Filed under: SUV, Government/Legal, GM, Hummer, Off-Road

According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, General Motors is taking a second look at two previous offers for Hummer after the deal to sell the ailing sports utility brand finally succumbed to a slow death yesterday.

The WSJ doesn’t divulge which companies are in the offing to purchase Hummer, only saying that GM had rejected offers from the two firms last year.

The original deal to offload the brand onto China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery for $150 million was apparently rejected by the Chinese government, although the reason for the rejection is still in question.

It’s hard not draw comparisons to the Saab saga that played out over the course of the last year, with GM finally selling the brand to Spyker after prolonged negotiations. Then again, we could have a Pontiac or Saturn situation on our hands, with Hummer set to go the way of the Dodo if a deal isn’t reached within the next few months.

[Source: Wall Street Journal - Sub. Req. | Image: Scott Olson/Getty]

Report: General Motors looking at two previous Hummer offers originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 25 Feb 2010 13:08:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: General Motors looking at two previous Hummer offers

Filed under: SUV, GM, Hummer, Earnings/Financials, Off-Road

Although it has been evident for some time that General Motors‘ sale of its Hummer brand to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Co., Ltd., we didn’t expect for word to come down today that the negotiations are dead and the brand will be wound down. Unfortunately, judging by a press release just issued by GM, that’s exactly what will be happening. According to John Smith, GM’s vice president of corporate planning and alliances,

“One year ago, General Motors announced that we were going to divest Hummer, as part of focusing our efforts on Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac going forward. We have since considered a number of possibilities for Hummer along the way, and we are disappointed that the deal with Tengzhong could not be completed.”

As we learned from the Saab sale saga, GM announcing that the brand will be wound down does not completely extinguish hope for another buyer to slip in in the 11th hour, but it does seem highly improbable that a new party will pick up where the negotiations with China’s Tengzhong left off.

In the statement available after the jump, GM does not specify what killed the planned sale of the brand, but rumors in recent months suggested that the Chinese government was not keen to sign off on the deal. At the moment, it is unclear what will happen to Hummer’s H2 and H3/H3T models, but it is likely that the tooling and manufacturing rights will be sold off to other companies. It is also unclear how many employees will be out of work as a result of the closure.

As with the wind-down of its Saturn and Pontiac brands, GM has pledged to honor Hummer warranties and continue to supply service and parts.

[Source: General Motors | Image: Scott Olson/Getty]

Continue reading BREAKING: GM announces Hummer sale cannot be concluded, brand to be wound down

BREAKING: GM announces Hummer sale cannot be concluded, brand to be wound down originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 24 Feb 2010 15:16:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BREAKING: GM announces Hummer sale cannot be concluded, brand to be wound down

Filed under: Geneva Motor Show, China, Videos, Hummer, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Porsche, Smart, Citroën, Australia, Middle East

This slightly belated Weekender is extra full of the week’s car news, starting off with a union of cars and alcohol that only Aussies would think of putting together. In the opposite hemisphere but the same corner, reporters with China’s Caixing news site take an uncharacteristically critical look at BYD and find suspect claims and institutionalized corporate cloning that has made its CEO and Warren Buffet even richer. Back on this side, Smart hasn’t lost its relevance, just its place in people’s minds, so it’s using hot dogs to try and get its mojo back while Citro?n uses John Lennon and Marilyn Monroe. And when is a model car not a model car, when does an AMG float, and where in the world do you use an H2 to tow a snowplow out of the snow? The answers are right after the jump…

Continue reading Autoblog Weekender: Full-of-Questions Edition

Autoblog Weekender: Full-of-Questions Edition originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Autoblog Weekender: Full-of-Questions Edition

Filed under: Sedan, Truck, Plants/Manufacturing, GM, Hummer

Lost in the hoopla surrounding General Motors’ attempted sale/wind-down of Saab and Ford’s situation with Volvo and Geely has been any word surrounding the sale of Hummer to China’s Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery. Whatever the state of the Hummer transaction, it appears The General is done waiting. The Detroit News reports that GM plans to halt Hummer production at its Shreveport, LA assembly plant on Monday until a sale of the brand is complete. The factory builds the H3 and H3T (models that account for about 25-percent of the plant’s overall production) and the General says it’s premature to speculate how much the facility’s 1,120 workers will be affected.

Hummer dealers currently have a stockpile of about 2,100 H3 variants on lots – enough of a supply to last seven months at the model’s current take rate. Hummer spokesman Nick Richards told the DetNews that H3 production will ramp back up after the sale “once marketing kicks back in and there is new interest and enthusiasm.” Of course, if the Hummer sale ends anything like GM’s Saab and Saturn debacles, that date could be never.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Report: GM to idle Hummer production on Monday until China deal goes through originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Report: GM to idle Hummer production on Monday until China deal goes through

Filed under: SUV, Truck, Plants/Manufacturing, Hummer, Off-Road

Although the Hummer sale isn’t officially official – which is to say, the Chinese authorities haven’t told Tengzhong “Proceed!” – it is official enough that GM has restarted production of the 2010 H3 and H3T at its Shreveport, LA plant. General Motors didn’t want to be stuck with dead models, so it closed the Hummer spigot while its side of the deal with Tengzhong was finalized. By the beginning of this month, though, the bottom of the inventory barrel was starting to peek through, with just 1,183 units on hand.

Even though Hummer sales are down more than 50 percent, nevertheless people are still buying, and the company’s two H3 models are obviously the most popular. According to Automotive News, a Hummer spokesman reports that the 2010s should be arriving in dealerships in December – and as we reported earlier, you may even find them in two new colors and with biofuel capability.

[Source: Automotive News, sub. req'd]

Hummer grinds gears: production of 2010 H3 and H3T resumes originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hummer grinds gears: production of 2010 H3 and H3T resumes