Paying $1.84 for gas today reminded me that I wanted to revisit my analysis of Chrysler’s Let’s Refuel America Program and MyGallons.com.

Back in May, I discussed why Chrysler’s program was such a bad deal.  As a reminder, the program allowed participants to lock in the ultra low price of $2.99 per gallon for three years.  The main reason it was a bad deal was that you had to forgo other dealer incentives to participate, meaning that you might have to give up guaranteed savings to get potential savings.   I wonder how people who participated in the program feel about it now?  Sure, gas may rise above $2.99 before their deal runs out, but I doubt they’re happy with their decision.

Those who wanted to prepay for gasoline for future use without having to buy an overpriced car may have opted to use MyGallons.com.  Those people are likely kicking themselves as well.  Anyone thinking about joining that site (which lets you prepay for Gas, with some restrictions) today, should ask themselves why.  Sure, gas prices seem inexpensive by the standards of late, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will not continue to decline.  I would say that unless you had the insight back when gas was $4+, that it would be under $2 again, you probably can’t say with much confidence where gas will be over the course of the next year.  So why would you commit your money, interest free, to a program that could cost you money as easily as it could save you money?

Short term price estimates for commodities like gasoline are extremely difficult to get right.  Again, if you want to profit from the long term rise in prices likely to occur over the next decade, consider buying stock in an energy company or oil tracking ETF.