GM prepares to give Hummer the final salute

NY TIMES NEWS SERVICE, DETROIT
Sunday, May 14, 2006, Page 12

A 2006 Hummer H1 Alpha is shown on a dealership lot in Troy, Michigan, on Friday. The 2006 model will be the last for the Hummer H1, General Motors Corp announced on Friday. Based on the US military's Humvee, the 12,000 H1s sold since 1992 have made the Hummer name. PHOTO: AP

General Motors is preparing to give a final salute to the hulking Hummer H1, the ultimate in sport utility might and, to its many critics, the ultimate in environmental incorrectness.

GM said on Friday that it expected to stop building the H1, flagship of its Hummer line, next month. The move comes 14 years after it first went on sale to the public.

The H1, originally called simply the Hummer, and lately known as the H1 Alpha, is derived from the military vehicle called the Humvee.

The wide, rugged Jeep-like vehicle captivated many television viewers, who watched it trek across the Iraqi desert during the Gulf War. Hoping to capitalize on Humvee-mania, its maker, AM General, quickly brought out a street-legal version.

Despite its US$140,000-plus price tag, rough ride and a fuel economy rating of about 4.3km per liter, well-heeled buyers and celebrities like Arnold Schwarzenegger snapped up the H1 when it first reached the market in 1992.

"It started out as a huge image boost for GM -- everyone knows what a Hummer is," said Ron Pinelli, the president of Autodata, an industry statistics firm in Woodcliff Lake, New Jersey.

"It's one thing if it's carrying soldiers to and from a fight ... It's another if it's hauling lattes home from Starbucks."

Daniel Becker, member of a group which maintains an anti-Hummer Web site

About 12,000 H1s have been sold to the public, including 4,000 by GM, which bought the marketing rights to Hummer from AM General in 2000.

Since then, GM has added two slightly smaller Hummers, the stately H2, introduced in 2002, and the relatively petite H3, which went on sale last year.

Perhaps because there are more choices of Hummers, or perhaps because the H1's moment of military chic simply has passed due to the conflict overseas, sales of the H1 have plummeted.

GM, which sold 875 H1s in 2000, sold just 374 last year, and 98 in the first four months of this year, according to Autodata.

With diesel fuel prices around US$3 a gallon (3.8 liter), it costs more than US$150 to fill up the H1's two gas tanks, which together hold 195 liter.

And with GM on a push to recast its image as a green company, "it's time for it to go away," Pinelli said of the biggest Hummer.

Environmentalists, who have used the H1 as an automotive punching bag since it first heaved onto American streets, could hardly contain themselves.

"It's one thing if it's carrying soldiers to and from a fight," said Daniel Becker of the Sierra Club, which maintains an anti-Hummer Web page called "Hummerdinger.org."

"It's another if it's hauling lattes home from Starbucks," he said.

For its part, GM said high fuel prices were not the reason it pulled the plug on the H1. Instead, GM said Hummer's maker, AM General, "will dedicate its engineering, manufacturing, marketing and dealer resources to bringing more new or significantly revised models to market."

Despite the decline in H1 sales, Hummer dealers expressed disappointment that the gargantuan vehicle's days were numbered.

"The H1 is where it all started," said Ben Olin, sales manager at Ed Schmidt Hummer, a Maumee, Ohio, dealership that was one of the first in the US to sell the H1. "There's a lot of heritage that goes along with it."

Olin sold just two H1s last year. Many buyers, he said, are now turning to the less overbearing H2, which is based on the Chevrolet Tahoe SUV.

Indeed, GM has sold more than 100,000 H2s and more than 50,000 H3s, based on the Chevy Colorado pickup, since each went on sale.

Leo Karl III, president of Hummer by Karl in New Canaan, Connecticut, said he was surprised at GM's decision to discontinue the vehicle after investing money to make it street-legal. The H1 has a "beautiful interior and unbelievable" 6.6-liter, turbo diesel V-8 engine, Karl said.

Karl said he would miss the H1.

"If there's one vehicle on the road that's like nothing else, that's it," he said.