GM Sells Hummer Unit To Chinese Firm And Investor

[Blue_Tires]

Source: NPR

It has been widely expected that General Motors' Hummer unit, the maker of trucks inspired by the U.S. military's Humvee, would soon have a new Chinese owner.

On Friday, Hummer's sale became official with GM announcing that had reached a definitive agreement with China's Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. Ltd.

GM didn't disclose the sales price. But reports are that the sale price was about $150 million, much less than the $500 million GM had estimated it could sell the company for in its bankruptcy filing.

Once a symbol of the American penchant for really giant gas-guzzling vehicles, the Hummer brand became something of an automotive dinosaur when U.S. gas prices soared to $4 a gallon last year.


Read more: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/10/gm_sells_hummer_unit_to_chines.html

[Taverner]

1. I don't get it - they bag Saturn, but keep Hummer alive?

[Blue_Tires]

4. the asians have been wanting the Hummer brand for a LONG time

GM could not get a reliable buyer for Saturn...Although I DO wish they kept Pontiac....

[harmonicon]

25. oh, yeah.... Pontiac

because nothing makes sense like putting a different grill on some chevy and a spoiler on the back - that's a real car company there. Hell, maybe some other car company will buy the pontiac name and put spoilers on their cars too.

[laconicsax]

32. Makes perfect sense...

It's the Frito-Lay model--give consumers tons of different 'competing' brands to create the illusion of choice.

[harmonicon]

34. Tostitos , Doritos, and Fritos are all completely different!!

They are different in shape, thickness, and amount of caked-on cheese stuff.

[laconicsax]

39. Not when you get down to it.

What's the difference between Tostitos and Doritos? Is caked-on cheese stuff really any more than a different grill and spoiler?
What's the difference between Tostitos and Fritos? Is a different cut and more oil any more than a different grill and spoiler?

Lays and Ruffles are fairly different, but they added Wavy Lays to 'compete' with Ruffles.

[harmonicon]

40. I may have been making a joke (nt)

[laconicsax]

43. My bad.

[fujiyama]

6. Once the Penske deal fell through

Saturn was done. There weren't any other buyers out there.

If they couldn't have sold Hummer, I'm sure they'd be shutting it down too.

[blue_onyx]

20. I'm surprised there are no other buyers for Saturn

I thought that a Chinese company would want the Saturn dealer network to start selling their vehicles over here.

[Taverner]

24. I'm surprised Tesla Motors didn't buy it

Think of all the equipment and name brand if anything

[donco6]

2. Now even more reasons to laugh at those dumbass vehicles.

Made In China. So take the damn US flags off.

[Blue_Tires]

7. yeah, the mind marvels at what dangerous rattletrap the Chinese plan to slap the Hummer name on...

I'll be surprised if any Chinese-made ones make it over here...I think they will keep sales in Asia and the Middle East....

[pattmarty]

9. Most of the "stuff" you buy is made in China. Back in the 50's & 60's ......

..........The Japanese were laughed at for making cheap transistor radios and junk. Then they started making motorcycles (by the way, just the same as the Chinese are doing) and guess what? Honda became one of the largest automotive/motorcycle companies in the world. Not making to shabby a car, either. The Chinese will be just the same, making higher and higher quality products for their "customers".

[donco6]

12. NOT the point.

The Hummer was always billed as the "thumb your nose at liberals, ride the biggest MoFo vehicle in the effing WORLD USA USA USA" car.

And now it's made in China. Has nothing to do with it's quality. (Although that is seriously hindered by its basic design).

[pattmarty]

13. Yeah, is the point!!!! I was responding to the posters insinuation............

..........that the Chinese make crap. I personally don't give a shit about the Hummer as I always thought it had something to do with the buyers 'dick size". My response is the Chinese will be making higher & higher quality products and their products will cease being made fun of and will more than likely be the some of the best products in the world. Look at Germany, England, the US and Japan. All make/made quality products that were the envy of the rest of the world.

[SWr]

14. except that

Right now with rampent corruption and LACK OF CARE the Chinese make

faulty products, DANGEROUS FOOD items, AND NOW HAZARDOUS BUILDING MATERIALS.

So no ... China's got a long long GD way to go before they get their act together.

[pattmarty]

26. I agree with that, but they're coming on like a freight train and...................

.................their products are increasingly getting better. I could give a shit who makes my toaster as long as it's safe, and if you think the US will ever GET BACK into manufacturing, It'll be a cold day in hell. Every day the US lets the world pass it by in everything, the manufacturing infrastructure decays or gets torn down for a football field. So, you won't be able to buy your toaster here, and if you want one you'll have to get it somewhere. China, Japan, S Korea, India or ?????.

[HillbillyBob]

15. I still have a private smirk when I hear 'hummer' since

I recall something else to do with dick when I was young.

[RKP5637]

18. LOL!!!

:)

[arikara]

42. I dont think it was any insinuation

the Chinese do make crap. Cheap toxic disposable crap. I try to avoid it as much as possible, the problem being that its very hard to find anything that isn't made in China anymore. And there are no signs of it changing anytime soon in their insane rush for more and bigger profits.

No doubt the Hummer will now become disposable too. haha

[leveymg]

44. There's nothing wrong with a big 4WD box powered by a huge engine, if you're

going to haul an infantry squad and a TOW missile up a sand dune. The HUMMER has it's place. Just not sure I want to see a million of these things with People's Liberation Army markings in the the Middle East.

[jmowreader]

30. Not really, no

There have been three versions of the Hummer--H1, H2 and H3. The Hummer H1 is the civilianized version of the M998 HMMWV the military buys, it's made by AM General, and with the war going on they don't have time to make civilian versions of it. So for right now, the H1 is nonexistent in the marketplace.

The H2 is also made in the AM General plant. They've got a separate building to make these, so they can churn out as many as they want. Since GM owned the Hummer brand, AM General produced them under a contract manufacturing arrangement.

The H3 is built on the Chevy Colorado pickup chassis in the GM Shreveport, LA, assembly plant. This plant did contract manufacturing before the Hummer deal happened; the Isuzu I280 pickup is made there as it's nothing more than a Chevy Colorado with a different nameplate. (Crawl under an I280 at your local Isuzu dealer and marvel at all the GM stickers on everything.)

So...Hummer headquarters moves to China. AM General contract-assembles for the Chinese instead of GM, and GM Shreveport contract-assembles the H3.

Here's what I don't get about the huge, vaunted GM restructuring: Before Bush raped the economy there were two GM divisions selling trucks: Chevrolet and GMC. In the New GM, there are still two GM divisions selling trucks. Why, exactly, weren't GM's truck operations concentrated into one organization? I realize one of the major reasons to have GMC in the line was to give Buick dealers a truck to sell, but come on: you take GMC and Chevrolet's truck line, merge them, call it "Chevy Truck" and sell it in both places. You immediately have half the headcount at headquarters, advertising expenses are lower because you're not competing internally, and so on. GMC made sense when they still made Class 8 tractors, but those days are long gone--how many of the truckers currently on the road have even HEARD of an Astro 95?

[TankLV]

36. I thought the 3 versions of hummer are teeth, no teeth, or just tongue...

or was it morning woody, daydream woody, or shower woody...

[jmowreader]

38. Different kind of hummer, sorry

But gee...you'd think they would have noticed they named their car after a sex act.

[RKP5637]

3. One more for China! n/t

[nc4bo]

16. USA USA USA!!11

And another one bites the dust. :shrug:

[RKP5637]

17. Amazing, isn't it. I'm not a fan of Hummers, but I don't like seeing USA companies leaving or being

sold and the endless outsourcing.

[MercutioATC]

5. ...andf the wheel turns

Remember about 30 years ago when people scoffed at the idea that someday we'd be buying our radios from the Japanese?

[fujiyama]

10. Funny you mention it, but the Sony Walkmen was released in 1979

So in a way that really was a major turning point in consumer electronics. Thirty years later, it's tough to find any consumer electronic manufactured here - or even owned by an American company. About that same time, people were just starting to purchase Japanese vehicles. And about ten, the same was the case with Korean cars. Fast forward, and recently Hyundai did better than Chrysler in cash for clunkers.

The Chinese don't yet have a major brand in the US that can compete and they're simply trying to ride off the laurels of previously established brands. It'll be a test to see if they can maintain quality with the brands they've been purchasing (by this I mean Volvo since the Hummer itself is of questionable quality). It'll be interesting to see if Chery or any of the other Chinese automakers will be successful with their own brand.

[WriteDown]

8. What's scary is that the Chinese love these....

Its nuts.

[Blue_Tires]

11. the name is still big on the other side of the world

that is what the chinese want to bank on...

[Yupster]

45. And anyway, we're sending China $ 300 million a day in interest payments

on the debt they have loaned us.

They have to do something with all those dollars. Why not buy our businesses, farms, etc.

[NecklyTyler]

19. For the sake of the environment, Hummer should have been sent to the bottom of the sea

If a car brand ever deserved to be retired, Hummer would have been it

[blue_onyx]

21. Well....

Toyota makes the Sequoia which gets the same gas mileage as the Hummer. For some reason, people focus on only Hummer.

[NecklyTyler]

22. The Sequoia doesn't have the 'manly' military overtones

Ya' know, the old kill people and break things kind of car

[blue_onyx]

23. That's not what you said though

You said Hummer should go away "For the sake of the environment." Now it's because of the "military overtones." Environmentally, the Sequoia is just as bad as Hummer.

[NecklyTyler]

33. Pick your poison; I ride my bicycle whenever I can

Speaking only for myself, if I had the kind of money it takes to own either a Toyota Sequoia or a Hummer, I would buy a better bicycle and a Nissan Cube. I want to get the maximum utility from the CO2 I put in the atmosphere, and lookin' good in a Hummer just doesn't make in it on my list of useful things to do.

To me, the Hummer is one of the top ten ways of flaunting waste and disregard for the environment.



The Cube:

[PSzymeczek]

28. True, that!

The Sequoia doesn't leap to mind when one mentions "Urban Assault Vehicle".

[Hoopla Phil]

27. By by Hummer, hello Chummer.

[Zorro]

29. The Chinese military is probably a prime market for Chinese Hummers

[madrchsod]

37. the chinese military makes a knock off version of the hummer...

the chinese do`t engineer they just buy stuff and copy it.

[Rapier09]

31. Kiss another piece of America goodbye

Shame it has to keep going down this road.

[TankLV]

35. It's hard work trying to keep a hummer going...!!!

and the Chinese have been wanting a hummer for a long time...!!!

[harmonicon]

41. damn

That actually made me laugh. I think I become more immature the older I get.