Autoblog

There's no official obituary for GM's HUMMER brand yet, but haters are lacing up their dancing shoes while lovers wring their hands. Dealers with HUMMER franchises have a lot of skin in the game, so the uncertain future is bound to give business officers ulcers. Not willing to wait around to the bitter end, Milwaukee's Bergstrom HUMMER is planning to move into the same space as the group's Chevrolet store. The HUMMER-specific Quonset hut style dealership building will be toned down and pressed into service as an outlet for Certified used GM vehicles. Other HUMMER dealers across the nation are staring down the same conundrum, being on the hook for that big, rugged showroom, test track, inventory, and staff, while the parent company looks to clamp off bleeders. Some might follow Bergstrom's lead and shove the big trucks into a corner of a showroom dominated by a more stable brand, while others are shipping inventory as fast as they can.

Moving product is a tremendous challenge when the bobbleheads on the nightly news continue shrilly about the price of fuel and you've got a lot full of low-mpg, high weight trucks that happen to be a favorite target of vandals euphemistically masquerading as "activists." Customers that do make it through the door are looking for deals, and HUMMER will spot you five thousand bucks to take an H3, PLEASE. Existing customers are looking to get out of their vehicles any way possible, even if it means a financial hit. The mass exodus isn't solely due to hysteria, when it costs over $100 to fill the fuel tank, it chafes to watch the fuel gauge's precipitously quick drop toward "E." Retail issues aside, HUMMER still offers capable vehicles with a high level of style. If you've got a boat to pull, and want to look like the Governator, an H2 could still be just the thing, and now you'll be able to find one for a song; most likely the blues.


[Source: Inside Line]

Click above for a hi-res gallery from the first day of the Baja 500

Autoblog was invited to join HUMMER for last weekend's Baja 500 and, along with Mike Levine from PickupTrucks.com, we'd be riding shotgun – or in Mike's case, backseat driving – with Chad and Josh Hall, sons of general off-road racing guru and Baja Hall of Famer Rod Hall. Having no idea what it takes to pilot a massive lump of essentially stock machinery at high speeds over rocks, jumps, ravines and cliffside single-track, the lessons – and the dust, heat, and bouncing – would be constant. Check out the gallery of hi-res images below, and follow the jump to find out about day one: pre-running. And that white helmet in the pic above? Yes, that's us, not The Stig. We eat Stigs.

Click the image above for more pics

With the rise in fuel prices in recent years, the HUMMER brand has been the poster child for gas-guzzling. For some, however, the rugged vehicles represent a dream come true. The husband-wife art duo of Lauren Was and Adam Eckstrom wanted to make their own H3, and they used $35,000 in worthless lottery tickets to get the job done. The couple's work of art is called "Ghost of a Dream," and the idea behind the name is that people often dream of buying a new car when they're scratching off their tickets.

The final H3 Lottery Edition looks incredibly true to life, and it includes windshield wipers, tires, tow hooks, and all its body panels made entirely out of lottery tickets. The rims are plastic molds lined with coins that represent the principal tool people use to scratch off the tickets. Even if the final work of art doesn't end up in a major gallery any time soon, at least someone has finally found a use for all those worthless lottery losers.


[Source: Projo via Jalopnik]

Our friend Mike Levine, proprietor of PickupTruck.com, was trying out the new H3T pickup out in Moab, Utah this week and learned that the H3 will finally lose its hoary old five-cylinder base engine in favor of something a little more modern. A new flex fuel-capable direct-injected 3.6L V6 like the one used in the HX concept will become the new base powerplant for the H3 by 2010. The last remaining question is, will the H3 get a diesel? The answer is yes... eventually. We spoke with HUMMER's Martin Walsh at the New York Auto Show this week and a diesel is in the cards for the H3, and it will be different than the diesel six-cylinder being used in Europe. Since the 4.5L fits in anything that GM's small-block V8 does, the European diesel six is possible, but a smaller diesel seems more likely. To that end, we've heard rumors since last spring of a new diesel V6 being developed for use in the H3. We don't know when it's ultimately going to arrive, but it will, and change is clearly afoot on the powertrain side at HUMMER.

[Source: PickupTruck.com, Photo: Alex Núñez]

Click above for more high-res pics of the R/C HUMMER H3

When I was a yungin', there was no better way to approximate the thrill of actually driving a car than terrorizing my backyard with a Tamiya Blackfoot. The Blackfoot was a 1:10 scale Ford F-150 monster truck with four independent shocks, two-wheel drive and a plastic flareside body. Fast forward to 2008, and it's not uncommon to see Adam and Jamie from Mythbusters piloting full-size rocket cars from a helicopter using an R/C controller similar to the one I used back in the day. Perhaps that's why the sight of a full-size, right-hand-drive, radio-controlled HUMMER H3 doesn't shock us much, but we still have to give mad props to engineer Dr. James Brighton from Cranfield University for creating an R/C car that rivals my Blackfoot. GM says the remote-controlled HUMMER can climb a 407mm vertical wall, traverse a 40% side slope and run through 610mm of water. Yeah, but can it jump two tree branches? I thought not. Blackfoot FTW.


[Source: GM]





[Source: GM via Zerc Customs]

include press release from Zerc after jump and make gallery of pics

HUMMER's image has always been one of excessive excess. While much of that portrayal is due to GM's own marketing, the people who purchase the imposing 'utes – be they high-profile celebs or well-to-do suburbanites – have done more to define the brand than GM's marketing boffins ever could. But the General wants to change all that.

Mark LaNeve, GM's North American veep of sales, service and marketing, is spearheading a campaign that's trying to show HUMMERs in a different light; specifically vehicles to get a particular job done. "No one criticizes a bulldozer for its gas mileage. That's because it's built to do a job," laments LaNeve in a USAToday interview. Fair enough Mark, but a bulldozer has a single-minded purpose – moving earth – whereas HUMMERs aren't always being used to plug mud and move boats. They've become lifestyle vehicles that are often not used for their intended purpose – just like the majority of SUVs on the road.

Regardless, GM's recent ad campaigns attempt to show the HUMMER in a more functional light, depicting the overblown SUV hauling firefighting gear and helping out with natural disaster relief. "Purpose Built" is the new tagline, but at the end of the day, no amount of PR will help HUMMER if people continue to see them parked outside the local Starbucks.

[Source: USAToday via Winding Road]

Japanese fashionistas are getting a three-ton present from the General this coming spring when it will begin shipping HUMMERs to the Land of the Rising Sun. Martin Walsh, HUMMER's General Manager, told the Detroit News that despite slow vehicle sales in Japan, the island nation will become another niche player for GM's iconic off-roader.

Although Walsh remained mum on what models will be making their way across the Pacific, we were surprised during our recent trip to Japan when we saw a few H2s and H3s making the rounds on Japan's congested motorways. The HX concept revealed yesterday would be an obvious candidate for consumers abroad, and we're convinced that an H5 kei-car would be a winner if HUMMER ever decided to think small(ish).

[Source: Detroit News]

Click image to enlarge

>Well now, doesn't this look like fun? HUMMER's H3R SEMA concept takes an off-road racing theme and then dials it up well past the maximum. You see, in addition to being lifted four inches and decked out in all manner of butch accessories like 20" rims wrapped in 35" Mickey Thompsons, a bull bar, and enough lights to illuminate Giants Stadium, the biggest story of all is the LS7 someone swiped from a Corvette Z06 and dropped under the H3's hood. That hood, by the way, incorporates a Lexan panel -- all the better to show off the 500-horse V8 stuffed beneath it.

The interior's also overhauled, fitted with racing buckets, a window net, upgraded trim, and a deleted back seat. The spare tire gets moved into the cargo area, and a jerry can takes its vacated spot on the carrier in back. The LS7 exhales through a quad-outlet exhaust that's integrated into the rear bumper. This is fairly badass, to be sure. A full breakdown of the numerous mods can be found after the jump. One thing you won't read in the release is that HUMMER will be gauging reaction to both this show truck and the H2 Safari concept that'll be parked next to it at SEMA. According to our source, if the reaction's good, limited-edition production versions are a fair bet. Don't expect to see the LS7 in a consumer-grade H3R, however. If that project does happen, the 5.3L V8 from the H3 Alpha would be used, instead.

[Source: GM]

Germany's GeigerCars has an affinity for American metal, and is unafraid to go to wacky extremes in its efforts to create its customized whips. Often, HUMMER provides the canvas for these tuners with dubs on their brains, and the arrival of the V8-powered H3 Alpha has inspired them to whip up a new ground pounder. The result is the HUMMER H3 GT you see here. An engine software tune, new intake, and sport exhaust (note the dual outlets in back) boost the Alpha's numbers to 335 horsepower and 323 lb-ft of torque. The rig is also dropped, given uprated brakes and a set of 23" rims. The windows get the blackout treatment, as do the taillamps and markers in front. Finally, the bodywork is given a monochrome finish accented with a racing stripe in whatever color the owner chooses. On the green tip, GeigerCars can also rig the H3 to run on natural gas, reducing emissions up to 20%. It's all laid out in the press release after the jump. You see? The Germans know how to roll with mad flavor, too.

[Source: GeigerCars.de]

AM General says because of Hummer-sized dropoff in sales, it will cut 160 jobs at its Indiana plant by year end. Company officials say expensive gas and relatively large sticker prices are two obstacles even the lane-hogging Hummer H2 just can't overcome. H2 sales have also been cannibalized by the somewhat smaller and more fuel-efficient H3.

On an ironically positive note, U.S. government orders for military Humvees are outpacing the Indiana plant's production capability. AMG spokesman Craig Mac Nab says some of the newly unemployed workers might be moved to H1 production.

This isn't the first time H2 plant workers have been laid off. AMG let go 170 workers in January. The H2 plant also shut down for two weeks in October in an attempt to control overproduction. Is this the end of the lumbering, dinosaur-like H2? Or can it evolve into a more planet-friendly vehicle?

[Sources: CNN and The Detroit News]