Consumer Car Buying Advice Blog

Volkswagen recently announced a partnership with Upromise® to provide customers of the new Routan with a contribution to their college fund.

Timing is everything

As luck would have it, the marketing people at Volkswagen chose the week that Chrysler brought out their “Let’s Refuel America” program to introduce their campaign for the new Routan. What’s even more puzzling, is that the Routan is not due out until September – so why the rush to get lost in the buzz of the Chrysler initiative? Only the gurus at VW know that answer.

How the program works

You either join Upromise or log into your current Upromise account. Once you log in, you will receive a VW savings code from the site. You then take this code to your VW dealer by August 31, 2008 and place an order and put down a deposit on a new Routan. Once you take delivery (and it has to be delivered by November 30,2008), VW will then deposit the $1,500 in your Upromise account.

What is Upromise?

Upromise was founded in 2001 and is currently the largest private source of college funding in the U.S. Membership is free, and your contributions grow tax-free in a 529 college savings account. Not only do your savings accumulate with no tax, but any withdrawals that are used for educational purposes are also tax free. Such a deal!

In any case, kudos to VW for this program. Unfortunately, the price of gas seems to have eclipsed the cost of college as a consumer hot button – at least for the moment.

Tags: auto loan

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