HUMMER H2 production suspended

General Motors and AM General have announced that 200 workers at the Mishawaka, Indiana, plant where the HUMMER H2 and military versions of the HMMWV are assembled will be temporarily laid off until at least March. All of the affected workers assemble civilian HUMMERS, though it's rumored that the company may move some of these displaced employees to the military side of the operation.

This round of cuts can be attributed to slow sales of large, fuel-thirsty SUVs in general and the aging H2 in particular. AM General spokesperson Craig Mac Nab was quoted as saying, "Nobody knows what's going to happen with the H2 plant." In fact, nobody at either company is talking about when these employees may be called back or when H2 production will resume, leading some of us to wonder if it will pick back up at all.

GM seeking Chinese suitor for HUMMER?

The continual grousing over fuel prices has earned the HUMMER brand a place on consumers' fecal roster. There's nothing wrong with what HUMMER has on offer, other than the fact that large, off-road capable trucks make terrible commuter cars, and the idiots misusing their H2s for tasks better suited to Cobalts are finally wising up. This re-thinking of emetic consumption has sent HUMMER sales down the sewer, and with no end in sight, GM is seriously considering selling the brand to stanch the cash bleed.

China is a huge emerging market for General Motors – Buick is big there, for example. As such, GM's Fritz Henderson has indicated its willingness to hold discussions with any Chinese company interested in buying the division. It's not like HUMMER is a brand with lots of history, anyway. Only the H1 had any legitimate claim to military lineage, and that vehicle hasn't been available for a while. The survival of the brand in the U.S. market may hinge on competing more directly with the Jeep Wrangler, regardless of ownership. The same way as Jaguar and Land Rover are a handy entre into serious carmaking for Tata, HUMMER could be a way for Chinese automakers to crack the U.S. market.

New GM to stop production of hummer H1 supersized SUV

The vehicle never really made sense for the general public, but that didn’t stop General Motors from selling the ultra-humungous Hummer H1 to the average over-compensating Joe. Well, after shipping out about 12,000 of the gas-guzzling behemoths since 1992, GM has decided to remove the Hummer H1 from its lineup. The last of these 7,800 pound monsters is scheduled to roll off company lines this June.
I never quite understood why the average suburbanite would want this beast of a truck, which, by the way, only gets you about 11 miles on the gallon, and crawls up from 0-60mph in about 13.5 seconds.
According to Hummer GM Martin Walsh, the smaller Chevy Tahoe-based H2 is “more representative of the Hummer brand than the H1.” It will be interesting to see if they decide to continue to produce the Humvee for military purposes, however, because I can’t possibly expect the Department of National Defense ordering in the minute H3 for its most treacherous missions.