http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12758767/from/RS.1/

 

That sucks

 

Bummer for that Hummer[]

 

i cannot imagine that this bodes well for the future of the brand. I also cannot imagine that it is possible for GM to lose a significant amount of money on a truck that they don't advertise, run promotions on, and sell only a few hundred a year.

I'm not a GM basher. In fact, i'm really impressed with their new cars from pontiac to caddy. But this is short-sighted stupidity. A company desperately trying to claw their way up, and thinking wildly short-term in the process.

They aren't thinking this through. They're charging $130k for a truck that was originally sold at ... ~50k? not 15 years ago and which hasn't been changed all that much. AM General is already making the military version... Sneak some off the AMG military line and just send them to a custom shop if that's what it takes. paint them, outfit them with leather, etc.

what a sad thing.


on a side note, this has prompted a brother and myself to talk about pooling resources and getting one before they're gone.

 

The military HMMWV and the civilian H1 are made on the same assembly line. Once the H1 gets to a certain point, they are diverted to get the civilian stuff like leather and a cd player. What is interesting is back in 1994 I was an active duty Marine working at a reserve center and we were putting on a static display for the fair or something and while I was doing research on the HMMWV M998 (the basic hummvee soft top 4 door pickup/ wagon) I found that the replacement cost was a mere $37,000. At that time, the only true difference between a military one and a civilian one was the shiny paint job, and a civilized dash. The extra $20K didn't go far then, and the approx extra $100K goes even less today.

 

i guess that's my point. the H1 has to be almost profitable as they spend virtually no money marketing it, its a moderate-expense mod of a not-that-expensive military truck, and the line already exists. for the love of god, at $150k they could just send them to a one-at-a-time custom shop straight off the humvee military line and still offer them for sale.

i suspect some type of image-overhaul is what they have in mind? take away the uber-huge focal point of it all? but they've got it all wrong. it's the H2 that everybody hates, not the H1, and they won't stop selling H2s anytime soon...

i just don't get it. i wonder if people will still be able to get HMMWVs and have them painted/interiorcized??

 

That, I don't know. Officially, you should not be able to buy a surplus HMMWV, but they do exist some how. They are supposed to be destroyed before auction. I don't know how many slip through the cracks, but however many that do, all of the stuff for the H1's would fit, so I don't see why there would be a complete end to them. I don't see the military going away from them anytime soon either. They are the best thing we have on the front lines right now, for the job.

 

I have a feeling that the used H1 market will start to get really strong by this time next year.

In any event, it seems that GM is making a strong commitment to the Hummer brand so the retirement of the H1 shouldn't have too much effect in the long term.

 

They be worth a lot of money to have one because they will become rare like the old car in the 60's