, and the $2.99 price was posted. Now, if I get a Dodge that gets 20 MPG, and live 50 miles from work, that's 2 1/2 gallons each way, or 5 gallons a day. At 250 days/year, that's 1250 gal.

So,let's say that gas is $4/gal for the first year, and $5/gal for the next two. So, you collect 1 * (4 - 3) * 1250 + 2 * (5 - 3) * 1250 = $6250 from Chrysler. For each car. People who buy new cars don't tend to own them more than three years, anyway.

Your first year, you pay as much for gas as a 4/3 * 20 = 27 MPG car. The second and third years, as a 33 MPG car. The higher prices go, the better your effective mileage gets.

I think Mr. Bolling is right. Chrysler's decided to give up the ghost, but it wants to unload as many cars as it can in the mean time.

Great idea. Lock in 3 buck gas while the oil industry is still in the white house, then if sanity returns, you'll STILL be paying outrageous prces. You'd have to be a mark to buy a chrysler anyway.

It's hard to read them when there are so many words and the resolution is so low.

Big vehicles are selling for 40-45% discounts in some places. Which is more than the difference in fuel over 5 years for what most people drive. So the overall cost of ownership over that period vs. a small car is not so bad. After 5 years it's nearly worthless anyway, or it will be. So its value differential vs a small car is still pretty close.

The people who are hosed are the people who are upside down NOW in a loan in a nearly new big vehicle, assuming you're not self employed and you can't write down the value of a vehicle over 6,000 lbs up to $24,000 which is the law today.

I just saw that silly $2.99/gallon gas promotion just this evening. And lo and behold Master Bolling is all over it, breaking it down. Splendid!

Apologies to Lightning McQueen and the good folks at Pixar, but I couldn't think of a more appropriate way to describe this type of slam-dunk.

Just think: If this kind of head-in-the-sand reaction from U.S. automakers didn't exist, Mr. Bolling might have had to invent it!

...the $2.99 gas promotion is real-- and is almost as ludicrous as the other promos mentioned in the strip.