News Week Article on Love to Hate the Hummer

[Desert Dan]

This is from Newsweek Magazine
BUSINESS
Love to Hate the Hummer

It's gone from Hollywood status symbol to the butt of jokes faster than you can say $4 a gallon.

Keith Naughton
NEWSWEEK
Updated: 1:52 PM ET Jul 26, 2008
Has the Hummer lost its street cred? To find out, NEWSWEEK tooled around the fashionable avenues of Los Angeles in one, just like the boys from Queens who drive a yellow H2 chick magnet in HBO's "Entourage." It wasn't pretty. We had a tough time finding a lot that rents Hummers anymore, and when we finally landed a big black H2, it already bore battle scars?long key marks scored along the side. After burning a gallon of gas every eight miles, our intrepid car reviewer Tara Weingarten and Business Editor David Jefferson stopped at an outdoor caf? in the trendy Silver Lake neighborhood, just down the block from an auto shop that converts cars to run on vegetable oil (Lovecraft Biofuels said it couldn't help us with our Hummer). Parallel-parking the beast caused a commotion: David had to hop out to direct Tara, an expert driver who wound up cutting off a biker, blocking two lanes of traffic and rear-ending a bush before pulling into the space. The disgusted diners had had enough. Three flipped us off, and one even dropped trou and mooned our Hummer.
L.A. hipsters aren't the only ones turning tail on Hummer. As gas prices soared above $4 a gallon, Hummer sales fell 60 percent in May and 54 percent in June. But fuel costs are really only a flesh wound. The mortal injury comes from its image implosion. Those gun slits and that growling grille, which provided cartoony comfort post 9/11, now seem sadly out of step as our focus turns from Homeland Security to sustainability. To many, the Hummer now seems overbearing, overweight, militaristic, narcissistic. Cultural experts find it hard to recall a luxury good that has tarnished as quickly. "It began in a heroic mode," says Michael Marsden, a pop culture professor at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin. "But then when 80 percent of the American public turns against the war, what do you have?"
Hummer was born in the early '90s, when AM General, the military contractor that made the Gulf War Humvee (High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle), created a street-legal version at the urging of Arnold Schwarzenegger (who has since tried to atone by converting his Hummers to hydrogen and biofuel). GM acquired Hummer in 1998 and in 2002 launched the slightly smaller H2. Gas was about $1.35 a gallon, and the car quickly became an embed on MTV's "Cribs" and "CSI: Miami."
Then came the war in Iraq, and buying a Hummer was tantamount to supporting the troops. "Those who deface a Hummer in words or deeds," an enthusiast told The New York Times shortly after the war broke out, "deface the American flag." GM planned for a Hummer surge, drawing up designs for a phalanx of Hummers and urging dealers to spend millions building showrooms that looked like Quonset huts. But the war went south, gas went north, and Hummer became roadkill.
We asked a Toyota of Santa Monica dealer to evaluate what a Hummer like ours would get in trade for a Prius. He said he would probably only make the deal if we paid him $25,000, which is, ahem, about the price of a Prius. These days, a three-year-old Hummer H2 fetches $20,925, just 36 percent of its original sticker price of $59,070, according to the Automotive Lease Guide (in 2006, three-year-old H2s were retaining 58 percent of their value). "I couldn't give the damn thing away," says Kentucky attorney Bob Sanders, who has grown weary of the grief he gets for his gas hog. "Any environmentalist is welcome to buy it from me for fair market value."
General Motors, Hummer's ailing parent, finally waved the white flag in June and hired Citibank to sell the brand. At a press conference Friday, CEO Rick Wagoner said, "We have some interested buyers." Since the old warhorse still has cachet overseas, analysts predict bidders will come from India, China or Russia (an ironic post-cold-war victory?). If there are no takers, GM says it will make Hummers smaller and easier on gas?that is, after it rolls out a Hummer pickup this fall that's even bigger and no more fuel-efficient.
Wyoming dealer Trace Swisher wonders what will become of his $1.5 million Quonset hut. "I guess it could always become a Starbucks," he says. If only Hummers ran on soy lattes.



http://www.newsweek.com/id/148982

[RubHer Yellow Ducky]

[Minuteman1636]

Thanks for posting it.

However,



Same ol' same ol' from the liberal mainstream media. They can bite me and my gas guzzler!

[homeboy]

i wouldnt wipe my a$$ with that article.thats news?with all thats going on in the world they want to write an article on hating hummers?

[RuggedH2]

Objectivity........

Let's face it........ the liberal lefty greenies did a great job of sticking the Hummer with a bum rap. They screamed and cried and threw a massive fit for long enough..... that the general public assumed where there was smoke there was fire.

You can drive around in a Ford F350 Power-Joke all day and nobody will notice it or whine at all. A Toyota Sequoia or a Nissan Armada will get a pass from almost every greenie out there.

Is there any significant gas mileage or pollution difference between these models?......nope.

I think jealousy plays a large role, but the greenies made the Hummers the point man of their propaganda assault on SUV's and in typical lefty symbolism over substance style......... they succeeded in convincing many half-wit Americans. If/when Hummer falls...... do you think the others will be safe then? The lefties will not stop what they see as success and victory. Divide and conquer.

The price of gas convinced those owners only in it for the style points to bail......good riddance.

GM marketed the rig to MTV..... and offered a chrome after-market.

Hindsight here...... mistakes were made all over the place.

For my 2 cents...... I don't know of another rig that offers all that my H2 does..... anywhere.

That word didn't get out.......

The greenies look like they won this one......... GM is looking to cut and run from the bad PR.

I'll be keeping my rig. They can all kiss my ass.

[Viet Nam Vette]

The greenies look like they won this one......... GM is looking to cut and run from the bad PR.

I'll be keeping my rig. They can all kiss my ass

.

I agree..And they can S _ _ K my D _ _ K

I just saw a piece on the screwed up Biased news media today. They were shooting down the HUMMER Brand and showed Arnold in the early days with his H1 ..Then they went on yaping and showed the Hum-V...and they continued to yap and showed the H2.

They talked about how poor the milage is and then compared it to the Toyota model (I forget which one) that get's simular milage as the H2 but said since the Toyota makes some green cars nobody bust's on there gas hog SUV.

The whole time they didn't even show or mention the H3. Fargen Biased News media... Full of crap..!!!!




Plus... My rig is an 07 Loaded with every option (Not an X) and the on line valvue is no more then $20.695.00.
It only has 10500 miles and is in perfect shape. Was thinking about moving up to an2008 Alpha V8 just to say FU to the Greenies and burn every last drop of oil that comes out of the ground.

Wonder what 08 loaded 3's are going for at the dealers??

[DennisAJC]

I will always hate the H3.

[Dave92270]

Originally Posted by Viet Nam Vette

.

...
Plus... My rig is an 07 Loaded with every option (Not an X) and the on line valvue is no more then $20.695.00.
It only has 10500 miles and is in perfect shape. Was thinking about moving up to an2008 Alpha V8 just to say FU to the Greenies and burn every last drop of oil that comes out of the ground.

Wonder what 08 loaded 3's are going for at the dealers??

why not wait for '09 Alpha? it should be hopefully out in a couple of months(?)... with dual lockers. You can always wait until early next year when the '09 Alphas will be hopefully available with rebates. When 09 Alpha is out, I will probably go see the dealership...unless I'll get pissed enough from hearing about all of this oil/hybrid/green/eco/ crap every day, and trade for H2 just for the heck of it. It's just that H3 is so convenient vehicle...not too huge to possess smallest problem to fit average garage or tight parking lot (and tight trails), gets through any carwash easily (I do wash my truck after every off-road trip, which is somewhat frequent), and is apparently less hate magnet (particularly these days) then oversized H2.. and H3 works for my "light off-road" needs just fine.

[HummerJim]

I agree that a lot of it is jealousy. After over 3 years of owning Hummers, I've found:
1. People either love or hate them - very few in between.
2. The higher the yearly income, the more they like the Hummer.
3. They all think we get 8 to 9 mpg.
4. Kids universally LOVE THE HUMMER!
5. Hummer Haters have low self esteem & below average education.
6. They feel threatened by the size and grille design when next to you on the highway.
7. After a ride in a Hummer, the haters are much more prone to be quiet. We did this at an off road outing in the Ozarks where there were some Hummer haters gathered in the staging area, and those that road in the H1s came back truly speechless.

[HummerMann]

As a four year Hummer owner. I agree strongly with the jealousy & envy part. I would also add point #8:
8. When there is 18 inches of snow on the ground, you and your Hummer suddenly become everyone's best friend.

During the Blizzard of '05 in Upstate New York, I had over one dozen calls from friends and business associates that needed to get somewhere. Our family doctor, who lives a mile away, even called and asked me if I could take him in to his office. Our son and daughters are the same way about the Hummer too - if they have to go somewhere and the Hummer is here, it's take us "in the Hummer." After little league baseball it's always Mr. X can you take us home in the Hummer.

[RubHer Yellow Ducky]

Have had both of my H-3's now for about 2 1/2 years and living in hurricane central I notice in off season (Dec-May) many jerks yell and scream and give you the finger etc...

BUT

come June 1st everyone becomes your friend and all the jokes and crap stops...