While some of TTAC's Best and Brightest adopt a "rot in Hell" stance regarding HUMMER's imminent demise, pity the poor dealers. Speaking with Automotive News [sub], HUMMER Sacramento store owner Mike Daugherty said $4-a-gallon gasoline took away about half his biz. The other half disappeared after GM announced it might sell the brand. Yup. In June, Hummer sales fell 59.3 percent to 2,072 units. Obviously, GM CEO Rick Wagoner knew his "strategic review" proclamation– and subsequent withdrawal of all corporate support– would scupper HUMMER. But underhanded bastard clever man that he is, Wagoner also realized that dangling hopes of a HUMMER buyer would keep the dealer payoff price down. Wagoner mentioned a mystery buyer at the time of the first knife thrust. Since then, GM's paying HUMMER dealers "advanced sales bonuses" and buying them out, hoping to avoid the blizzard of lawsuits that accompanied Oldsmobile's termination. On Friday, Rick twisted the knife again, repeating the HUMMER sales rumor. "We have some interested buyers," Rick said [via Reuters]. "And I can't tell you anything beyond that right now, but we are moving as fast as we can." Believe it or don't.
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I’m generally sympathetic to 2.8 dealers in the current circumstances, but that doesn’t extend to Hummer dealers. Why would anyone who had a clue hand money to GM for a franchise for a niche product knowing GM’s chronic attention deficit disorder when it comes to updating product? I assume a large percentage of the Hummer dealers had other GM franchises, and, even if they didn’t, they surely knew the history. Olds? Buick? Pontiac?
There’s apparently some profit to be made in the used Hummer business though. My local BPG dealer seems to have 2 or 3 on the lot most of the time, and I know they sell some.
It wouldn’t be too expensive to turn the dealers’ big H on the front entrance to a capital M for Mahindra & Mahindra…
So, there’s a real lack of vision at GM when it comes to product planning or marketing, but when it comes to playing dirty public relations, they’re still very much the front-runner
No one can poison the well (hybrids, regulations, dealers) quite as effectively as GM PR.
Where is the love?
I hope the people who owned these dealers end up on street corners with a cup in their hands.
That’s funny… “interested buyers.” Right, my Jeep dealer has an H2 on their lot. I’m sure that they have plenty of interested buyers too. LOL
I bet Fiat would like the new dealerships. Sure, they aren’t really in with the brand image, but they are shiny and new…
C’mon here folks! Can anyone even try to rationalize that Toyhondsan don’t pay big bucks to the open pockets in the Congress? The starting salary for a lobbyist didn’t get to be $300K on GM and the soybean industry alone ya know!
HUMMER filled a niche. How about the local Bentley or Rolls dealership? 6500 lb sedan that gets maybe 8 mpg? Do I hear a gang cry to cut their heads off?
Just plain blindnesss and lemming mentality here, that’s all.
Hey,
Has anyone read the “truth about Prius?” The total cost to the environment higher than an H2?
Prolly not…
The truth about Prius? Oh you mean https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/toyota-prius/
“The Toyota Prius is a technological tour-de-force.” – Robert Farago.
hard to believe they are still making Hummer H2, H3 vehicles still.
So when is GM going to can their other all-truck, all-gas guzzler brand GMC?
When are they going to start pruning all the redundant, unpopular trucks, SUVs and crossovers from the rest of their lineup?
>>”We have some interested buyers,”
yeah, right
monkeyboy is obviously living in his own world, most likely pretty right wing too!
Hummers mostly go to middle class buyers who barely can afford them. I moved from a large market city (Columbus Ohio) to a smaller market (Mansfield Ohio) and it’s silly how many people own Hummers and F350 here who can barely afford them, it’s an “image thing” and a impractical one for sure. The other who can afford them are no way near the net worth of the Bentley crowd, so it’s a silly comparison. Regardless of the economy the high rollers can afford Labos and Bentleys.
As far as the Prius having a larger net footprint that is just right wing propaganda, and monkeyboy most likly drinks from the Rush Limbaugh cool-aid fountain!
The real question is “If a H3 had an EPA rating of 25/35 would anyone buy the vehicle?” Has the SUV phase of the car business passed?
Oh, poor babies. Gas went up to $4 and half their business went away. The buggywhip market took a tumble when this new fangled motorized carriage contraption came into vogue.
I am seeing lots of these Hummer obscenities on used car lots, sometimes two or three on a lot. They are always prominently displayed closest to the street, begging for some sucker to buy them. To draw in business, you would think the lots would park their most fuel efficient vehicles in the best locations.
No more HELOCs, no more Hummers. BMWs are the next on the hit list.
Yeah right…the interested parties are just lined up are they? The truth is that the HUMMER brand is unsaleable. Period. GM has stood by and watched the brand devalue to nothing. Maybe it still has brand equity in foreign countries but I am not familiar enough to know. In the USA HUMMER is dead. Any company that would seriously contemplate buying this “brand” is screwed together looser than even GM (or one of its vehicles).
It started innocently enough. GM just wanted a brand that could compete with the historically formidable Jeep brand. They picked a vehicle that had a military heritage, just like Jeep. They even decided to use the slang nickname for the vehicle given by the soldiers who used them, just like Jeep. You can just hear the bean counters in the GM boardroom saying “HUMMER – It’ll be just like Jeep!” Obviously the story did not play out as planned.
The problem with HUMMER is that it does not merely suffer from the common SUV affliction (too big/too heavy/poor MPG). It also suffers from an IMAGE problem that is so severe it drives people to criminal behavior (vandalizing, throwing paint on, scratching them in parking lots), and aggression (taking photos of giving a HUMMER the finger and then posting them by the thousands on a web site).
This awful image is somewhat undeserved as most HUMMERS (the H2 and H3) are based on the regular GM full size and mid sized truck platforms and therefore cannot be appreciably worse for the environment than the vehicles on which they are based, which receive a mere fraction of the scorn.
But this is the image that has evolved. It is reality. And GM has seemed utterly oblivious to this issue of the perception of the HUMMER brand and the HUMMER vehicles. They should have been doing damage control YEARS ago to at least try to stop the problem. I don’t know what the solution should have been but I think that nipped in the bud, they could have probably saved the concept and possibly the vehicles (not likely the H2), meaning sell the vehicles branded as something else. There was no saving the brand name.
The identical scenario happened to Winchester with one of their ammunition lines. In the ’90s they came out with a line of defensive ammo called “Black Talon”. The press swarmed in and vilified its black bullets which were Teflon coated (to aid in feeding and diminish barrel fouling) as “armor piercing” cop killers (an absurdity).
Winchester withdrew the product from their line for a little while and then reintroduced it under the “Ranger SXT” (sounds like a Ford!) line. No one raised an eyebrow…
Not that any of this is relevant in the “Big Picture” for GM’s ultimate survivability…
Would the U.S. Army like to buy the Hummer factory?:-) Or has the military moved to vehicles with V shaped bottoms that help deflect road side bombs?
Home land security bought a few to guard our southern border and prevent Mexicans (who want to come here and pay for our Social Security) from crossing.
One of the last Hummers I saw was floating down a swollen creek on its big tires.
therefore cannot be appreciably worse for the environment than the vehicles on which they are based
Hummer H2 gets about 10 mpg +/- 2 mpg in real world usage (see, for example, http://www.edmunds.com/hummer/h2/2007/review.html). I’m pretty sure this is significantly worse than the vehicles it was derived from.
Has anyone read the “truth about Prius?”
Yes. In fact, anybody with access to the internet has either read it or read about it. It’s been completely discredited (see, for example, http://www.straightdope.com/columns/080404.html).
Simpsons did it!
In “Behind the Laughter” Homer buys MC Hammers house and and changes the gate to read “Hommertime”.
factotum :
It wouldn’t be too expensive to turn the dealers’ big H on the front entrance to a capital M for Mahindra & Mahindra…
“we are moving as fast as we can.” Believe it or don’t.”
I believe it. They need some fast cash. Just call up India or China and it’s good as gone. The cheaper the price, the quicker it sells. Might even toss in some more brands to sweeten the deal.
I guess they will wait to sell off the North American operations until they see if the Volt saves the company or not. Only another year unless this is a Camaro redux. Those should be on the streets already!
Hummer USA may be dead but GM just needs to export them to markets where gas is subsidized and oil money flows like water: Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Russia. Not any many environmentalists in those places either.