Chrysler also announced an offer that caps the price of gasoline at $2.99 a gallon for three years for people who buy or lease new vehicles from Wednesday through June 2. The offer is based on 12,000 miles of driving per year at the vehicle's rated fuel economy.

Customers will get a card for buying gas that is linked to their own charge account, Chrysler said. The customer will be billed $2.99 a gallon, and Chrysler will pay the rest.

Actual savings depend on what happens to gas prices over the next three years, but based on the $3.61 a gallon average price reported Monday by AAA, someone buying a 2008 Chrysler PT Cruiser, which gets an estimated 21 miles per gallon in city driving, would save $355 a year.

And the bigger car you buy, the better deal this is? It's a consumption based rebate?

Yaaaaa hoooooo!

I have to admit I don't get it. How can this be in Chrysler's interests? Is it just a way to move more inventory in the short term since they can't improve their efficiency now? More volume but lower profit? It would encourage Chrysler to make more efficient cars, I guess, which is in all our interests. Or do they just raise the price of the vehicle?

Seriously, how can they get this to work?