Then when that environmental group started setting the Hummers on fire in Cali; the brand never recovered it’s image from that incident. A lot of vile and spite was aimed at the brand. It really started to be hated on and was not liked anymore.

Selling the brand off to India is the best choice. Times are changing. We don’t need that Roman empire, war mongering image of a vehicle. It’s barbarian, un-pc, and uncivil.

The future is electric and Mitsubishi is coming in with a sneak attack. Nissan and Subaru aren’t as far a long, but are much further along then any of the competition.

Pump that fuel up to $20 to $30 a gallon and see how well liked that mode of transportation is.

The high end brands should offer early adopter, premium electric offerings(Mercedes, BMW, etc). Premium luxury. High class. Only common folk burn fuel.

Corporate status symbol. Clean, silent, pollution free personal transportation. Performance and low(none?) maintenance.

And right now it can all only be had with a Tesla. How is it they have no competition? Tesla will be a Hudson, Tucker, Nash, or Studebaker at some point in time.

The H2 is built on the now nearly obsolete GMT800 platform, it’s the only vehicle left on that chassis platform and will not be upgraded to the new GMT900 chassis. At the moment the H2 is a lame duck.

Every day tens of millions of penis enlargement scams are sent by e-mail. Cable TV channels are packed with ads for Extenze and Enzyte along with solutions for ED. Someone is making money on these things. GM should not be left out.

I propose a co-branding initiative. You will be able to but the H2 Viagra edition, the H2 Hair Club for Men version, and–for those truly in need and can afford the $10K upcharge–the H2 Enzyte Big Johnson.

Bob Dole is probably available as a spokesman.

I can see it now. “This is Bob. He was feeling like a small man in a large world; but then he bought a Hummer. Now he’s living large. The boys at the health club are impressed, and his wife is satisfied. Hummer: For that special part of a man’s anatomy.”

Hummer will always have a market, such that is so ssmall cannot appeal to GM. Or like Rolls Royce sell >1000 cars/yr. BMW is happier than a pig in a mud hole. That cannot be justified with GM though. Had Checker Marathon the NY cabs is still around that may worked out. They build small number of cab bodies. I cannot remember what happened to cause their demise. Whether it was NHTSA or lack of engine supplies to kill them off.

Thats the tradtional attitude of GM, just water the product down until buyers found out or tried to get away as much as possible. When the s*it hit the fan then they scramble to try pay lip service or can it altogether.

A fnd lives in Windsor Ont. says his neighbour works at GM, his hour wage with benefits worked out to close to $60/hr. No wonder GM cannot stay alive.

But I forgot about the suburban commando brigade and the punishing demands of curb-climbing in shopping mall parking lots. How silly of me.

The H3 is based on the Chevy Colorado/GMC Canyon chassis, which looks like it is going to be discontinued in the near future. (Or is it the Chevy TrailBlazer/GMC Envoy chassis, which is also going to be discontinued in the near future.)

So what is going to replace the H3? Something on the Acadia/Outlook/Enclave chassis?

Like was already mentioned, the world got along fine before Hummers came along and really won’t miss them one bit when they’re gone.

Other than that I find it very hard to find anything positive about the whole Hummer thing?

Many people here have commented that Hummer is probably GM’s strongest brand in terms of a clear brand identity some even use the word “icon” to describe it. Both those things may be “true” but not in a good way. Calling the Hummer and icon is a bit like saying that Jeffrey Dahmer was a big celebrity, or that drug dealers are “successful entrepreneurs”.

Sadly, the negative stereotype image that most people outside the USA have of Americans is of being obnoxious, loud, overweight, wasteful, and dumb. Of course this isn’t a true representation of the American people as stereotypes never are, but might represent the behavior or nature of just some Americans some of the time. So these occasional minority negative characteristics are then rolled up into a distorted stereotype of a whole nation which is of course both inaccurate and unfair.

Where am I going with this? Well, it seems to me that if you tried to distill all the worst excesses and negative characteristics American culture and psyche and build just one vehicle that sums it all up – you have your Hummer. Let’s consider some of the highlights of the buyer profile….

It is great for army wannabes if you like to dress up and pretend you’re in the military. I’m sure that some Hummer owners have served in the military but I’d wager that the vast majority have not. If someone really wants to be associated with the military I’d suggest that they go and join the army.

The Hummer is the perfect vehicle for the dress-up-and-pretend off-roaders too. It is specifically designed to be genuinely off-road capable. Indeed, something like 85% of Hummer buyers (and forgive me as I don’t have the link to the actual statistics and I am recalling these from memory) apparently say that “off-road capability” is a must-have feature for them when buying a vehicle. Yet, at the same time only something like 5% of Hummers are ever driven off road.

And of course there’s the lousy fuel economy. With its huge weight, full 4×4 mechanicals and high ground clearance (the last two fully necessary for the off-roading of course…. ) the fuel economy is not surprisingly appalling. Apparently this is somehow a plus point for the Hummer owner because it allows them to stick a finger up at the tree-hugging hippy types and say “yeah, it is a gas hog and I just DON’T CARE”.

So, I for one won’t be sorry to see the end of this brand. I am not a big fan of GM management and their many blunders over the last few years but I think they got it right this time if they ditch the Hummer. It was always going to be a niche product and I can only see that niche shrinking fast now.

People buy a vehicle like the Hummer purely for image. There is a fascinating modern paradox going on here. The Hummer owner drives around thinking “hey! all these people are looking at me and I look really cool” whereas I’m certain that the vast majority of the people seeing the Hummer drive by are actually thinking “what a jerk” (or much worse). Surely as time goes on the percentage of the public that fall into the “that guy is jerk” category only gets higher. When does the tipping point come where even the Hummer driver realizes that almost nobody thinks he’s cool? Are these buyers of Hummers a strange sub-strata of the human psyche that actually like being despised and reviled by the rest of the human race? (There is an English soccer club called Millwall that has the motto “noone likes us, we don’t care” and famously revels in the fact that every other club hates them, but I digress). Somehow I doubt that Hummer buyers go to great expense to be held in such contempt – I think they are just still deluded that more people actually think they are cool.

My apologies if it is a cliché to say this, I can’t help thinking that in future decades we will be looking back at old archive video of people driving Hummers and thinking “What the hell were they thinking….?”.

I just don’t see how evidence of putting ongoing Hummer development programs on hold as proof that the brand is DOA. I think it’s actually pretty smart to not piss away that development money IN CASE it is sold.

For sure, saying that there will be a strategic review of the brand does make it sound likely that it will go away (either sold or closed), but I really don’t think its fate has been decided at this point. Since when does GM move quickly on any decision?

The problem is that GM in its usual manner killed the poster child H1. It was big and expensive, but it was expensive because it was built like no other machine in this world. Being on top costs big bucks. They made carbon copies in half and quarter scales, made on inferior platforms that was not up to standard. Then they killed the original and shuffled out inferior products that was bigger, more expensive, more thirsty, had less room, and had less off-road capabilities than its competition.

What they should have done, was to improve and eventually replace the H1 with a proper replacement in the same league, but better executed. As I said, there will always be a market for the most bad-ass of bad-ass trucks. But only if you actually can deliver a bad-ass product. I can see a market for a Hummer H1 in the segment of trucks for 100 to 200 grand. It’s not a big market, but it exists. And if there’s no H1, what makes the cachet of having a H2, H3 or H4? It’s like marketing a Saab with “Born from jets” with nothing to match it up with.

I’d love to hear the rationale behind this one. What’s the mistake in axing a brand most noted for its despisability, which also happens to be a financial black hole?

In the meantime, you should try to get on GM’s executive board! With that mindset, maybe you could get a couple million out of it before the inevitable! :D

With proper management he’s correct in that HUMMER has a future and can contribute to GM’s bottom line, just like Jeep and Land Rover. It has the strongest retention, strongest conquest and generated the most profit per unit sold of anything GM shilled.

HUMMER is an extremely strong brand with a strong image. Unlike the rest of GM’s brands HUMMER is unique and may actually have value to an automaker outside of GM. It’s everything that GM has completely sucked out of their remaining brands. No other GM brand can be HUMMER or do what HUMMER does either, you can’t say that about the rest of them. Even the advertising was brilliant.

If HUMMER had the H4 (see HX concept) out now the brand would be in a good position given current fuel prices. But they don’t and GM wasn’t forward thinking enough.

That doesn’t mean HUMMER can’t be kept and managed to prosper as a niche brand, which is what it will always be.

GM is full of brands that overlap and that are doing the same thing. HUMMER just happens to be the one that is the exception to the rule.

Second, it was from day 1 a blot on the societal landscape.

Hummer is the poster child for shortterm marketing opportunism versus longterm brandbuilding.

http://cycloneenergy.com/

http://www.ssi-racing.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=127

Electric Hummers?

The Hummer is ruining whatever pretense GM has of ever turning out relevant vehicles. Let it go – that car is only viable where a few people are either swimming in money and crass consumption (Russia) or where gasoline is cheaper than dirt (Venezuela – you should check out their Hummer dealerships.)

That car was stupid from Day 1 and today it is indefensible as a value proposition to consumers.