Give Us Today Our Daily Hummer
As connoisseurs will certify, daily Hummers are good for you. The Chinese agree and keep us supplied with the delicious staple of GM (and we don’t mean genetically modified) food.
Yesterday, we announced that time may be running out for the Hummer-Tengzhong deal. Jalopnik even went as far as saying that the deal is dead.
“Not so” said Shanghai Daily in the early Chinese morning hours of Wednesday. One of their sources said that “the chances of having the deal approved had dropped to 50-50,” another source of the Shanghai paper remained defiant: “Tengzhong has not given up hope yet to win government approval.”
This (U.S.) morning, the Wall Street Journal weighed in on the matter. Their Beijing correspondent reconnected with her “person close to the situation” after the source had returned from the Chinese New Year holidays. That impeccable source reported that “Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. has been told that the Chinese government won’t clear its deal to buy General Motors Co.’s Hummer unit.”
In the afternoon, Reuters did a straddle.
They repeated the rumors that the deal had been shot down. But a few paragraphs into the story, they said: “Wang Chao, an assistant commerce minister, reiterated at a briefing on Wednesday that the ministry had yet to receive an application, and any reports that the agency had rejected the bid were untrue.”
So there you have it: Inside sources say the deal has been rejected. Ministry officials say officially: “Bu dui!” (No!) “There’s nothing to approve! Where is the application?”
According to Gasgoo, Wang (who may have been carefully selected as the expert for the Hummer case) “said he doesn’t know if other government ministries have received an application from the Chinese company.” And in another perfect example of Chinese ambiguity, Wang opined: “The Chinese government supports companies’ overseas investment, but requests them to carry out cooperation based on market rules.”
A regular fare of Hummers will continue to bring delight to us for the foreseeable future. And that’s how it should be. TTAC isn’t big on benefits. But rarely does a day pass without a Hummer. Or in this case, several a day.
PS: Hold your protests. I’m a CCC (card carrying Catholic,) well versed in my Matthews 6:11, and the Good Book says nothing against SUVs.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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I know from embarrassing personal experience what rubies will do under the conditions that you say. I have owned both a 2006 rubi and a 2008 unlimited rubie. Against properly built Jeeps, it was embarrassing, to say the least. They were helpless pigs compared to ancient jeeps with lifts, locking diffs, softer springs, etc. It was not even a close call. The built jeeps ran rings around my rubis. Most of the time, the Rubies would be locked front and rear, while the old built jeeps were not even in four wheel drive.
Ya know... Im sure virtually any awd vehicle with snows / decent tires (Subbie Legacy GT).. with tires deflated to some low pressure.. would have made a much nicer exit from that slop.. than some fat overweight pig = H2. Then again... If I had an earlier Legacy GT, and gotten the rest out.. after the Caddy owner begged and pleaded with me... I'd still leave the H2 there.. based on principal ALONE.