With gas prices heading towards the $4.00 a gallon threshold in most of the nation (California and Hawaii, the rest of us feel your pain) this offer of three years of $2.99 a gallon gas sounds too good to be true. There might be a reason for that.
I got a reason the writeup didn't come up with: When Chrysler goes bankrupt this agreement will be totally noncollectable in bankruptcy court. Good luck trying to get your $1.37 a gallon credit when the company is being parceled off for 7 cents on the dollar.
My Opinion in 2 parts:
- Anyone who buys a gas guzzling piece of shit from an American car company deserves whatever easily foreseen misfortune follows from that decision.
- Any American car company that hasn't spent the last 5-10 (maybe even 30) years reading the writing on the wall concerning gas price trends and preparing for the consequent shift in consumer demand deserves whatever easily foreseen misfortune follows from that decision.
So If Chrysler is stuck with a bunch of garbage that they have to resort to stupid tricks to unload on some suckers - fine - let them see how many suckers take the bait. How long can any of these flat footed, unimaginative, corporate dinosaurs get away with doing that?
If these assholes managed to screw themselves into the ground AGAIN after having 30 years to wise up, recover, and stop being idiots from the last time they shit the bed and came crying to the US taxpayers for a bailout they absolutely deserve to crash and burn this time.
Fuck 'em.
The same goes for the banks, airlines, and the defense industry when our everyday economic reality makes it impossible to continue having our corrupt politicians spend trillions of OUR children's money in the whorehouse of private contractors and corporate welfare. Wall Street will be full of silk suited crybabies wailing about how "nobody could have foreseen [insert latest shitty excuse/obfuscatory mewling for their irresponsible corrupt bullshit] and how the government has to do something" [cool the rich fuck-ups down with cash fire hose & cut the funding for homeless shelters/food banks/education/science].
If I had to buy a vehicle I would strongly consider buying a used one as part of a temporary plan of save money + 'wait & see' how the manufacturing establishment will finally get around to delivering a product that actually satisfies customer demand. If a few manufacturers wind up as roadkill = fine, I would have avoided buying a soon to be defunct brand. If someone emerges with something better than a prius in the next couple of years = good for me, I get to spend my money on something worth it instead of some sucker-bait gas guzzler.
"...when theft and high crime becomes obscenely obvious to even the blindest beer sucking idiot, it is always the Republicans who are in office." -- Joe Bageant
Why not just the price of the car? I'm not sure that Chrysler is trying 'to pull a fast one' -- its not as if they can roll out new higher mpg vehicles on a dime (usually takes 3 years), but I question this marketing approach. It seems entirely too laden with caveats/clauses.
Were I inclined to buy a Chrysler vehicle - as a consumer I'd want the cheapest price possible.
This reminds me of course of why I wouldn't buy a Chrysler -- mpg is not the key vehicle factor for me and shouldn't be for most vehicle buyers (unless you are a long haul trucker), quality and reliability are far more important to total cost of ownership.
My favorite car manufacturer hands down is Honda which makes the Acura brand of vehicles. Their vehicles rarely cause their owners problems and such they don't create massive repair bills even when the car is no longer under warranty.
Memory is a strange bell, jubilee and knell.
California and Hawaii, the rest of us feel your pain
I can't speak about Hawaii, but can someone explain to me why gas is so damn expensive in California? I live less than 20 miles from a gigantic oil refinery, and yet my gasoline is among the most expensive in the country... Something tells me it's a little more than just supply and demand.
sierra tango foxtrot uniform
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Re: Price...
Fri May 09, 2008 at 02:14:18 PM EST
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The State of California operates its own reformulated gasoline program with more stringent requirements than Federally-mandated clean gasolines. In addition to the higher cost of cleaner fuel, there is a combined State and local sales and use tax of 7.25 percent on top of an 18.4 cent-per-gallon Federal excise tax and an 18.0 cent-per-gallon State excise tax. Refinery margins have also been higher due in large part to price volatility in the region.
California prices are more variable than others because there are relatively few supply sources of its unique blend of gasoline outside the State. California refineries need to be running near their fullest capabilities in order to meet the State's fuel demands. If more than one of its refineries experiences operating difficulties at the same time, California's gasoline supply may become very tight and the prices soar. Supplies could be obtained from some Gulf Coast and foreign refineries; however, California's substantial distance from those refineries is such that any unusual increase in demand or reduction in supply results in a large price response in the market before relief supplies can be delivered. The farther away the necessary relief supplies are, the higher and longer the price spike will be.
California was one of the first States to ban the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) after it was detected in ground water. Ethanol, a non-petroleum product usually made from corn, is being used in place of MTBE. Gasoline without MTBE is more expensive to produce and requires refineries to change the way they produce and distribute gasoline. Some supply dislocations and price surges occurred in the summer of 2003 as the State moved away from MTBE. Similar problems have also occurred in past fuel transitions.
It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.
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Re: Price...
Sat May 10, 2008 at 09:01:19 PM EST
4.00 (interesting)
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Yeah, must be all the MTBE they put in the gas in all the rest of the country in 2003, right, right.
In addition to high taxes and low volatility limits which you also have in some other areas of the country, you also have high market concentration and refining capacity on the West Coast which isn't close to consumption. Gasoline wholesale price differentials are basically transportation cost from Louisiana or Houston. The Midwest and East Coast have cheap shipping by ocean ship or river barge. To get gas to California you have to ship it over mountains by train, which is expensive and consumes a lot of fuel.
