Ford announces "Drive On Us" free gas program
Meanwhile, Ford is once again following GM's lead by offering a similar incentive program at the center of which is the current high price of gas. FoMoCo has launched a nationwide "Drive on Us" sales incentive program, offering not only zero percent financing but free gas for the rest of the year for new vehicles purchased between today and July 31.With every sale, customers get a pre-paid MasterCard debit card to buy up to $1,000 of gas, E-85 or diesel. (Thirstier trucks and SUVs get $1,100 in fuel credits) Customers can choose to get cash or a deduction from the purchase price of the vehicle.
In addition, some models get a price reduction ("customer cash" in Ford-speak) of an additional $1,000 to $4,000. The $4,000 deduction is reserved for the slow-selling Expedition (along with zero percent financing up to 72 months!), and there are some good deals on trucks, with the F-150 getting a $2,500 price break and the Super Duty knocked down $2,000.
[Source: Ford]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Beth Van Nostrand 9:33AM (6/02/2006)
Oh man why am I so poor? Rats
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Gunnar Heinrich 9:37AM (6/02/2006)
Ford should keep the price the same and put the $4K per truck sold into research that would permit their large SUVs to actually achieve respectable gas mileage.
http://www.automobilesdeluxe.blogspot.com
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Howard Kerr 9:44AM (6/02/2006)
Like the idea, but hate the slogan. It sounds almost like Ford is inviting people to run them down/drive over them.
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Alexander Drummond 11:11AM (6/02/2006)
You guys are becoming pathetic at acknowledging your sources. This is the second time that I've sent you news, that you go on to post two days later without any recognition to me. That's pretty sad.
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Hung2 11:15AM (6/02/2006)
And Damiler/Chrysler's program will be called: "DRIVE YOU CRAZY"!
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Dan 11:18AM (6/02/2006)
#4 - How are you to become an intarweb celebrity now that autoblog snubbed you on their news stories? Could this be a sign of the apocalypse, or just some online foot stomping?
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Alexander Drummond 11:34AM (6/02/2006)
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Wow, Dan, thanks for the immaturity. I just find it irresponsible not to acknowledge those who send in information. Really, I could care less about my name being up there, it's the fact that Weblogs, Inc. is notorious for snubbing people who send in news, as opposed to independent blogs.
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Cameron 11:37AM (6/02/2006)
How about submitting news for the sake of news and aiding the site, rather than for recognition? Is it really all that important?
More on topic, I don't see why everyone's getting their panties in a bunch about these "free gas" deals. All they are is a cash back incentive under the guise of something else. Anydbody with half a brain realizes this.
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Cameron 11:46AM (6/02/2006)
#3 I never really thought about the slogan. Now that you point it out, it's quite humorous.
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Michael Karesh 11:47AM (6/02/2006)
I'd rag on you for thinking that the 0% could be combined with the 1-4k rebate, but Detroit News did the same thing yesterday.
Relevant line from the press release:
"Customer cash of $1,000 - $4,000 is available on several models in lieu of zero percent financing."
To see the benefits of the 0%, use my site. Compare a vehicle with itself, then on the results page make the interest rate on one the market rate and the interest rate on the other 0%. Plug in the $1,000 gas card rebate in the "down payment" slot to include this.
http://www.truedelta.com/prices.php
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Alexander Drummond 11:48AM (6/02/2006)
I was, but I still think acknowledging the people who give you the news as being something important. Anyways, end of discussion, I think pretty much everyone here agrees that recognizing the news submitters is not of much importance, and that I was just complaining for the sake of complaining.
As for the gas deals, they are all RAU (rebates as usual). Thomas Friedman made some excellent points about this in his recent editorial.
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LEROY 11:52AM (6/02/2006)
I would like to know who really gives a damn about rappers. Rap is just one way to perpetuate the sterotype of blacks to whites that hate them anyway. Anyone that refers to women as "hoes" and use the language that rappers constantly use are backward, uninteligible morons that need to disappear from mainline society.
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Andrew 12:25PM (6/02/2006)
When will Ford and GM realize that building vehicles that people want to buy is incentive enough?
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s 1:31PM (6/02/2006)
#13 I agree with you...
But I'm a Honda loyalist and if GM & Ford goes down Honda will surely bring mroe of there Japanese products over here.
To: #5 Chrysler "Drive You Crazy" is hilarious.
I think Chrysler could really get attention if they called it "Free Gas but not from YO ASS!"
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gbh 1:55PM (6/02/2006)
GM and Ford should both rename their programs either:
A: Thelma and Louise
(for those who do not get the reference)
B: "We'll all drive off the cliff together!"
I do not recall which "big3" VP I was talking to about 20 years ago in DET, but long and the short of it was this - "Once they (customers) start suckling on that teat (rebates) it's almost impossible to wean them without a great distraction (excellent product)".
As the non-fanboi crowd keeps saying, all they have to do is build a product that people want. If GM/Ford actually *did that*, they would not need the rebates.
If you are to have a successful company, you cannot offer discounts all the time, on almost every product.
But hey, GM stock is up indicating the incredible value in a business model of losing huge sums on every unit... ROFLMFAO
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JR 1:59PM (6/02/2006)
More on topic, I don't see why everyone's getting their panties in a bunch about these "free gas" deals. All they are is a cash back incentive under the guise of something else. Anydbody with half a brain realizes this.
Posted at 11:37AM on Jun 2nd 2006 by Cameron
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Because its an American vendor giving something back to it's customers and riceballs like peckerlicker (PL) does not like it when we get rebates and TOY ota has him believing that crap smells good if you buy their junk that they claim gets good mileage but Hey driving around in a shoebox should and call it what they want a rebate is just that no matter what GM or Ford call it
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iQuack 2:09PM (6/02/2006)
Oh! This is so clever! I just can't believe Ford could be so innovative. What a great company! So original and a wonderful reason to buy a Ford now.
Oh, oh, oh, I'm so happy I could just.......
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Bob 2:56PM (6/02/2006)
"But I'm a Honda loyalist and if GM & Ford goes down Honda will surely bring mroe of there Japanese products over here."
Uh, no they won't because to many millions of people will be out of work/losing their pensions leading to a recession or even a depression, so no Honda sales either.
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PJ 3:06PM (6/02/2006)
JR, have you ever driven a Toyota? Sat in one? LOOKED at one?
I'd almost be willing to fund your driving around for a day in a Camry V6 and an Impala. A Camry is hardly my kind of car, but Christ... you really think it's because of a massive conspiracy that Toyotas sell so well, don't you? Amazing.
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PJ 3:11PM (6/02/2006)
I propose a new rule... no more posts from JR until he spends an afternoon test-driving a V6 Camry and a Chevy Impala back-to-back. Anyone second?
Camrys are hardly my kind of car, but Christ... you really think it's because of a massive conspiracy
that Toyotas sell so well, don't you?
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