Great deal or desparate plea? Buy a Chrysler and get $3 gas for next 3 years

If you haven't been thinking of buying a Chrysler lately, maybe you should. The Detroit News is reporting that Chrysler LLC is offering customers guaranteed gas prices for the next three years. Our sister blog, the ever-vigilant, AutoBlog, was one of the first to report the news yesterday.

The sales plan is called "Let's Refuel America," and almost every Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep vehicle being sold allows you to also sign up for a gas card that will reduce the price you pay to $2.99 -- for the next three years.

Clearly, it's an interesting deal and possibly a fantastic one, depending how high gas prices go. Currently, The Detroit News reports, someone would save approximately $1,000 per year if you have a 12-mile-per-gallon vehicle. People who are not interested can get a different incentive like a rebate or a cash bonus.

But I don't know what's more depressing -- that Chrysler has to bribe people with cheaper gas to buy its cars... or that $2.99 is now considered a deal at the pump.

Geoff Williams is a business journalist and the author of C.C. Pyle's Amazing Foot Race: The True Story of the 1928 Coast-to-Coast Run Across America (Rodale).