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So much for consumers abandoning large SUVs for Honda Insights...
You are so right! The kids crawl all over those Hummers at the shows, but even that won't get Mom to necessarily buy one. The financing and rebates offered lately tell me the Hummer isn't selling, at least the H2. The H3 has been thrown into rental fleets like crazy too.
2. "The H3 has proven so popular that through September of this year, HUMMER's total global sales were up by 54 percent. H3 comprised the majority of that volume, both in the U.S. and abroad. In fact, H3 sales were up 120 percent compared to the first nine months of 2005. In North America alone, H3 sales for the 2006 have grown 53.5 percent compared to the same period in 2005."
In no way have H3 sales tanked--neither are they being "dumped" into fleets. There are no facts to backup that assertion.
If you have any, I would gladly like to review them.
Secondly, the H2 sales are dropping because it is a niche vehicle that has reached its selling mass. There was no reason it should sell more than it did.
http://www.automotoportal.com/article/hummer-h3-comes-to-australia-in-2007
H3 sales were down 2.3 percent compared to November of 2005...
HUMMER H3
November 2006
4,353
November 2005
4,454
Decrease
-2.3
You are correct in that regard--although the Employee Pricing fiasco of 2005 may have had something to do with that.
Maybe GMC and HUmmer should merge into one brand - after all GMC and Hummer both only produce trucks - and they are so profitable and popular....
The Toyota Camry is also available in rental fleets from Avis, Enterprise and Hertz but I would hardly say that it is being "dumped".
Hummer 4-Pass. Wagon 9.8%
Hummer H2 SUT 3.5%
Hummer H2 SUV 11.2%
Hummer H3 4.1%
I found a website that list fleet for 2006. Numbers above are total fleet which includes commercial, rental and government. Comapare this to Nissan Armada at 16% and Toyota Highlander at 8% and Nissan Murano at 16%.
Hummer, strangly enough, seems to sell a lot of commercial fleet.
Another misjudgment from GM is that the base Cobalt has a relatively big 2.2L 4-cylinder for the class. Worse fuel economy and not really all that stronger.
I'll say it again: The Saturn Outlooks and GMC Arcadia are truly the first universally appealing vehicles in so many years.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Anyway on the Detroit online poll I voted for styling as my main issue with GM. Everybody voted for quality/reliability but my parents have had good luck with GM Cars in the 80's, 90's, and today(bar one car) so oddly enough quality/reliability is not a concern to me with GM. Yes I said it yes I did! Any car make can make a lemon. May Dads now a Chrysler man though. My Mom still buys GM though.
Anyway since I picked styling why does GM make so many cars that don;t appeal to the youth. GM's like Toyota used to be a few years ago just focus on the baby boomers to buy our product. Wrong decision. Toyota's average age buyer gone up rapidly and they are concerned. Back to GM: The 04 Malibu is just dull, the 04 Grand Prix it goes nowhere from a styling standpoint. The 92-99 Pontiac "cladding" styling theme was hated on by alot of critics. The 92-99 Boneville was just overstyled as was 92 and 99 Grand AM. Cadillac(The Catera is a good example of this) was terrible in the 90's with their vanilla designs and their average age buyer skyrocketed as Did Buick's. Saturn: the last L Series was canceled due to dull styling.
However, now Caddy;s in the styling improved but needs better interiors. Buick has gotten better. The Lucrene looks sexy for a Buick anyway. The LaCrosse's styling is another story however. Chevy and Pontiac need to work on the styling of the Malibu and Grand Prix(soon to be G8.) The G6 has a good interior but the styling needs to look more proportionate if you will. The Saturn Aura has a good interior(good as Accord's interior maybe) but I don't care for its styling. Gm has nailed the styling on the latest GMC Yukon and the truck has a good interior.
Another thing GM needs to get better with is interiors on some of their car makes like Caddy as I said before but Pontiac(the Grand Prix anyway.) Why does the current Grand Prix have interior plastics that could be out of a 1993-1997 model year car? Why?
I like Pontiac's from 1986-1991 when I was around ages 7-12. Nice styling for their time. I read somewhere the Pontiac 6000 was reffered too as a cheap BMW in the 80's. If Pontiac ever went back to their roots of styling from that period they may get a sale from me instead of me going to Honda/Acura or Mazda. Solstice looks awful nice these days though!
My parents are Buy American people but I like Honda/Acura and Mazda. I don;t know I grew up with GM products and Ford;s too but I just didn't take a liking to them as I got older. I am 27 years old and I have seen alot of exterior styling that hasn;t appealed to me that GM has done over the past 10 years as has Ford.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Uh uh. Close, but no cigar. While the interior of the Accord is not luxurious, nor expensive-feeling in many parts, what it is NOT anywhere in the cabin is cheap or tacky. That cannot be said, IMO, of the Aura.
GM seems to be learning its lesson about interiors on mainstream models very slowly, although it IS gradually learning that the same old schlek is unacceptable in a market this competitive. If it took the new Aura XR's interior as the bare minimum and worked on improving it by 20% for all future models (as well as retro-fitting all current models more than two years old), it could shoot straight into the middle, maybe the upper middle, of the market.
Both the CTS and STS were criticized by multiple professional reviews for cost-cutting in their interiors, and I will chime in heartily in the case of the CTS, which I have taken on extended drives a couple of times now. GM has announced that the new CTS will have a much-improved interior - we will see. The ENORMOUS steps forward that the new Silverado took (in terms of the interior) show that GM knows there is a problem, and pretty much knows how to fix it. The bean-counters just HAVE to take a back seat here.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Hummer is a strong niche brand, and they seem to be selling well without resorting to rental sales to do it. I would question how good it is for the overall bottom line -- it sells very few units in total -- but I'd be that it's a moneymaker. Why would you get rid of it?
The Hummer division is one of the most succesful car companies ever. They are hugely profitable, everyone recognizes them instantly, kids love them and they sell very well. Even in a time of supposedely high fuel price (still under $2.25 here) they sell well. Heck the governor of CA has 6. One even is converted to hybrid or something to satisfy his state's people. The look is in your face and has quite a market. To put that type of brand equity with GMC would be very foolish. Will Hummer sell forever? Probably not but if GM can keep making succesful variants profitably they would be stupid to kill it. It does not make everyone happy but so what. It sells.
Am I the only one that has heard the rumor that there will be no '08/'09 H2 due to plummeting sales this year? It IS pretty pricey for a Yukon-with-butch-styling, after all.
If the H2 DOES go, I can't imagine what the Hummer line will look like. Beginning next year (for the '09 MY, IIRC), all vehicles with GVWRs under 10,000 pounds have to start having fuel economy ratings on the window sticker.....and gas has just gone back UP $0.20/gal, in the middle of winter, no less!! If gas prices hop straight back up and H2 customers are faced with big stickers saying "13/16 MPG", I kind of wonder how well they would continue to sell. The same goes for most of the Hummer line.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
What I read is that the H1 will no longer be made for consumer purchase, military only. Haven't heard about the demise of the H2 yet, and would not think that so at this point.
I doubt it costs GM much more money to build a fully loaded Tahoe, at least on the old GMT platform, then it does to build a fully loaded H2 but they charge a whole lot more for the H2.
http://www.motortrend.com/cars/2007/chevrolet/aveo/safety/index.html?VehicleCras- hTestId=4105
But I agree that GM needs to stop trumpeting its over-30 highway ratings quite so much, and work on getting those city numbers up, since the city number most closely represents the mileage the majority of drivers will actually get.
Now, side airbags usually make the difference to side impact results, yet the Aveo scored well there. It was frontal offset where it scored so poorly in the European tests, which is puzzling (some might say, in fact, this is not a good sign). I thought most manufacturers had this test licked.
Note that the other Koreans, Rio and Accent, scored poorly in the side crashes even WITH the side airbags, very unusual. Aveo is at least ahead of them there...
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Starting with 2007 models however, the Aveo (both sedan and hatchback) have seat-mounted side airbags that protect both the heads and chests of the driver and front passenger. (The rear passengers don't have a side airbag.)
Link to minicar tests here. Note: the IIHS considers the Versa a small car, one step up from the minis, so it appears here instead.
GM, has got its work cut out for them once Ford comes out with its Cummins diesel and dodge brings out its "CAT" diesel to the market. The question is this ?....Has the Duramax, won over enough people to stay in production or should GM, find a new diesel provider that has clout ?
I'd like to see GM, use "International"
Rocky
Salients this year: 2007 Jaguar XK (Test Drive, Aug. 11) and '07 Honda CR-V small crossover SUV (Test Drive, Oct. 6).
Now another: 2007 GMC Acadia, a large crossover SUV. It's a new vehicle to GMC's lineup and is the first crossover ever sold by General Motors' (GM) GMC truck brand.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/reviews/healey/2006-12-21-acadia_x.htm
Rocky
The Texas Panhandle is Diesel 3/4-1-ton country for sure. I see almost as many diesel trucks as I do gas around here.
Rocky
Driving
GM's CEO deserves a happy holiday
David Booth
National Post
22 December 2006
National Post
I want you to know that I am not a stalker. I am not following Richard
Wagoner, GM's affable chairman and chief executive officer, around.
I have never been to his office. I don't know where he lives and I have
certainly never, ever in the ultimate expression of male bonding peed in
the urinal next to his.
But I do know what he wants for Christmas. Perhaps that's because it's so
damn obvious. It could be the cumulative knowledge that 24 years in this
business brings. Or, more likely, the dozen or so champagne cocktails I
hoovered before visiting that wizened old Roma lady with the crystal ball
outside the now- defunct Sassafraz resulted in a drunken delusion that I
took for inspiration. Whatever the case, here are Rick's three wishes for
the holidays.
He hopes Bob Lutz continues flying his Albatros L-39 until he's at least
100 years old. Now, nothing about flying an ex-Czech fighter jet prepares
one for the onerous task of running an automobile company, especially one
with so many challenges. But Wagoner knows that as long as Lutz can fly the
silly thing, he can remain the inspiration behind all of General Motors'
recent and upcoming products.
That's important because a) I have seen General Motors' future product
portfolio and it is nothing short of stunning and b) Lutz is 74 years old
and keeping him healthy is absolutely essential to the company's future.
You ought to see the Buick, yes the Buick, he's come up with. It is a stunner
It's all because Lutz has inspired the company's engineers and stylists to
strive for perfection rather than cower in corners like brow-beaten
teenagers. You can actually feel the Lutz effect in press functions. If
he's not around, the presenting engineer will be all reticence and
circumspection, afraid that the bean counters that once ruled his life
might stage a surprise fiscal counter-insurgency. If Lutz is on stage with
them, they feel, as much as I hate the word, empowered, as if passing the
Lutz smell test means that nobody can flail them later. Wagoner may run
General Motors, but Maximum Bob Lutz is GM.
Wagoner wishes that all the company's retirees enjoy incomprehensibly good
health and then die quietly and (more importantly) quickly in their sleep.
That may sound morbid, but with 1.1 million people depending on you for
their health care needs -- not to mention paying out benefits to 450,000
retirees -- legacy costs are a huge, if not the biggest, issue facing The
General. They eat up a huge amount of money, as much as US$1,400 per car
produced in the United States. The automobile industry's mantra has long
been that "it's all about the product." For continued fiscal success, GM
might need a little more -- such as continued success in China.
GM China expects to sell more than 900,000 passenger cars and trucks for
2006. That total, Wagoner hopes, will only get larger. Current automobile
ownership rates in China hover around 25 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, says
Mark Bernhard, CFO for the GM China Group, compared with the 120 that is
the global average. Bernhard expects that ratio to escalate to about 100
cars per 1,000 people by 2015.
Some pundits are even predicting that China will become the world's largest
market for new automobiles within 10 years, eclipsing the 16.5 million or
so sold yearly in the U.S. And General Motors is in the driver's seat, its
12% market share the largest for any auto manufacturer.
We should all want Rick to get his Christmas wishes. GM may not be as big
as it once was. It may not soon even be the biggest automobile company in
the world. But it is still incredibly important to the North American
economy, both economically and psychologically. If granting Wagoner's three
wishes are what it's going to take to restore The General to vigorous
health, I suggest we all get out the lamps gathering dust in our attics and
start rubbing furiously.
LOL, well somewhat true.
Rocky
I saw plenty of diesel trucks in Western Michigan. However not as many as here in the Panhandle. I might now consider buying one if it really will help me out where "NV" talked about. :P
Rocky
P.S. There is nothing like running 9-12 second Quarter Mile times in a diesel pick-up
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Diesels in fullsize trucks use less fuel than there gas engine counterparts. Diesel engines often have more horsepower and tons more torque and yet get better mpg. For example a GMC Sierra 3/4 ton 8.1 V8 will get at best 14-16 mpg with a 6-speed Alisson Transmission. The Duramax in the same conditions can pull 21-23 mpg on the HWY. Put a aftermarket packages on it like Edge or Banks and you can squeeze out 100-300 more horsepower and a extra 200-400 lbs of tq. depending on what all you get. The Edge/Banks package will squeeze you out a extra mile or 2 mpg also.
(depending on what all you do to it) times while propane can get you in the 9's-11's.
If General Motors would makes a 3/4-ton GMC Duramax Denali like I've requested that would be my next vehical without a doubt. I'd opt for the 6-speed manual (I think) and then go add a Banks Six-Gun package or whatever else is the hottest diesel aftermarket package thats out today.
"Hey I live in Tex-[non-permissible content removed] now where diesel HD's are as common as seeing cattle and oil wells pumping" :shades:
Rocky
P.S. Do I need that much horsepower and torque ???? NO, but it would be nice blowing by the occassional camcord I rarely see. :P
Well, good luck with that. GM doesn't even make a manual Silverado anymore, so I figure the 2500 is next, but for sure you won't get a manual in a Denali, brother.....
I've often said, if Ford would put a Diesel in a Navigator, I'd buy it. Maybe someone needs to make a little smaller diesel that would fit in a half-ton chassis, for us city wooses who want to feel more Testosterone in our daily commute??
I honestly don't see them canceling the manual for the HD's. I do think a GMC Denali 3/4 ton diesel would be a very hot seller don't you ?
I'm going to have to call GMC again right now and remind them once again.
Rocky
Yes, I do, Rocky. Figured, as I mentioned, if they had a frame that would handle the weight of the diesel, they'd have done it. Maybe they could bring back the Oldsmobile 350cid Diesel for half-ton trucks???
Look for it starting in 2010 or so.