atlaw4u
06-15-2008, 10:00 AM
The SUV monster has weathered controversy for years, but $4 gas and plummeting sales have pushed GM to explore selling the brand - or killing it off entirely. (http://www.startribune.com/cars/19799544.html?location_refer=Homepage)
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2008_Hummer_H2.jpgDan Neil - LA Times - June 11, 2008
A couple of years ago, I parked a Hummer H2, in all its blunt-trauma enormity, in front of a coffee shop in Santa Monica, Calif. When I returned I discovered a note written on a paper napkin under the windshield. "This thing is so stupid! Why don't you grow up?''
America just got the memo.
General Motors Corp. said this month that Hummer sales plummeted 60 percent last month compared with May 2007, and that GM was considering ways to downsize the brand, sell it or kill it outright. Chairman Rick Wagoner's "all options'' remark didn't leave a lot of hope for fans of the quasi-military sport-utility vehicle. Obituaries will be many and eulogies will be few.
"GM killed the electric car, and now skyrocketing gas prices have crushed the Hummer,'' said Arianna Huffington, who founded the Detroit Project, an effort to pressure automakers to make more fuel-efficient vehicles.
"The Hummer embodied the worst impulses of the American auto industry,'' said Josh Donner, spokesman for the Sierra Club, which also created a shame-based campaign against the Hummer, including the satiric website Hummerdinger.com. "GM's move this week shows the absolute bankruptcy of GM's business model.''
And yet, Hummer lovers are a resilient bunch, and while the skirmish line has moved, it's clear that many are not prepared to disarm in the automotive culture wars.
"Whatever the price of gas,'' said Glen Peck, director of the Hummer Club, a national organization of enthusiasts, "we'll drive them to hell and back.''… http://www.startribune.com/cars/19799544.html?location_refer=Homepage
http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/2008_Hummer_H2.jpgDan Neil - LA Times - June 11, 2008
A couple of years ago, I parked a Hummer H2, in all its blunt-trauma enormity, in front of a coffee shop in Santa Monica, Calif. When I returned I discovered a note written on a paper napkin under the windshield. "This thing is so stupid! Why don't you grow up?''
America just got the memo.
General Motors Corp. said this month that Hummer sales plummeted 60 percent last month compared with May 2007, and that GM was considering ways to downsize the brand, sell it or kill it outright. Chairman Rick Wagoner's "all options'' remark didn't leave a lot of hope for fans of the quasi-military sport-utility vehicle. Obituaries will be many and eulogies will be few.
"GM killed the electric car, and now skyrocketing gas prices have crushed the Hummer,'' said Arianna Huffington, who founded the Detroit Project, an effort to pressure automakers to make more fuel-efficient vehicles.
"The Hummer embodied the worst impulses of the American auto industry,'' said Josh Donner, spokesman for the Sierra Club, which also created a shame-based campaign against the Hummer, including the satiric website Hummerdinger.com. "GM's move this week shows the absolute bankruptcy of GM's business model.''
And yet, Hummer lovers are a resilient bunch, and while the skirmish line has moved, it's clear that many are not prepared to disarm in the automotive culture wars.
"Whatever the price of gas,'' said Glen Peck, director of the Hummer Club, a national organization of enthusiasts, "we'll drive them to hell and back.''… http://www.startribune.com/cars/19799544.html?location_refer=Homepage