When General Motors' assembly plant in Shreveport, La., opened this morning, there was a 2.5-ton hole in the lineup left by the Hummer. GM has halted production of the H3 and H3T, the last two Hummers that were still being made.
GM negotiated the sale of Hummer to a Chinese company in 2009, but the deal has yet to gain approval of the Chinese government, and analysts are skeptical the sale will go through. If the sale fails, the final Hummer will have rolled off the assembly line last week.
It will be the end of an era.
"There was a time when Hummers were novel. They were cool when fuel economy was a nonissue," says Kim Wolfkill of MSN Autos.
The civilian Hummer brand was introduced in 1992, with the gigantic military-derived Humvee an early favorite of rappers and Arnold Schwarzenegger. The only slightly less gigantic H2 appeared in 2003, bringing assault-vehicle capability to the SUV-driving masses. The tidier H3 showed up in 2006, with its relatively higher fuel economy ratings of 14 city and 18 highway -- a nod to the rapidly changing market.
Hummer's global sales peaked at about 76,000 in 2006. Last year, just 9,000 of the trucks moved off the lots, with only 325 Hummers sold in December, according to Autodata. Nick Richards, the communications director for Hummer, estimates there are 2,100 H3 and H3T trucks still in dealer inventories.
When Hummers still mattered, it was a rolling statement and a convenient target. Other drivers love to hate it, and Hummer drivers love to hate the haters. Middle-finger H2 salutes are emphatically returned.
The Hummer is obnoxious. It's a ticket magnet. It's a babe magnet. It's ultra-capable off road. It's bad for the environment. It supports the war in Iraq. Environmentalists have set the vehicles afire in dealer lots and vandalized them in private driveways.
"The Hummer became a lightning rod of all things wrong," Wolfkill says. "It wasn't practical, and it was the perfect target for the green movement."
If gas prices and angry stares don't intimidate you, a new H3 will cost you from $33,000 to $43,000, though used ones are available for about half that.
Richards is optimistic about the future of the brand and believes production will restart once the acquisition is complete. Wolfkill agrees that the Hummer might still have a chance if its new owner changes direction and focuses on producing smaller, more-fuel-efficient vehicles.
"Hummer wasn't a bad product," Wolfkill says. "It was a fad that was vulnerable to changing times."
http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/SaveonaCar/gm-halts-hummer-production.aspx
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