Filed under: SUVs, Trucks/Pickups, China
GM seeking Chinese suitor for HUMMER?
The continual grousing over fuel prices has earned the HUMMER brand a place on consumers' fecal roster. There's nothing wrong with what HUMMER has on offer, other than the fact that large, off-road capable trucks make terrible commuter cars, and the idiots misusing their H2s for tasks better suited to Cobalts are finally wising up. This re-thinking of emetic consumption has sent HUMMER sales down the sewer, and with no end in sight, GM is seriously considering selling the brand to stanch the cash bleed.
China is a huge emerging market for General Motors – Buick is big there, for example. As such, GM's Fritz Henderson has indicated its willingness to hold discussions with any Chinese company interested in buying the division. It's not like HUMMER is a brand with lots of history, anyway. Only the H1 had any legitimate claim to military lineage, and that vehicle hasn't been available for a while. The survival of the brand in the U.S. market may hinge on competing more directly with the Jeep Wrangler, regardless of ownership. The same way as Jaguar and Land Rover are a handy entre into serious carmaking for Tata, HUMMER could be a way for Chinese automakers to crack the U.S. market.
[Source: Inside Line]
_opt_thumbnail.jpg)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
I_Hate_China 9:41AM (6/16/2008)
Selling the Hummer brand to clueless Chinese suckers desperate for any western brand???
Some smart way to dispose a worthless brand.
Reply
111222333444 11:31AM (6/16/2008)
Selling the Hummer brand to clueless Chinese suckers desperate for any western brand???
Some smart way to dispose a worthless brand.
.....You are a shame....people like you should be shame about yourself, let me guess how old you are....7 years old ,,,or 5...
people like you should be block on the site!!
Ultima 1:56PM (6/16/2008)
@numbers
i really want to correct your grammar, but i think ill pass on...
Vintage 9:41AM (6/16/2008)
Because Chinese people NEED Suvs.
Christ.
Reply
mike 10:09AM (6/16/2008)
Unless I read it wrong, that'd be a Chinese Hummer for the States, not gas gusslers for Beijing.
Ans it seems like the American thinkers at Hummer are already off-brand for where our collective thinking is going, so having a Chinese company guess at what American's want could be hilarious.
I_Hate_China 9:42AM (6/16/2008)
I just can't wait to see a line of Chinese tin can econoboxes with Hummer brand on.
"It's a Hummer!, but gets 33 MPG too!" - Chinese Hummer TV commercial.
Reply
ctorrie 9:44AM (6/16/2008)
One possible solution for Hummer is to make the whole line a green line. Fit the 2-mode hybrid system to all models. Introduce the fuel cell concepts and later production vehicles as Hummers first. Sure they wouldn't sell as well as a Chevy, but it would be good publicity. I would also fit the Hummers with the serial hybrid system like the E-flex, but scrap the plug-in part. With an electric motor at each wheel, one could do amazing things with an off-road vehicle, and keep it "green". I would prefer to keep Hummer in the hands of an American company, though it would be the easiest of GM's divisions to sell off.
Reply
summazooma 10:21AM (6/16/2008)
I like this idea and would go one further...
Rather than sell it off, turn it into a vehicle developed specifically, platform-wise, for developing markets (say to yourself, "Thailand", where trucks are big business). Combine that with green tech and Hummer's "go anywhere" positioning and you might have a compelling counter to the idea that you have to be a pig to go off road (the idea of which is actually counter to the very reality of going off road, on a number of levels).
And, BTW, Isuzu might be a great partner in this endeavour, just as they are for the Thai pickup.
Randy915 2:47PM (6/16/2008)
Here's an even better idea... stop selling Hummers.
RMc 9:46AM (6/16/2008)
The sooner the better...
Reply
I_Hate_China 9:47AM (6/16/2008)
Oldsmobile brand might actually fetch some nice pocket change, not HUMMER. I doubt even Chinese are stupid enough to buy into HUMMER.
Reply
Gary Lowe 9:48AM (6/16/2008)
The Chinese are not so clueless nor in debt as Americans. You do see some Hummers tooling around Yunnan Province but with price controls on gas having to expire soon (5.30Yuan per liter for regular unleaded) and regular shortages of gas and diesel across the country, I doubt that Hummer's small niche market would make for an attractive buy in this new age of of scarcity
Reply
mk 9:48AM (6/16/2008)
Selling Hummer off seems worse than just closing it, for some reason. (personally, I'd rather see them really make something new of it, and build the HX concept, or whatever that small hummer concept is, and a small *diesel* pickup that can do yard work and haul a boat.)
But somehow, selling this, among all the other things we're handing over on a silver platter to the Chinese, just seems even worse.
I know it is a gutteral, and likely purely emotional response, but something about it just doesn't seem right. It isn't a problem with chinese people, but rather the Chinese government, which has tentacles into all of their new-found business wealth, most of which is at our expense. It is still communist at the end of the day, even if it acts capitalist during business hours.
Reply
Rick 10:04AM (6/16/2008)
I don't think the Chinese government will allow suvs and other large vehicles to get the same foothold that they got over here. I have to hand one thing to them. They have a very long term outlook. They've seen the problems, and I'm sure they want to avoid a repeat mistake.
mk 10:15AM (6/16/2008)
And we all know how a tyrannical regime likes to control the people "for their own good." A long term view of subjugation is still tyranny.
I'll take freedom, an H2, and a double cheeseburger, beer, and a smoke, thanks, if the alternative is communist government. And I am NOT an SUV person, I am a sports car guy, and I don't drink or smoke.
Rene Curry 9:50AM (6/16/2008)
I don't think it would be wise to give a Chinese company an already set-up dealer network, share technology, and then let them morph to other vehicles.
Did you see the Hummer China copy that is already out there? I forgot the brand name. How is a China company going to sell Hummer at premium prices with a clone already out there?
Reply
I_Hate_China 9:52AM (6/16/2008)
It's a straight brand sale. No design transfer. New Chinese owner is free to slab the HUMMER badge to anything they desire, be it a tin can econobox or a midsize sedan.
I_Hate_China 9:50AM (6/16/2008)
Chinese don't have such high technology that even GM can't come up with.
As of now, Chinese automakers are operating in "Copy&Produce".
Reply
the law 10:24AM (6/16/2008)
well if they bought hummer and paste and copied jeep designs they might have hits plus if the company buys Hummer and adds their own car brand to Hummer dealership.Most people won't know they are Chinese.same way most people think Motorola or Hyundai are Japanese.
111222333444 11:39AM (6/16/2008)
...have you ever been there..even..I you don't knoe the truth over there, Please stop postting ...okay.
you don't see the fact that gm sales one millions of the new cars over there, to make the company still alive..
...think about this way hummer is a u.s brand ..you should feel sad about the crisis happen to hummer ..
you just make me feel sick