Ramp up on HUMMER models ? Did i just hear that ? They're closing plants faster than ever, and that option is on the table ?

Piss tests all around for the executive pool that had the nuts to propose that.

Close the Crapalanche plant too, nobody is buying those anymore either. Even Honda can't make one that sells well. Then dig through your global platforms and put that 4-cylinder, six-speed into a SMALL four wheel drive SUV.

I actually laughed when you called it a Crapalanche.

Kill the brand, keep a hummer model, make it the corvette of the offroad world. That is the only way those things will sell at the price they will have to sell them at.

It sucks that all these people get layed off because GM managers like most coporate tools, make desicions for short term bottom line and nothing else.

Getting payed millions of dollars to make billion dollar mistakes and still keep your job, is pathetic. Meanwhile guys who make far less get layed off for no mistake of their own, other than working for a pack of idiots. All the forums saw this coming years ago.

@MF

I agree on making it an Icon of the off road world, one model isn't bad but making an entire brand off of it was a bad idea from the get go.

It's good to see enough people getting more fuel efficient, perhaps if China could slow down on their oil use we'd see a small drop in gas prices.

Maybe can sell the brand to the arabs.

ATTENTION TORQUEREPORT READERS:

To all those who defended Hummers and other large, gas-consuming SUV's on this forum - I TOLD YOU SO.

GM should keep the Hummer line around. They don't need to make as many of them as they did in the past, but this could be GM's Jeep line!

You cannot take a Honda Civic off road on purpose, it just doesn't work. You also cannot take a Cobalt and turn it into an ambulance. All vehicles have a purpose to serve. Why some people want to drive around in a Hummer with no one else in it is just plain stupid. But it isn't GM's fault.

But hopefully GM can make some small cars that have great features. BMW just started selling the "1" series here in the States. An overpriced mini car... GM should do the same.

Tommy Boy, I'm right with you.

My wet dreams are coming true. KILL HUMMER! Get that trash off the street! I have yet to see a mud-caked H2 or H3.

All we gotta do now is get the GM workers their jobs back, and take out the GM corporate leaders that are so good at making lousy decisions. The leaders failed. Get rid of them, it's their fault, not the workers.

So this will save GM 1 billion a year.

The UAW strike for the last 3 months cost GM 2 billion.

GM could have kept all those workers employed for another 2 years if it hadn't been for the UAW. I blame them.

Product planning is certainly to blame. But who knew gasoline would double since 2005. Who knew it would more than triple in 5 years? In winter of 2002 it was $1.25 a gallon!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gas_Prices_Medium_Term.png

Gas has always been, and still is, way more expensive in Japan and Europe, so of course they made better small cars. GM catered to what the market wanted, now the market has changed so quickly that their product planning couldn't keep up.
It takes years and years to devolop a new car or truck, not 6 months.

I loved the hummer H1(the corvette of the off-road world), people would actually take them off road. Now they're not even making it anymore. The H2 and H3 are garbage (and I hate them) but have been very profitable until this year.

GM screwed up when it took the original military Humvee and turned it into a hulking box with wheels. If they would have left it alone, it would have had a niche market. Instead, they turned it into a pissing match between middle-aged fathers on who had the bigger gas-guzzler.

The picture is closer to what the original looked like. I like it.

So, they didn't see the writing on the wall (or just ignored it) and now they're going to have to close down plants and cut jobs just to keep their failure to a minimum.

Some things you just have to shake your head at, because there's nothing else you can do.

I see these things on the STREETS driven by soccer mom's and just can't see the logic. And they are ugly, too (the Hummers). Maybe, MAYBE if GM had put diesels in these moving houses in the first place....

IMO they killed the only true Hummer one or two years ago... the only one that wasn't a POS anyway(the H1)... so I guess when they officially announce they're ending production of all the poser hummers I'll have to call it anticlimactic.

Not sure why people rag on others decision to drive what vehicle they want. It does not affect you. get over it. Everyone has different needs, not everyone wants to ride a civic 4 cylinder.

@jorge

with how wasteful the entire hummer is, it effects everyone on the road. 99 percent of the hummers sold will never see anything but soccer games and parking lots. that's almost 3 tons of wasted steel sitting around when a small suv or even sedan would work for the same tasks.

@gary:

Oh please, you are pissing and moaning about the fact the Hummer is to big and takes to many resources? If people are using it then why does it matter? How about the fact that 90% of the cars I see are less than 5 year old? Ever been to a junk yard, miles of scrape metal just doing nothing. The Hummer may be inefficient, but it is not wasteful if you see it on the road. Your analogy is completely worthless.

If you drive an original 1980's car then you can complain, if you have never had a car until it died, then I don't need to hear it.

People can waste THEIR money on what ever they want, I will spend MY money and what I want. It's called capitalism...

Maybe they could do a Hummer mini?
Something like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Pajero_Mini
Would probably sell well in Japan; boxy tonka features on a Kei car.

It's called your a dumb ass.

Brian:
@gary:

Oh please, you are pissing and moaning about the fact the Hummer is to big and takes to many resources? If people are using it then why does it matter? How about the fact that 90% of the cars I see are less than 5 year old? Ever been to a junk yard, miles of scrape metal just doing nothing. The Hummer may be inefficient, but it is not wasteful if you see it on the road. Your analogy is completely worthless.

If you drive an original 1980's car then you can complain, if you have never had a car until it died, then I don't need to hear it.

People can waste THEIR money on what ever they want, I will spend MY money and what I want. It's called capitalism...

JUST ABOUT TIME!!!

To be fair, the Hummer is cool, at least in the show room. Still, killing the brand is a corrective action in my mind to fix the ill-fated decision to make it a road vehicle to begin with. America isn't known to be fuel misers, but even here it was foreseeable that an extreme purpose built vehicle like the Hummer wasn't going to last long. (Dodge, are you paying attention?)

While fuel prices hurt me too at the pump filling now $45 in my car, it's easy to forget that this is still half of what most Europeans would pay at their pumps for the same fuel. So if anything is good about the price, then it's that fuel is still far less in the US than anywhere else and yet high enough to slowly weed out car families that had no practical justification on the road from day One.

GMC management has shown an incredible ignorance of actual development in the World, and the company is now paying the price. Of course for the upper echelon the severance package is going to be sweet (enough) anyway.

@Brian.

I have driven 5 of the 6 cars I've had to the ground for your information (78 cutlass w/200k, 84 mustang w/125k, 88 ranger (sold), 89 probe(wrecked), 95 civic(sold), and not a 2000 Integra that's till running at 160k). Just think of how much scrap will be sitting in the junk yard once that H2 that gets 12mpg sits there since nobody that earns less than $100k a year can afford to drive it once gas breaks $6/gallon. You don't seem to think things through before typing, judgin by that last comment you made. Also, just the fact that GM is considering killing/selling Hummer shows that your precious capitalism is working, however not in your H2 wasteful loving manner.

"All we gotta do now is get the GM workers their jobs back, and take out the GM corporate leaders that are so good at making lousy decisions. The leaders failed. Get rid of them, it's their fault, not the workers."

Workers are a dime a dozen. Every UAW member at GM could have quit the union and went to work for Toyota. The largest overhead cost of building a car in the US? Paying pensions and health care for union members. Toyota isn't beating anyone with style and better vehicals, they are winning because they down have unions pulling their heads under the water.

Andrew:
"BMW just started selling the "1" series here in the States. An overpriced mini car... GM should do the same."

GM does not = BMW. You can only charge a premium for a product when the public thinks said product is worth it. GM's small cars are the crappiest POS available, next to Ford and Chryslers. They should up their quality level to Hyundai's* level and then undercut them.

@Brian

It is completly wasteful, and it affects everyone else.

You don't need a suv to drive down the highway at 70-100mph. You don't need a suv to drive through the city. You only need it to do semi serious off roading, because most vehicles can handle mild off road terrain. Its fine to own one but if you need it for offroad it should be like a boat, or 4 wheeler. A recreational vehicle, not something you commute in every day. The people driving trucks who don't put anything in the back are just as bad, but atleast a truck can do some stuff that other vehicles can't for every day people. For majority of people there is nothing that a suv can do that a minivan can not do better.

1 guy averaging 10mpg in a h2 (thats near what most the magazines got when they tested it). Could be in a malibu getting 25mpg or %250 better fuel economy. Most large SUVs are not much better than the hummer

So numerous greedy drivers are using 2-2.5 times as much gas to cover the same distance as the rest of us. and you don't think that has any affect on the price of gasoline that the rest of us pay? supply and demand, ontop of that gasoline up until now has been fairly inelsastic.

The hummer is just the extreme example, my wallet would love to see it hum its way out of existance.

Maybe GM could make a mild hybrid Hummer; you know an earth friendly, green, SUV.

Ha. Keep Hummer around until after the election. If Osam- err- Obama gets elected, we will be attacked within weeks, and gas prices will be higher than you could imagine. Then, kill Hummer.

If McCain gets elected, we will not see attacks here for years, and gas will drop. Then you can keep Hummer and keep selling the brand.

@ Gary:
Brian is correct . Yes it is CAPITALISM and this is AMERICA..Hummer or Jeep is American's toys and tools not wasted metal , if you have money buying toys and support our American so called : AMERICANISM. Don't sell wasted metal to Jap & China and buy its back.

@ Gary:
Brian is correct . Yes it is CAPITALISM and this is AMERICA. We have every right to purchase wasteful toys to reinforce our MANHOOD and increase our dependancy on FOREIGN oil imports. Placing AMERICA in further debt with NATIONS who despise us is the right of every single AMERICAN. GM is truly mistaken in responding to their CUSTOMER's needs, embracing CAPITALISM, and closing down plants which produce UNWANTED, wasteful gas guzzling hogs. Let's leave our CHILDREN with a legacy of pointless OVERCONSUMPTION and IRRESPONSIBLE behavior, not because we have to but because that is our RIGHT.

GM couldn't stop making these sooner because they represented the biggest profit margins for them. While people can fault them for not having designs in the wings, ready for when the SUV/Truck market finally crashed, you can't blame them for milking every dollar they could out of capitalism.

As far as wanted to spend money the way you want; it's true, you have the right to purchase whatever you want, even if it's overkill for your needs. However, you can't deny that there are other ripples being caused by these actions: gas usage goes up, cause prices to shoot up. Big SUVs are seen as in vogue and everyone buys them; oblivious to the total costs of ownership. People who wouldn't normally buy an SUV, buy one since they don't want to be crushed by one that's being driven by someone unable to properly drive it.

People felt rich due to booming real estate, low interest rates and general obliviousness to the course of history. People who didn't truly need these for livelihood reasons bought them for status (or just to keep up with the Joneses), to feel safe and to entertain a slight glimmer of a chance they might be "outdoorsy" like they saw in the commercials. Not to mention the conspicuous consumption aspects of the "bling" lifestyle.

Now that the shadows of real estate bust, recession and increased competition for global resources (not just oil) is upon us, people are being forced to reconsider their options since their current usage is unsustainable.

Does that mean that trucks/SUVs are useless? No; people who actually need them, or can afford the wastages they entail will always buy them. It's just that the magnitude of that "wastage" removes the ability of a great portion of people to be able to afford it, whether the cost is in money terms or social terms ("look, they're destroying the planet").

Where people get hung up is that these manufacturers, for the large part, only fed the hunger. Especially among American manufacturers, whose history lay in bigger, more powerful = better, who's going to buck the trend and create something smaller unless there's an external shock to change the landscape? Especially when those behemoths were the most profitable and, arguably, least technically innovative things they made. Until their hand (or pocketbook) got slapped, they weren't going to change, just like buyers didn't change until gas prices slapped them.

It's a cycle that likely knows no end. I'm sure people in the 70's, with the gas shock then, wouldn't have bet that gas guzzlers would have made a comeback. People, as a whole, have a way of forgetting and make the same sort of self-serving choices time and time again.

haha, on how I love everyone complaining that other peopleare using up resources because of what is being driven on the road. What you drive, makes a difference, as well as how FAR you drive. maybe if people did not live 30..40...60+ miles at times from their jobs the gas consumption in the gas consumption in the country would decrease. I drive a 96 Trans am..yes a big gas chugging GM 5.7L V8...however I car pool to work with one other person (did this when gas was under $2). I have always shopped at stores close by when I can, for convience and time not gas savings. I do drive to Atlanta twice a year from here in Tampa (1100 roundtrip), and still have only put 47k on my car (bought in 2002 with 57k on the dial).

Unless something drastic...and I mean drastic like $10 a gallon gas here in the US happens, I will always buy a car on looks first, then power, then interior, then maybe fuel economy. The problem is, all fuel efficient cars are way too bland and/or fugly.

...and no, I do not drive an old car because I can not afford a new one, lol. I just do not like the look of new cars as I have no need for a 4 door when I am single.

@Rodger

Purchasing a smaller car instead of a large suv was/is something everyone could do, generally they're cheaper. Moving closer to work is not something everyone can do. There would not be enough houses in downtown areas to allow for this, and many people don't make enough money to afford to live in a downtown area. While living closer and taking mass transit would cut gas costs the most. The thing everyone could have done to keep demand low was not buy gigantic vehicles that they don't need. Now we're all paying the price for their bad decision.

Better kill it. Hummer has come to represent the worst excesses of this ridiculous Monster Truck phase in automotive history. It's an icon of waste. Peak Oil is here now, and the fossil fuel party is over. This brand will haunt GM for years to come.

The future belongs to the electric cars, like the American Tesla and British Lightning. If GM gets serious with the Volt and other similar projects, maybe the public will forget how they confiscated the EV-1s from their crying owners and sent them to the crushers.

By the way, kill the V-8 Camaro while you're at it. The gasoline-powered American Muscle Car is dead too. Or better yet, keep the body and just convert it to a plug-in electric hybrid.

"perhaps if China could slow down on their oil use we'd see a small drop in gas prices."

This in my eyes, wins the price for the most "head up your butt" comment I have read in this website. It is a shame that people still think this way.

@mf

I am not against small cars...if anyone would make one that did not look like crap. Not everyone is looking for a car for transportation purposes only. They want something that looks good, and they like. If some company could make make a smallish practical car that looks good, I would be willing to buy it. Before anyone start blabbering on about the current crop of small imports...they are all ugly to me, and i really do not care that you like it, because other people liking a car means nothing to me. Just as i am sure the drivers of xB's do not care that I think it looks like the retarted cousin of the mail van.

And your right,not everyone can move closer to work, but i know there are a lot of people that could, but choose to drive to orlando from tampa every freaking day for work.

@Mazda6 Guy

It's pretty easy to bash a comment by someone, however backing up that comment is something most people with some brains would try to do. Whats your reasoning?? Anyone that doesn't think the world revovles around the US knows that the reason were seeing gas prices we are is because countries who didn't use a lot of oil before are now using more. China has upped it's oil consumption by almost 20% this year while the US' oil consumption has almost leveled over the last 4 years. Seems your comment put your head further in your butt than anyone has ever done before.

@Gary:

Right, because the possibility of the US reducing it's oil consumption is out of the question right?

You see, while US oil consumption might be leveling, guess what, it still is the largest in the world. China and India are developing economies, both with a much larger population that the US, yet, expecting them to use less so that you don't have to ration yourself is not only selfish, but it is ridiculous.

I hate paying the high oil prices just as much as the next guy (and here in Canada we pay more than you do in the US) but that doesn't mean I will expect those who are now coming into financial means to "ration" themselves just because I am used to using so much at such a low cost.

Nobody is arguing against the fact that increased demand is rising the cost of oil. That is a well known fact. What is silly is that you would like others to NOT use as much so that you don't have to pay for it.

Uh, and just in case you are wondering, the world doesn't revolve around the US, and stating the obvious (China's rising consumption) as a rebuttal isn't very effective since nobody was arguing against that.

@Mazda6 Guy

The point I was making is that the US is starting to ration their oil use. Yes other countries deserve fuel just as much as the US, but just because we were wastefull for a while doesn't mean they should ramp up and possibly double their oil consumption in a year. I myself do ration fuel and drive a car that averages almost 30mpg. Using your logic it would be ok for another nation to invade another country simply because Bush forced the US to. Two wrongs don't make a right. If you look at the air in China, yes you can actually see it there, you will see that there are other reasons aside from cost of gas showing that China should become more enviromentally friendly.

I do see your point, and I much appreciate an intelligent rebuttal over "Head up your butt".

"The thing everyone could have done to keep demand low was not buy gigantic vehicles that they don't need. Now we're all paying the price for their bad decision. "

It wouldn't have helped at all. Maybe delayed the inevitable for a coupel years at the most. China's soon to be additional 300,000,000 cars makes SUV overusage a tiny drop in the barrel. Gas was always going to be this expensive, everyone buying a Civic might have delayed it a year or two.

@Gary:

I do appreciate an intelligent reply too, and I should apologize for making my comment appear as a personal attack which it wasn't. It merely a reflection on what I believe is a thought that many people share, whether they say it or not.

And you are correct, invading other countries for their resources will never be excusable, no matter how much they sugar coat it. Heck, I still believe the US has no business being in Iraq (but that isn't what we are debating here).

I have stopped driving to work now, and take public transportation because quite frankly I can't justify spending $80/week to drive to work (where I also pay extra for parking). I know it isn't much, but at least it puts money in my pocket and reduces my dependency on fuel. I know it isn't much, but every little bit helps. ;)

You can't kill off the Hummer...that is one of the few vehicles (with added on giant bling wheels and many subwoofers) rappers will drive...they can't be seen in anything smaller or their rep is at stake!

@therooster

Another year or 2 could have helped us find alternatives, or at least get 2 years closer to finding them. The high gas prices are not the only problem. The high gas prices helping to screw up our economy, is the real big issue. More people in this country will lose their jobs and go hungry this year, because selfish morons had to buy SUVs that they didn't need.

Whats even more rediculous is these are the same people who are always on the TV complaining about high gas prices that they helped cause.

"Another year or 2 could have helped us find alternatives, or at least get 2 years closer to finding them."

Laughable at best. When has human kind as a whole ever done anything until it has absolutely had to? We would have pissed away the extra two years just like we pissed away the last two. Of course high gas prices are going to screw the economy, so will higher taxes, and yet people still vote Democrat. If 4 dollar a gallon gas is going to destroy your life, maybe you should have done a little better life planning.

@therosoter:

So we have e85 and hybrid vehicles now. The prius and insight came out when gas was dipping below $1.00. So much for not doing anything until we had to.

We have had lower taxes now for 8 years, yet some how the economy has got progressively worse every year. The only difference between democrats and republicans as far as finances go, is the Republicans spend now and pay later, while making sure the upper crust never pays as much as they should. The democrats spend now and pay now, and charge the upper crust for the bulk of it. I know it sux that the people who benefit most from the social structure should have to pay the most too. It should be the people who benefit the least, because they don't really need to eat.

The spend now and pay later, is another piece of why our economy is crap right now.

Somebody has to bag your groceries, and pack your mcdonalds in a bag. Some how magically your well planned out life will still be exactly how you planned it when all the services jobs are forced to raise wages, and your goods cost %50 more. Given your narrow minded comments I highly doubt even in your dreams that you planned things so well.

@MF:

In the conventional sense of Republicanism your comment is wrong, however with the Neo Cons pretending to be republican's you are correct. True republicans are conservative at heart and generally not willing to spend money we don't have. The way I look at in the coming elections is we can vote to waste our money on War (McCain) or spending it on bleeding heart operations (Obama). In an ideal world we wouldn't have to choose between the two but in the current situation I'd rather spend the money on the poor than spend it on destroying another country, while helping to incease the US fuel consumption. The US army is currently using more fuel per day than the entire state of Maine. Now try telling me that isn't adding to the current cost of gas and I'll sell you some ocean front property in Arizona.

Did anyone ever stop to think that perhaps the people who own Hummers can actually afford the fuel costs? Your arguments to stop building the Hummer because it is expensive to operate is like saying we should close down every Macy's in America because it is too expensive to shop there. I don't own a Hummer or shop at Macy's because I can't afford to. But, I can only assume that the people that do, have abundant resources to do so.
Question for all of you, have you ever researched "personal business jets"? If so, your blood would boil! Just image, 20,000 gallons of jet fuel to fly one or two people half way around the world to eat dinner or check on the progress of your latest investment.

umm. hotwheel

They discontinued the H1, and they don't make the "Warthog" pictured above (which would sell like hotcakes IMO). What's left? Giant, pudgy family vehicles that don't bring anything to the table other vehicles don't have. They took a niche vehicle and tried to make it mainstream. Big mistake. Everytime I see an H2, I think "ugly" and "slow", not "great for off-road" or "prestige". Bring the H1 back and/or make the Warthog (and call it that!) and ditch the rest. Or close up shop.