Unwanted Hummer

Seems no car company is interested in picking up General Motors’ declining brand, Hummer. With sales dropping nearly 50% in the past quarters, no wonder there are not many holding companies that are willing to step up to the plate and save the brand.

Hummer has proven it’s strength in the new and up-coming Yuppie market, however increasing fuel prices caused a significant drop in it’s sales. GM using the Hummer name after the success of it’s H1 series, which has been used for decades as the flagship of it’s Army, built out the brand to offer more economical versions of it’s H1. The H2, H3 and H3 SUT were born.

Built on the same platform as the GMC Yukon, it shares a large number of components with the fairly popular SUV. The body and overall exterior styling offer the unique boxy look that distinguishes the brand.

As reported, Indian jeep manufacturer Mahindra has dropped out of the running for the brand, as has the Russian SUV manufacturer that was slightly interested in it.

The kicker came when even the Chinese cancelled negotiations on the brand. China Car News reports that Changfeng dropped out of negotiations for the brand, when they concluded that the average fuel consumption for the Hummer brand was too great for the Chinese market.

Changfeng in the meantime has changed it’s tune and announced it was never interested in the brand to begin with, however interest was clearly shown, as it’s management team visited the Hummer assembly plant.

Whomever picks up the brand will have access to widespread technologies available in Chevy’s truck line, such as it’s Vortec engine line, it’s OnStar system and it’s sophisticated dealer network.

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Chrysler is currently in talks with Tata motors of India to see if they would be interested in distributing it’s Jeep Wrangler SUV. In India the Wrangler would be up against the like of several Mahindra makes, which is the leading manufacturer of small trucks and SUV’s in the region. Mahindra plans to enter the United States in the coming years with a nice broad selection of diesel fuel efficient small trucks and SUV’s.

Chrysler is also in talks with Fiat, planning on leasing out some of it’s current production capacity in North America for Fiat models. Chrysler is also entertaining the idea of distributing the vehicles for Fiat through it’s vast network of dealers.

Word around Detroit is that GM would love to offload Hummer, it’s gas guzzler brand.  Numbers thrown around are in the 500-700 million dollar range, but whose counting?  Some think, since the Hummer is still a very popular brand in Russia, it might be good enough to be brought up by the same gentleman that bought a portion of Magna last year.
Of course, lets not count out Mahindra Mahindra, who is already in the business of SUV’s so this would be a deal more along the lines of it then Tata.  Lets look at Tata.  Has anyone heard of Tata prior to their announcement of making an extra small car that was to retail for $2500?  Didn’t think so.  So what is the logic behind it to buy Hummer, which is on exactly the opposite end of the spectrum.  Luxurious and expensive.  Time will tell, but it should be an interesting summer…