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Automakers Pay for Gas in Popular Promos

Chrysler is extending its offer of $2.99/gallon gas through July 7 due to the success of the campaign, and other automakers have followed suit.

The automaker’s Let’s Refuel America campaign, which offers consumers $2.99 per gallon gas for up to three years with the purchase of select models, has boosted showroom traffic by 10 percent to 20 percent in some regions, and website activity has soared 25 percent, writes Brandweek. (Just two years ago, GM offered a $1.99-a-gallon fuel discount for buyers of selected vehicles.)

The campaign was expected to end June 2, but will be extended to July 7.

Suzuki is running a similar campaign, and has also seen improvements. It’s “Free Gas for the Summer” offers buyers zero percent interest and free gas for three months - instead of cash rebates - on vehicles purchased between May 1 and June 30. Daily sales were up about 9 percent during the first week of the promo, and 25 percent of buyers are taking the financing and free gas offer.

Kia has a different take on helping consumers deal with soaring gas prices, with its television ads focusing on the gas savings of Kia models.

Gas mileage was cited as the number-one influencer of vehicle purchases by 34 percent of auto buyers, according to a May 2007 poll by J.D. Power & Associates. That number is expected to jump in this year’s poll.

The promos are coming at a time when automakers are reportedly shifting their advertising spend away from TV to digital advertising. However, the moves may not be going far enough, according to a recent study by BIGresearch.

For example, only 17.5 percent of General Motors customers say TV influences their auto purchase, while GM spent 40 percent of its $3 Billion+ ad budget on TV ads in 2006 (proportions similar to other leading automakers’), according to the BIGresearch analysis.