AUTO INDUSTRY REPORTER
The Hummer, the hulking, gas-guzzling sport utility vehicle that came to symbolize conspicuous consumption, has hit the end of the road.
General Motors Co. said yesterday it will wind down operations of its Hummer division after a deal to sell it to Chinese industrial company Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Co. Ltd. fell through.
Cheap gas propelled Hummer to prominence during the 2000s after GM bought the rights to make a commercial version of the military Humvee, which roared into the American psyche during the first Gulf War in the early 1990s.
Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, now Governor of California, was the first significant public figure to own one. That helped spark sales of the H1, which was followed by smaller versions called H2 and H3.
But when gas soared to more than $4 (U.S.) a gallon in the United States and about $1.40 (Canadian) a litre in Canada in 2008, Hummers became a target of environmentalist activists and even ordinary citizens - some would give the finger to Hummer drivers or even scrape the vehicles with their car keys.
Despite the public scorn, it wasn't until GM began sliding toward Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last year that the auto maker gave up on Hummer and put it up for sale as it slashed its divisions to four from eight.
The end - unless the restructured GM can find another buyer - came when Tengzhong was unable to complete the deal.
The demise of the brand was good news to John Bennett, executive director of the Sierra Club of Canada. "It reaffirms my faith in the common sense of the general public," Mr. Bennett said. Its only purpose was vanity, and even drivers who were vain enough in the past to support the brand are no longer interested enough to keep it going, he added.
"I know some of the later models were more efficient [but]what it represented was the most polluting way to get from one place to another in the most public way."
But the vehicles were unfairly maligned, countered Joe Cormier of Sturgeon Falls, Ont., who owns two radio stations and four Hummers.
Mr. Cormier has two H1 models that he uses in his Canadian Hummer Adventures business, which takes people on one- to three-hour jaunts through forest and bush in Simcoe County in Central Ontario.
Many of the people on these tours are disabled and would not otherwise be able to commune with nature, Mr. Cormier said. "It's just a nice big truck," he maintained. "They're not any worse than a tractor bringing people on a hay ride."
Moreover, the two H1s that he uses in the tour business are environmentally friendly when it comes to fuel because they use biodiesel, he insisted. "They smell like French fries."
Mr. Cormier's radio stations in Sturgeon Falls, Ont., and Espanola, Ont., have black, 2005 H2 models.
There are 16 Hummer dealerships remaining in Canada. Sales peaked in Canada in 2006 with 2,002 deliveries. General Motors of Canada Ltd. sold 494 last year.
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Richard Blackwell, AP