Chrysler has announced a new round of buyer incentives, right after their Employee Pricing Plus Plus discounts expired.

The cash rebates run through June 1, and are good for up to $4,000 on 2009 model year vehicles, depending on model and region. Another $1,000 is available to current owners of Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles, along with members of credit unions. Chrysler currently has a low-rate financing program available through credit unions nationwide. 

While the program may not seem as generous as the now defunct Employee Pricing Plus Plus, with its incentives of up to $6,000 and zero-percent financing, our analysis shows that the new plan can provide better deals when factoring hidden dealer incentives of up to $2,000. This can mean additional savings for buyers armed with the full figures (available with the Consumer Reports Bottom Line Price) and who negotiate. Dealers have the option of passing all or part of their hidden incentives on to customers, but many will not unless pressed during negotiations. 

As attractive as the rebates may sound, a quick look shows the $4,000 savings are only available on V8-powered models of the Chrysler 300, Chrysler’s largest and least fuel-efficient sedan. Smaller, more fuel-efficient models carry smaller incentives. However, in most cases, we see the customer rebates are greater now than last month.

Regardless of discounts available, buyers would be advised to remember that there’s more to owner satisfaction than a low price, and that a good deal today may not seem so good down the road. Chrysler vehicles have not performed as well as competing models in our recent testing, and our Annual Owner Survey results show reliability lags behind, as well. No current Chrysler, Dodge, or Jeep vehicles make our list of Recommended models. (Learn more in our "Detroit report cards.")

However, we were impressed with the new Dodge Ram full-size pickup, which is a competitive offering and scored well in our testing. Incentives and rebates on the Ram can total up to $5,500. Still, we can’t recommend the Ram because it is a new model with insufficient reliability data.

—Jim Travers