Hummer grinds gears: production of 2010 H3 and H3T resumes

2010 Hummer H3 - Click above for high-res image gallery
Although the Hummer sale isn't officially official – which is to say, the Chinese authorities haven't told Tengzhong "Proceed!" – it is official enough that GM has restarted production of the 2010 H3 and H3T at its Shreveport, LA plant. General Motors didn't want to be stuck with dead models, so it closed the Hummer spigot while its side of the deal with Tengzhong was finalized. By the beginning of this month, though, the bottom of the inventory barrel was starting to peek through, with just 1,183 units on hand.
Even though Hummer sales are down more than 50 percent, nevertheless people are still buying, and the company's two H3 models are obviously the most popular. According to Automotive News, a Hummer spokesman reports that the 2010s should be arriving in dealerships in December – and as we reported earlier, you may even find them in two new colors and with biofuel capability.
Gallery: 2010 Hummer H3 and H3T
[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]












Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sea Urchin 2:32PM (11/11/2009)
Do people even buy Hummers anymore, they are completely out of style, these days its all about slick, sporty sedans, large SUVs stopped being cool 3 years ago.
I am glad that this time someone bought a piece of crap but this time its the Chinese who are on the losing end.
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ebleyes 3:40PM (11/11/2009)
Maybe they will use it as a swat police car in China, they will need a scary looking vehicle with all the minority uprisings.
HotRodzNKustoms 2:35PM (11/11/2009)
I'd still buy a H3T Alpha if it were cheaper.
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jonathan.chung1 2:45PM (11/11/2009)
How the hell... Why...
Damned Tengzhong Heavy Industries or whatever the blasted corporation is called.
I really wish Hummer had died. They're bad for nigh everybody, if we're honest.
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BoxerFanatic 2:58PM (11/11/2009)
Says you.
what about the people who can use a vehicle with those capabilities? Should they be ignored while your opinion is held? Why?
If you don't want one, and don't like them, then don't buy one.
Funny how everyone wants choices, but then forgets everyone else. Everyone else wants their own choices, as well. They don't automatically all want YOUR choice, tyrant.
Sea Urchin 3:06PM (11/11/2009)
"what about the people who can use a vehicle with those capabilities? "-----------which capabilities? Big on the outside, small on the inside, bad on the pocket and environment.
m 3:25PM (11/11/2009)
Sea Urchin: "bad on the pocket and environment."
How exactly are they bad on the environment? You don't think they meet the same emissions standards everybody else does?
jonathan.chung1 3:58PM (11/11/2009)
Okay, first of all - what capabilities are we referring to?
It's a choice, like you said, that I based my post on, sure. But I neither stated nor implied that people should be dispossessed of their right to choice. Though if you do manage to spin it that way, it'd seem the question is now whether those considering the Hummers of late are sensible enough to make a reasonable choice - and that just goes back to, well, what capabilities?
Like I said, I really wish Hummer had died.
Mark 4:26PM (11/11/2009)
you're full of year-old milk
"what capabilities?" Honestly...if you must be a hater you could at least try harder
BoxerFanatic 6:31PM (11/11/2009)
Your original post, Jonathan, insinuated that it is bad for everyone, not just you.
You are making a value judgement for people you don't know. And wishing the brand had died is also a statement of denial of a choice to buy a Hummer product. (and it isn't safe anyway... just a few more H3s are being built, unlike G8 GXPs, or Solstice GXP coupes... people might like those, too...)
What capabilities? I kind of like the H3T-Alpha, how about better off-road credentials than a Colorado or Canyon, while being smaller than an Avalanche, or other full-size off-roaders.
How about V8 engine availability, where the Chevy and GMC small trucks don't really.
How about rugged styling, some people might like it, despite the vilification that the brand has received due to simple fickle public opinion, not necessarily the merits or de-merits of the product itself.
The fact of the matter is, where you are free not to like it, other people ARE free to like it, and you made overtures that your opinion was automatically more valid than others.
If you prefer cars, fine, buy a car. Wishing other people to have fewer options to choose from does you NO GOOD, and wishing that on others is both selfish, short sighted, and needlessly restrictive, simply based on your opinion.
If your opinion is pervasive enough across the whole market, then the lack of demand will wither and lay the un-popular product to rest, without your decrying it as useless, when you don't speak for everyone.
Personally, I think the H3T is a tad big, but I think it is very capable, and probably a bit more practical than a 4-door wrangler by being longer and wider, with a bigger cargo area. I also wish it had a turbo diesel 6 cylinder.
I don't think the H3 or H3T is tremendously worse than another comparable truck, like the Toyota FJ-Cruiser, for instance. Yet the FJ doesn't get nearly the ire that ANY Hummer product does.
And one has to wonder if GM would be cancelling Hummer if the cloud of bad PR wasn't hanging over it. Would GMC be done, and Hummer going forward with new development if the PR atmosphere was better, and the greenies weren't focused on attacking the image of the Hummer product line? Would GMC and Hummer somehow be fused into a single brand image?
But as it is, GM probably wants to wash it's hands as quickly as possible, including taking low-ball bids for it, just to get the PR situation put to rest. So un-founded knee-jerk opinion may infact be killing that brand, which otherwise might be bringing innovative utility vehicle design to market.
txdesign 3:32PM (11/11/2009)
I just love it when I see a Hummer with a bicycle carrier on the back. Can't even find room for a bike in these outdated dinosuars. Just die already, Hummer.
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BoxerFanatic 6:37PM (11/11/2009)
Or maybe a bicycle is the bit of cargo that makes more sense on the outside, and other cargo that needs to be more secured is taking up room inside.
Maybe it is because un-latching a bicycle from a rack is easier than re-assembling one after being stowed inside.
Quick, uninformed value judgements on people you don't even know anything about... such intolerance of other people's freedom to do what they like is detrimental to a free country.
What if some tyrant were to think so shallowly of things that you have thought out, and make judgements against you?
txdesign 8:58PM (11/11/2009)
The Hummer is so big it should be able to swallow a bike whole without needing to be disassembled. As for the other cargo, please. Most of these carry the driver and his ego, that's it.
Jake 3:37PM (11/11/2009)
If it doesn't come with the seats covered in leather made from whale foreskin, then count me out!
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Dan 3:44PM (11/11/2009)
The best thing about SUVs in general and Hummer in particular is how much they piss off the Envycrat party.
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Blown tranny 4:04PM (11/11/2009)
The best thing about the Prius and hybrids in general is how much they piss off the Haterican party.
dukeisduke 3:52PM (11/11/2009)
At least it's good news for the folks in the Shreveport-Bossier City area. The first thing Tengzhong should do once (if) the deal closes is start working on the H4, based on the HX concept. Give the Wrangler some competition.
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MM 3:56PM (11/11/2009)
Anyone who blasts something has never seriously driven one. I had an opportunity to drive a stock Hummer H3 off road and was completely amazed at capabilities of the vehicle. It was going places stock Wranglers couldn't.
Flame all you want, but it is (was) an amazing vehicle.
And yes, you can fit more sh!t from Walmart in a Kia Sorento, but shouldn't we be buying less sh!t from Walmart and buying more things that put more Americans to work so we can get out of this recession? That is until the ink dries on the Chinese deal. :)
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Joe 4:02PM (11/11/2009)
Why in the world would they still make these things and stop making saturn...Now I know why GM is going down the tubes...
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ForgedInternals 4:10PM (11/11/2009)
GM tried to sell Saturn and Penske backed out. The Chinese kept their word though they were probably already building knockoff Hummers that are now Genuine Hummers