Chrysler Offers Shoppers $50 for a Comparison Test-Drive

Consumers who test-drive a Chrysler Corp. product against any comparable car or truck will get $50 cash, even if they buy the competing vehicle, Chrysler said Monday.

The new offer could be costly to the nation’s No. 3 auto maker, which is seeking to cut $1 billion from its $26-billion annual budget by 1991.

If all of Chrysler’s December car buyers had test-driven another company’s model, Chrysler would have doled out $3.2 million. That figure does not include sales of Chrysler trucks or consumers who test-drove a Chrysler but bought another brand.

“Nobody ever said promotion was cheap,” Chrysler spokesman Tom Houston said. “The name of the game is to get people in the driver’s seat.”

Auto makers do not disclose specific incentive costs. Charles Brady, an automotive analyst with Oppenheimer & Co. in New York, said he does not think that the cost of the test-drive promotion will be exorbitant.

“I don’t think many people will go through the hassle for $50,” Brady said. “Probably half of them are going to end up buying a Chrysler. When viewed in light of all the other incentives, that’s 1/20th of a $1,000 rebate.”

The $50 test-drive offer and new incentive programs were announced by Chrysler Chairman Lee A. Iacocca in commercials aired nationwide Sunday during the Super Bowl and the Senior Skins golf tournament.

The new program tinkers with previous incentives and extends rebates and low-interest financing deals through the end of February.

Missing from the extended program are Chrysler’s popular minivans. Incentive offers on those vehicles will expire on Wednesday as originally planned.

Consumers who bought a Chrysler under incentive plans announced Dec. 15 that were scheduled to expire Wednesday will receive the difference if Chrysler increases the incentive through Sept. 30.