Hummer Division sale

GM announced today that they are looking for a buyer for their Hummer division. Robby has two more years on the Hummer Dakar contract, so I wonder what impact this eventual sale will have on his West Coast operation.

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Permalink Reply by WJM on July 17, 2008 at 4:39pm

It seems the Buick target market is made up of those too proud to own a Chevy and too poor to buy a Cadillac. Buick needs to go.

You're right, I guess GMC is a waste. If GM can't find a buyer to take Hummer, maybe they should fold it into the GMC division as a means of helping rid inventory - and then drop both.

One thing GM has done right is successfully move Cadillac away from the old fart market and into the upscale performance niche. With Pontiac positioned as the performance division GM, I don't see why Pontiac couldn't be folded into Cadillac eventually.

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Permalink Reply by Turtle7 on July 17, 2008 at 4:47pm

Hi Mike

I had an 87 Nova... It was a five door Toyota Corolla made at the Numi plant. I went to a Toyota and a Pontiac dealer today. The Toyota Matrix is built in Ontario, Canada whereas the Pontiac knockoff of the Matrix is built in the California Numi plant with the Corolla.

Thanks for the additional information on GM platform directions. We all know they could change inside of the next 15 minutes

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Permalink Reply by NIKAL on July 17, 2008 at 4:02pm

GM still has to sell the Hummer line, and until that happens they will still try to market the product. If they don't then the Hummer line will only decrease in value, and thats not how you sell a company. It's also not like Hummer is in several different motorsports series. Really their only real market is Robby with Dakar and the Hall's with BITD and Score. And if the Euro market is were they are trying to push the Hummer brand, then their only option right now is to stick with Robby's Dakar program. I'm also guessing what Robby is getting from Hummer is not that big of a slice in the GM budget compared to other forms of motorsports GM is involved with. Robby's Dakar budget is split by three companies. Hummer, Toyo and Monster. The technical support Robby gets from GM Hummer is probably more then the actual dollar amount he gets from them. So even if they continued on as a technical partner he would be in pretty good shape. (I don't know actual figures, but I am guessing thats about right.)

And if GM did pull out or if they did decide to continue, but with another brand. It would not be that big of a deal really to re-body the Hummbuggy. Its amazing what you can do with switching a grill, a few body lines and decals. Robby's old TT body was a Ford that was re-grilled and decaled to be a Toyota, then back to a Ford. Then when RG switched to Chevy they took the same body and changed the grill/head light area, squared out the fenders and changed the tail lights on the body and bingo! Its a Chevy. How many know the original Dakar Body was based of the TT body? They used the front hood section and cab section and then added the back fender/ hatch from scratch.

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Permalink Reply by WJM on July 17, 2008 at 5:07pm

Interesting. An off-road version of the COT. Change the grill opening, add some decals and it's a Hyundai Santa Fe SUV or a Dodge Ram truck.

GM needs to do a Wal-Mart (stack 'em high and let 'em fly!) and push more Hummers into Venezuela where it sells very well and dealers have a shortage of vehicles. A gallon of premium in Venezuela is only 15 cents.