GM exec: We need more new Hummers

[RamboLiberal]

http://money.cnn.com/2006/09/28/news/companies/gm_hummer/index.htm?cnn=yes

General Motors Corp.'s Hummer brand needs to double its product line-up by adding two or three more models, the executive charged with GM's product planning told reporters on Wednesday.

"Hummer needs some more products. It needs two or three more products to give it sufficient market coverage," General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told reporters at the opening of a Hummer dealership in Paris.

Lutz said making a Hummer-branded pickup truck, which would have ample passenger seating, remained an "option."

Earlier this year GM (Charts) faced pressure from activist investor Kirk Kerkorian to consider spinning off Hummer, which began as a high-mobility vehicle produced for the U.S. military.

But GM executives have argued that the brand is central to the automaker's strategy as it moves to cut costs, shore up market share and return to profitability in the U.S. market.

Good Gawd - no wonder GM is going bust! What idiots! And the selfish idiots who buy them must have small penises or are married to guys with small penises!

[htuttle]

1. Keep digging GM! The hole isn't deep enough!

[Art_from_Ark]

28. At the rate they're digging,

they'll reach China in no time!

[htuttle]

31. I think a lot of their factories are already there!

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

2. This Is Fucking Hilarious

I honestly thought this was an "Onion" article.

Tell me you made this up, and it's really from a joke website.

[RamboLiberal]

4. Only if CNN picked it up fromt the Onion!

I think they need a different kind of Hummer!

[Kagemusha]

29. So THAT's how jobs get from the US to China.

Just dig a hole, and keep on digging..

[bamacrat]

3. Thats right, gas is down 30 cents let all go out and buy a fucking Hummer.

He He no pun intended, i dont think.

[Deja Q]

5. With Govenror Groper saying otherwise, who's gonna wish GM good luck?

BTW: Profitability also means people have to be able to pay for these things. That's where having jobs comes in. :D If Healthcare is the problem, go after the providers. Don't fuck with employees, who if feeling threatened won't be working at their most productive level... :think:

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

6. Housing Industry Executive

"We NEED to build more houses."

We're a nation filled with EVIL FUCKING MORONS. There will be no mercy.

[AIJ Alom]

7. Exactly ! I agree with you post-quote commentary ! Rather than discover

the significance within themselves they surround their insecurity with massive homes and cars failing to realize that standing next to their behemoth purchases, illustrating what they hoped to conceal.

[enid602]

8. GM

If they REALLY want to outperform the Japanese, they'll bring back the Oldsmobile Division.

[NastyRiffraff]

9. Somebody should stick a virtual shiv into GM

and put it out of its misery.

[sarcasmo]

10. They are just a bunch of Idiots. Toyota will be #1 in 2008.

[NOLADEM]

11. Nah, we need more STEAMLINERS!

More steamers. That's the ticket. More coal powered steamers.

And zeppelins.

[trotsky]

12. "And zeppelins."

:rofl:

[Thor_MN]

15. Don't laugh, when the oil is gone we may see steam making a comeback

[htuttle]

17. Zepplins won't be such a bad idea, either

Steam powered Zepplins -- sounds like something from one of the early Final Fantasy games...

[FVZA_Colonel]

26. Or some other steampunk fantasy.

N/T.

[RedEarth]

13. What's really sick are the morons that buy these UAV(urban assault vehicle

[AX10]

14. DAMN IT! HOW STUPID CAN THEY GET???

People aren't buying SUV's in large numbers anymore! Why the HELL are they going to make a vehicle that no one wants?

:argh:

[LeftistGorilla]

16. Yet the foreign car makers....

are making smaller cars and more fuel efficient cars...and a profit!

[Anakin Skywalker]

18. Here's the Sad Thing the Way I Have Observed It.

Those corporatist mofos can indeed afford these hummers AND the high gas prices. They also seem to take a perverse delight when driving these UAVs down CITY streets and see pedestrians and other "lesser beings" (you know, the ones with less money than them and are therefore, trash) cringe in fear as they in their UAVs ignore traffic laws.

[w4rma]

19. bye bye GM. You guys won't be around long without bailouts. (nt)

[leesa]

20. But that's the point, isn't it? They go bust, declare bankruptcy,

dump employees and benefits and then restructure with lower wages and crappy benefits. They get gubmint welfare, cheaper employees and they laugh all the way to the bank.

[BrotherBuzz]

21. When all is said and done Hummers may make economical room additions...

I'm just looking at a the bigger picture. :shrug:

[CatholicEdHead]

22. Crew-cab Hummer pickup?

What are they smoking in the GM boardrooms?

I know it is some exec's dream to compete with the Jeep brandname, but they will not do it with the Hummer line. They need to expand the Aveo line, though it has to be better than the Daewoo car it is based on. Even the Colbot/HHR line lags in its class. Make the Impala line compete with the resigned Camery and Accord and take it beyond Fleet/Rental status.

[jseankil]

23. Fact is Hummer damand is strong. GM is reacting to the market. /nm

nm

[leesa]

30. You should work for GM...duh. Gas prices will not go down and they

will go bust if they give in to this demand. It's why the economic cars and hybrids are going gangbusters.

[hatrack]

33. Yes, that's why they're spending $400 million on advertising for 2 trucks

A one-month downward hiccup in gasoline prices, and stupidity explodes out of Detroit likes spores from a puffball mushroom. Whatever happens next (and I suspect it will be something bad), GM deserves it.

DETROIT -- General Motors has earmarked nearly $400 million for the launches of its critical GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado pickups.

The big-budget campaign will break in October during World Series telecasts and National Football League programs, a few weeks before the trucks arrive in showrooms. The Silverado commercials are likely to feature music by rocker John Mellencamp, informed sources say.

Sources close to the campaign estimate that GMC and Chevrolet will spend more than one-third of their marketing budgets on this campaign. If the two brands' overall marketing budget this year is about the same as last year's, that would mean Chevrolet will spend $292 million to launch the 2007 Silverado and GMC about $100 million to launch the 2007 Sierra.

Although GM did not disclose this year's marketing budget, GMC marketing director Steve Rosenblum calls it "the largest integrated marketing campaign we've launched to date." Likewise, Chevrolet General Manager Ed Peper says the Silverado campaign will be "a very, very big part of our advertising budget." The big pickups are a big part of GM's business, accounting for more than one of five GM vehicles sold in the United States. Last year, the company sold 705,980 Chevy Silverados and 229,488 Sierras.

EDIT

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060911/FREE/60911001/1041/TOC01ARCHIVE

[Tyo]

24. I have a friend who had '66 Cadillac Sixty Special

He found it at a classic car place a couple of years ago. It was a thing of beauty. White on white, 73k miles He couldn't take care of it properly so he sold it, but what a cruiser. I think the mid '60s were proably Detroit's high point. After that it seems like it went down hill. Who needs more Hummers for crissake? But I guess that's about all they know how to build.

[Centered]

25. Hummer Sedan?? Hummer Hybrid??

Built tough... Great Gas Mileage...

I know... I know... I'm dreaming /sigh but it was such a nice dream.

[CatholicEdHead]

27. Hummer sedan? Just make the Impala or Colbolt more boxy

[Centered]

34. And put the Hummer name on it

People will buy it because it says Hummer

[blackhorse]

32. Blackhorse: We need more public floggings of GM execs

n/t

[bleedingheart]

35. Every company has a right to fail...and GM is exercising that right

[Xithras]

36. Hummer screwed itself. It is and should have remained a niche product.

Back when the H1 WAS the "Hummer", and you had to lay out $130,000 to $140,000 to buy one, it was an ego product more or less. It was the Ferrari for people who wanted to go offroad (or at least look like they could). There was an ego boosting cache to the Hummer...it was a "Real Mans" vehicle, and even mentioning that you owned one made you look rich and important.

Hummers problem isn't that they don't have enough models, it's that they have TOO MANY. Any Joe with decent credit and a job can go out and finance a Hummer today. The badge is no longer synonymous with wealth, power, and ego, but is now just another big SUV. Rich guys no longer buy H1's because they look "dated" next to the H2's and H3's, and the H2's & H3's are too common for them to mess with. Seriously, when was the last time you saw a photo op of a celebrity climbing out of his shiny Hummer?

So basically, Hummer has transformed itself into a mass market car company. Their problem is that they are so far behind the curve in comfort, economy, and safety that it isn't even funny. No family of 5 looking for an SUV would EVER buy a Hummer if they did their homework first...the Suburban, Expedition, or half a dozen other large SUV's are better buys according to almost every benchmark.

THAT is why Hummer sales are plummeting. It's not high gas prices, it's the low quality of their vehicles and the fact that it's no longer an ego car.

Hummer would have been far better off if they'd just stuck with their original plan and limited themselves to selling $140,000 monsters to the rich and famous. They would still have people drooling over their trucks, and they wouldn't be in this financial hole that was created by overextending themselves. Personally, I didn't even have a problem with the H1 on environmental grounds. It's a dirty and inefficient vehicle, but at that price tag they were so uncommon that it really didn't matter. My environmental problem with Hummer didn't develop until they started selling the H2, pushing their pollution to the masses with easy to handle low monthly payments.

[fshrink]

37. Yeah. The existing ones are on the puny side.