Actually, that’s misleading. “Everyone shopping for a new car or truck qualifies for an incentive of up to $4,500 — even if they don’t have a vehicle that qualifies under the U.S. Government’s program,” says ChryCo Sales VP Steven Beahm in a press release. “This incentive is great in that it’s easy to understand and available to everyone.” Which means that it’s actually nothing like the government’s CARS program, which is difficult to understand and not available to everyone. But, if you do have a qualifying clunker, you get the Chrysler incentive on top of $4,500 bucks from the feds for a total of $9,000 off the qualifying ChryCo product of your choice. But piggybacking on a government program doesn’t exactly improve Chrysler’s welfare queen image. Especially when the program it’s riding is so convoluted, over-hyped and under-delivering. And, like most of the Pentastar’s gimmicks, this incentive is also accompanied by a zero percent interest for 72 months offer. Which may well be a better deal than the buzzword-based cash incentive. But would it be summer without a Chrysler sales gimmick?
Which cars are eligible? You could get a real cheap ride between the two programs for your kid going off to college.
With help from the taxpayers, who cares if they sell a vehicle for enough to cover their costs? What a way to do business!
Only $9,000 off a Chrysler product- with a bad quality reputation? – with a questionable warranty? – with about zero resale value?
Hmmmm Get back to me later, will you.
I have started to muse about the idea of a New Old Stock Crossfire convertible though….
One of those for $20K might be worth considering.
Hmmm… does a base PT Cruiser qualify in 5-speed trim?
If you compare the way those were outifitted in 2004 vs. 2009, you would see a substantial decline in the quality of the materials. Just absolutely amazing…
The $4500 isn’t much more than they’ve been putting on the hood already, but the 0%/72 months is very attractive (if you qualify).
Cerberus did some epic channel stuffing at the beginning of the year, and with sales down 40% plus, they haven’t moved that many. But their plants shut down when they went into bankruptcy and most are still idle.
One has to ask, if they still need to clear inventory with such measures, just how many cars did they build in the first quarter? When will they start building their 2010 models? Is Fiat now singing “What Kind of Fool Am I”?
Lorenzo is on the money.
They are already putting $3750 on the hood of the PT and 4-5K on the vans. Not much of a difference, but who knows what you can negotiate with all of the dealer closings to go with these offers.
The problem with this is that there are absolutely zero Chrysler cars that both qualify for CARS and are worth the money (even with $9k off).
And yet, still nobody wants my fuel efficient old car.
This entire program is just irritating to me. Because I was responsible the first time around with my car purchase (’98 Breeze, rated at 20/30), I get jack shit for it now. While everybody else who bought a big SUV in that craze during the 90’s can get government money for it. Is something wrong with this picture?
Too bad, because I’m interested in an ’09 5-speed Patriot, too.
CommanderFish-Agreed. ’92 Miata, ’95 Oddy.
But it has been awhile (forever?) since our gov’t did anything to encourage the responsible and productive members of our nation.
Bunter
There’s a saying in the life insurance biz, “Life insurance isn’t bought, it’s sold.” I think that’s true at Chrysler.
Bunter1: “… it has been awhile (forever?) since our gov’t did anything to encourage the responsible and productive members of our nation.”
Well, sure, who else can the Government get money from to subsidize everybody else?
Have you seen the base price for a base PT cruiser?
18k for a 5-speed according to carsdirect.com . If that’s the case, then we’ll need five figure rebates for even a remote sense of value.
I was browsing the local newspaper ads today and noticed that one Chrysler dealer is only advertising used cars while another has a brand new 2007 (yes, 2007) 300 SRT8 still in stock with a whole 10k off the sticker price.