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
Desert Dan
H3 2006 Adventure/Lux/5-speed/sunroof/rock rails/underbody skids/block heater/Boulder Grey/ Defender Roof Rack
Jeep TJ Rubicon 2003
1988 Jeep Cherokee
Gone - But- Not Forgotten 4x4's
1994 Jeep YJ
Toyota 4x4 Truck(s)
1970 Jeep CJ-5
1962 Willys Wagon
However,
Same ol' same ol' from the liberal mainstream media. They can bite me and my gas guzzler!
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.
Black Sheep Hummer Squadron
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??
Last edited by Viet Nam Vette : 08-02-2008 at 10:16 PM.
Thread Tools
Search this Thread
Display Modes
Posting Rules