The All Powerful Hummer

indycarz.com

            In 1983, the American government contracted with a company who leads in designing and producing military grade vehicles for the Army to build the very first Humvee. In 1989, the Humvee was used by the US military during the Gulf War and the invasion of Panama. Hummer, the consumer version, was introduced into the civilian market in 1992, and Hummer sales among celebrities and rich people soared. Arnold Schwarzenegger bought several Hummers. Hummer became an American symbol of power and strength.
 

            AM General designed an amazing and powerful vehicle that was reliable and could make it through any obstacle. In 1999, General Motors purchased the rights from AM General to produce the Hummer for the consumer market, and just 3 years later General Motors introduced a smaller, more economical version of the Hummer and called it the H2. The H2 was bulky and hard to maneuver on the roads and in parking lots, but it has always been the king in off-road endurance competitions. Off road-ready Hummers had no problem powering through tough terrain where Jeeps couldn’t go.

            Although General Motors had introduced a smaller, more economical version of the Hummer, it still received criticism for being the highest gas-consuming vehicle on the market. “In August 2003, “Hummer-hating eco-vandals [struck] four car dealerships in Southern California’s San Gabriel Valley, destroying, defacing and burning dozens of Hummers and other SUV’s, while scrawling love notes like ‘Fat, Lazy Americans’ about the premises.”[1] In 2005, with the soaring gas prices, and environmental campaigns being in the spotlight, General Motors decided to introduce the H3 Hummer onto the market. The H3 was half the size of the original hummer and gas consumption was comparable to other large SUV’s on the road. Sales of the H3 were steady until the American economical crisis in 2008, and in 2009 General Motors filed chapter 11. To boost the economy, the government offered GM a financial “bailout” loan, with the conditions that the auto-giant would consolidate brands. General Motors dropped multiple car makes, and the Hummer was among them. In an attempt to keep the Hummer brand alive, General Motors tried selling Hummer to a Chinese Machining company. “Chinese regulators had frowned on the purchase for much the same reasons that U.S. consumers shunned the Hummer: the vehicle's size and poor fuel economy were impractical in an era of high fuel prices, general economic weakness and greater concern about the harmful effects of vehicle emissions on the environment.”[2] The sale fell through, and in 2010 General Motors finally shut down Hummer production.

           

Works Cited

[1] History.com

[2] Time.com (Time Magazine)

Other sources:

wikipedia