Hummer’s Demise Demonstrates Risks In Riding Brand Rockets

Assuming that a couple of eleventh-hour bids fail to amount to much, General Motors is finally going to shut down the great Hummer experiment in brand rocket-riding.

GM took Hummer to unparalleled heights – but when the zeitgeist turned against the brand a couple of years ago, there was little that an enfeebled and distracted GM could do about it except watch the steaming hulk of its Hummer investment crash to the ground. Turns out that GM couldn’t even figure out how to sell Hummer to the right bidder.

In the latest and probably final chapter of this brand tragedy, Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery earlier this week couldn’t get Chinese regulatory approval for its bid to take over the brand carcass of Hummer. There’s lots of talk about how the failure reflects China’s insanely arcane bureaucracy, and about how the Chinese government has been trying to throttle back on auto-industry investments by Chinese companies.

But maybe the Tengzhong folks just got smart enough to realize that there wasn’t much juice left in the old Hummer brand, even in places like the Middle East where it was wildly popular for a time.

Of course, GM bought the brand in 1999 at the peak of Hummer mania. Then, the testosterone-fueled, tank-like original model – a barely domesticated version of the extremely versatile military Humvee – barreled down American roads, took up two parking spaces at a time, and generally terrified those who weren’t actually riding in it. It retailed for nearly $100,000.

Smartly, GM began offering smaller, more refined and less expensive Hummer models so that more American consumers could share in the brand dream of heedless automobiling. Dealers lined up for Hummer franchises and shelled out millions of dollars to erect standalone Hummer outlets using a kitschy “metal-hut” building design. Sales for the brand peaked at 71,000 vehicles in 2006.

But then environmentalists sharpened their attack on Hummer’s egregious consumption of gasoline. There were more large SUVs offered by competitors. And the entire lot of them fell out of favor when gasoline prices peaked at more than $4 a gallon in 2008. By the time GM plunged into bankruptcy proceedings last year, Hummer wasn’t anywhere on the rescue menu.

GM said it will honor Hummer warrantees and will “work closely with Hummer employees, dealers and suppliers to wind down the business in an orderly and responsible manner."

So much for that. RIP, Hummer.