RIP Hummer

[User 4332]

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/24/g-m-to-close-hummer-after-sale-collapses/

General Motors said Wednesday that it was shutting down Hummer, the brand of big sport-utility vehicles that became synonymous with the term “gas guzzler,” after a deal to sell it to a Chinese manufacturer fell apart, The New York Times’s Nick Bunkley reports from Detroit.

G.M. said only that its planned sale of Hummer to the Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Company “cannot be completed,” without giving a reason, but the $150 million deal had been stalled as the companies awaited approval from the Chinese government. G.M. had been trying to sell Hummer for a year, and struck a preliminary deal with Tengzhong last June.

Not really that sad to see it go. I thought the original Hummers that were close cousins to the military vehicle were pretty sweet. Once it became basically a Suburban with fancy molding, I lost a lot of interest.

 

[Ace]

Oh. I thought someone got married.

 

[Layman]

Of course you're not....but I'm guessing you don't know as many people that work at the plant, as I do. I'm sure they'll note your loss of interest....

 

[Mizzougrad96]

You can buy them so inexpensively these days. Cars that cost $60K new can be had for around $15K.

 

[User 4332]

I guess I should've mentioned how much it sucks for the people who work there in my OP. I do feel for those people, which includes an old high school buddy.

Still, feeling bad for the workers doesn't change that the product was never really sustainable on its own.

 

[Layman]

I guess I should've mentioned how much it sucks for the people who work there in my OP. I do feel for those people, which includes an old high school buddy.

Still, feeling bad for the workers doesn't change that the product was never really sustainable on its own.

I get that part. Guess the "not sad to see it go" part just rubbed me wrong. This means more than a few lost jobs, in an area that really, REALLY can't take much more of that. Not that there are many places that can, I guess...

 

[WolvEagle]

A few years back, a female co-worker wrote a column about how she and her husband didn't spoil their two young sons. After all, she wasn't going to give them a Hummer, she wrote. I was editing the column and did my best to not burst out laughing. I changed it to "Jaguar" because that's what our paper's owner drove at the time. I also quietly explained to her why I made the change. She turned about 20 shades of red.

 

[MU_was_not_so_hard]

Hard to argue w/ some market forces. And in these days, when people who drive Escalades are seen as over-the-top, it's not shocking that GM is putting the Hummer in a hole and burying it.
GM realizes it can market cars like the Escalade, Tahoe, etc., and be better off.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Sad about the lost jobs, not displeased that it's being shut down due to its status as a symbol of blatant excess, ecstatic that a brand tied symbolically to the United States military won't become property of the PROC.

 

[Beef03]

I still think the H1s are cool, but the H2 and H3 were terrible in so many ways.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

I still think the H1s are cool, but the H2 and H3 were terrible in so many ways.

The H3 is the only one I'd consider as a daily driver. The other two are too big to be useful as anything other than a microphallus overcompensation device.

 

[User 4332]

I still think the H1s are cool, but the H2 and H3 were terrible in so many ways.

The H3 is the only one I'd consider as a daily driver. The other two are too big to be useful as anything other than a microphallus overcompensation device.

The H1 has some utility as a work vehicle, depending on what your needs are. I worked on a farm in high school that had one of the truck versions, and it came in pretty handy. As a commuter car, it would get old fast.

 

[Beef03]

I still think the H1s are cool, but the H2 and H3 were terrible in so many ways.

The H3 is the only one I'd consider as a daily driver. The other two are too big to be useful as anything other than a microphallus overcompensation device.

I didn't think they had made the H1 for a long while. Oh and there's nothing "micro" about a Hummer. ;)

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

I still think the H1s are cool, but the H2 and H3 were terrible in so many ways.

The H3 is the only one I'd consider as a daily driver. The other two are too big to be useful as anything other than a microphallus overcompensation device.

I didn't think they had made the H1 for a long while. Oh and there's nothing "micro" about a Hummer. ;)

The H3 is what Chrysler should have made when it updated the Cherokee into the Liberty a few years ago. No, it's not small, but it's not full-size either.

 

[blacktitleist]

Oh. I thought someone got married.

Bravo

 

[Birdscribe]

Oh. I thought someone got married.

Pick it up, Ace. That's good.

As for the Hummer, 2MCM mentioned the H3 as the only daily driver of the series. Trust me, the only way you'd want that car is if someone gave it to you gratis.

A few years ago, we did PR for a Nationwide Tour event here in SoCal that was sponsored by one of the big Chevy dealers in the area. This dealer ran the biggest Hummer franchise west of the Mississippi and the fourth largest in the nation.

During tournament week, they would give all the tournament staff H3s to drive. I didn't get one, but the tournament director schlepped me around in his part of the week.

The entire car is plastic. It was a $33,000 Legomobile. Frankly, the Hummer golf carts they brought in for the week seemed more solid than the H3.

Anyone buying one of those not only has small Jones syndrome, but a keep-up-with-the-Jones mentality showing more moxie than sense.

 

[slappy4428]

Oh. I thought someone got married.

Nice

 

[Football_Bat]

Good career move.

 

[93Devil]

When people read in 2103 about the fall of America and the rise to power of China in 2015, the pictures of the Hummer and George W. Bush will be in the textbook.

 

[Football_Bat]

Between you and me ... I drive a Hummer with a Prius shell on top of it. Here, check it out.

Gets even worse mileage than a Hummer! And the back seat's big enough you can perform an abortion in it!