GM sees Hummer sale by early '09, tough times ahead

[Blue_Tires]

Source: Reuters

General Motors (GM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) expects to sell its Hummer brand by the end of this year or early in 2009, as it shores up capital to survive a deep industry slump amid record losses, its chief operating officer said.

GM, which has lost $51 billion over the past three years, plans to free up $15 billion in liquidity with cost-cutting, asset sales and new borrowing under a July plan intended to reassure investors that it can ride out of the down turn.

"We are trying to approach this (Hummer sale) on an urgent basis," he said. "End of this year is a fair amount of time. It can conceivably happen ... but if it takes us to early next year, that is okay, too," Fritz Henderson told reporters.

"We are working quickly. It will be premature to mention something," Henderson said on Wednesday, adding that "several" suitors had approached GM. But he declined to name any.


U.S. VEHICLE SALES DROP

At the launch of a new model in the Indian capital he added he expected the U.S. auto industry to face challenges for some time and sees vehicle sales there falling to 14 million vehicles in 2008 from 16 million last year.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/mergersNews/idUSBOM18322820080903

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Five short years ago, Hummer was the runaway profit leader for GM, being the "it" vehicle to have in both urban black and suburban white communities alike...Now the General is trying to ditch it like a bad disease...

[flvegan]

1. I'm curious about who is going to buy Hummer, and why.

edit: spelling

[Blue_Tires]

3. people with more money than places to spend it

namely, the Russians and Middle East

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2008/08/27/cnhum127.xml

remember, India already owns Jaguar

[JVS]

4. Basically I think we're seeing the end of Hummer as a mass-market car.

Remember how when people first started driving them, there was only the model that was essentially the military vehicle? It will go back to that, and there will be some people rich people who buy them. But the H2 and H3 stuff that is meant to be owned by the upper middle class will be gone.

[lithiumbomb]

6. the H1 won't go anywhere

There is still a difference between the Hummer brand and AM General, the manufacturer of the Humvee. That vehicle hasn't been sold to civilians for a couple of years and I'm sure AM General plans to continue building it for military applications. It will not be part of any sale of the Hummer brand.

In fact I'm not sure much goes with the Hummer sale except the name. The H1 stays with AM General. The H2 is based on the old Chevy Tahoe and is manufactured by AM General for GM. The H3 is based on the Colorado pickup platform and manufactured by GM. So the H1 belongs to AM General, the H2 and H3 get most of their parts from the GM parts bin, from source platforms that are retired or soon to be retired.

[AndyTiedye]

8. Even the Army is Looking for Something More Fuel-Efficient to Replace the HMV

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMMWV_replacement_process

[jmowreader]

14. Fuel efficiency is only part of what the military's looking for

The vehicle that will probably replace the HMMWV is the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle, or JLTV. They want it to burn less fuel, true, but they also want it to be able to carry payload after they armor it (which the original M998 HMMWV can't do), they want a curved bottom to deflect landmine blast...lots of things.

[dysfunctional press]

13. "...stuff that is meant to be owned by the upper middle class will be gone."

when the upper middle class is gone, none of the stuff will be needed.
(and i don't mean just hummer 'stuff')

[leftchick]

2. the new Edsel!

:rofl:

[tularetom]

5. Who's going to buy it?

I think that's total bullshit. There's not an auto maker in the world that can afford to take on these overpriced pieces a crap. They'll wind up just shit canning them and they'll become collector cars like the Edsel.

[Psephos]

7. You're clearly not tuned into global automotive dynamics

Up-and-coming third-world manufacturers will gladly pay for the name alone, as it brings instant validation. Look for bids from Indian and Chinese companies.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and other oil-producing countries subsidize gasoline. Why not drive a Hummer in Caracas when gas is less than fifty cents a gallon? Ditto for most of the Middle East.

[Hailtothechimp]

9. check out fuh2.com

Here's the link to it.


http://fuh2.com

[semillama]

10. If they had rolled their Hummer profits back into research into alt-fuel vehicles

perhaps the future wouldn't be so dim.

[Blue_Tires]

11. exactly n/t

[Gen. Jack D. Ripper]

12. It would seem we know more than GM executives

and I mean that in all seriousness. The fact that these highly educated (and grossly over paid) business executives couldn't see this contingency is mind boggling.