So Hummer has been sold to a company in India. It's not tata, but another big company, I'm pretty sure it's Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M)

Anouncement comming soon.

So the 2 Indian companies can compete with each-other,..Hummer v.s. LandRover.

 

They've only said they're 'mildly interested' and haven't even had serious talks. Huge companies don't buy huge companies overnight...here's the latest on M&M and HUMMER:

http://www.hummerguy.net/hummer-news...sted-in-hummer

"In a somewhat confusing statement, Indian automaker Mahindra and Mahindra has expressed ‘mild interest’ in talking with General Motors about acquiring the HUMMER division. In the same statement, a spokesperson also added that the idea probably ‘doesn’t make any sense for us.’ Maybe I’m examining English semantics coming from an Indian company too closely, but if an idea doesn’t make any sense, why would there be any interest? We’ll take the two contradicting quotes to mean the company is interested purchasing HUMMER and is trying, albeit poorly, to maintain some bargaining leverage."

 

I live in Detroit though,..and was talking to some GM insiders this morning at a local car show. The deal is recent.

Saw a new Caddy CTS-V there. Very hot. 1/4 mile in 11.5 sec with the manual, and 11.6 with the auto. Top speed so far is 198,..although another friend that works at the GM proving grounds says they may tweak it up to hit the majic 200 mark.

Love the CTS-V brakes. Here's a pic of the fronts from this morning. Car comes out in November.

 

I hope you don't mind me adding my 2 cents to this, only because I know more from having more contact with Mahindra. I know that they are very big in Asia. I know they specialize in diesel powered off road equipment. I also know that none of thier equipment is on a level playing field with Hummer. If Mahindra is buying Hummer just so that they can take the Mahindra label off of thier trucks and put a Hummer label on it and it will sell more, they're crazy. Even the most insane person is going to believe that. The Mahindra truck looks like a throwback to the 70's and definitely lacks the predator style of the Hummer. In fact nothing in the world has that style, except Hummer. If someone were to buy the brand, they would be buying it for that alone. Setting themselves in thier own brand.

This is as much as I know. Mahindra is trying to bring a line of diesel powered pickups to the US market. From what I understand, they are supposed to be pretty decent offroad and capable, but from what I understand the quality is seriously seriously lacking, like parts falling off the body while driving badly.

I know that Mahindra trucks are supposed to be biodiesel ready and even hybrids with 30-40mpg ratings. I have no idea of thier performance, but being a diesel, I can't imagine it's going to be a clock stopper. I would also imagine that an H3 with a lawnmower engine would probably out climb, out mud, and out dirt the baddest Mahindra truck out there.

The thing I understand is this. Mahindra is having a very very hard time breaking into the US auto market. The idea is that if they buy into an existing brand and tap into a dealer network already in place they can sell thier vehicle side by side with other name brands. That's why Tata bought Land Rover and Jaguar, for the dealers. I know Mahindra floated last year selling thier trucks at thier tractor dealerships. I can't imagine many people going to a farm equipment dealer though to buy luxury SUV, but maybe a low cost diesel pickup.

All things considered, I am in a race with my money. If Mahindra puts a truck in front of me, I would buy it. I can buy a 7 foot bed, 4 cylinder mitsuibishi turbo diesel for less than $25K. That's only $5k more than I paid for my Silverado in 2001. I can afford 2 at that price. If GM puts the H3T in front of me first, I will buy that. If they both come on the scene at the same time, then I will try them both out. My guess is the Hummer will blow the doors (probably literally) off the Mahindra. The Mahindra will blow the doors off the Hummer at the gas pump.

And just so everyone will know, Mahindra trucks are made in a plant in Ohio, they are not shipped over from India. So it's a wash to buy a GM vs a Mahindra truck. Mahindra is famous for buying parts from all over the world and assembling them at thier final destination. My Mahindra tractor is made in Japan by Mitsuibishi and assembled in Texas at Mahindra's US headquarters. All of Mahindra attachments, my front end loader and backhoe are made entirely in the US. That's how these guys do business.

If I could say only one good thing about Mahindra buying Hummer it would that if there were ever a company that could put a turbo charged diesel engine in a H2 and get 30mpg and yet keep the brands offroad heritage, these guys could do it. If on the other hand, Mahindra is buying it so they can slap Hummer labels on everything, then they have underestimated the intellingence of truck buying Americans. They'd better wrap thier Mahindra Hummers in American flags with a lifetime supply of hot dogs and apple pies before people will buy them. That is unless they could care less and only want to sell them to greenies and low income citizens, in which case, the brand is worthless from day 1 of the sale.

Personally I don't know how Hummer could be unravelled from GM. I wish they would stick with it and keep the brand going. Instead of mass marketing, sell and build them like the corvette, less numbers and better quality. That is after all what Hummer is all about and what it's supposed to be about. I am just peeved that the guys at the top Waggoner spends his time only examining shareholder value instead of the real value of GM products. That to me is the shame. That guy should be fired with extreme prejuidice. Just my 2 cents.

 

My guess is GM sees the writing on the wall for Hummer. Sales have fallen off the charts. Instead of a few a day,...some Hummer dealers are selling a couple a month. (Sales fell 36% in the first 5 months of this year,..and another 40% just in June,......so now this June is off 59.5%from June oflast year). As gas prices continue to rise,...Hummerhas simplybecome a massive liability. GM probably figures that it's time to sell while they can still getsomething for it.

I'd love to see GM keep the H3,...shave 1,000 lbs out of it and install a 4 cyl turbo deisel. 230 hp and 300 ft lbs of torque would be just fine. 30 mpg would be easilly doable.

Butheavy, antique body-on-frame relics arecheaper to build,...and some people still buy daily drivers based on towing capacity or whatever. So instead of thriving,...it has to go.

 

So to continue with your logic GM should also sell off the Chevy brand as well since sales are down on the side too. Besides who needs a pickup truck the seats four and only gets 10 mpg.?!?
If GM does sell the Hummer Brand they are going to face a huge lawsuit from every dealer that was forced to build a Hummer Showroom and/or a Hummer Test Track. Each building costs around $600,000 to $800,000 to build and the test track comes in around another $800,000.

 

If GM could install a hybrid Hummer, electic, turbo-diesel or hydrodgen powered and all the technology came together right in their lineup, it would be one of the best selling brands. Unfortunately the ideas are way to futuristic for the technology out there. I don't see GM killing the Hummer brand just yet. There is a large stake here and just selling it wouldn't make much sense here. They have to see opportunity before soom and gloom.

 

Let's see the economy is in the toilet. I just read an ad in my local paper that the foreclosure rate has reached a record high. The days of cheap credit are gone. When I went to go buy my Hummer earlier this year I had to prove my income, something I have never had to do before, and I realistically take home more than the guy who owns the dealership. So now we see the era of cheap, easy credit and living on the edge come to an end. Gone will be the days when people with $40K incomes could buy a $80K car with a $500/month lease. In short the market is collapsing to a realistic size. Hummer also became the poster child for the anti-war movement. Everytime CNN played a clip over and over of some humvee blowing up in Iraq, people started pointing fingers.

GM is used to building cars for mass consumption. Now they have to rethink this position. It's not just gas, it's thier own image, and Hummer alone did not paint it. Now they are out peddling electric cars, something that comes out of the closet every few years and goes absolutely nowhere. Oh well, might as well sell it before the Saudis buy it anyways.

 

I think they probably are just hearing rumblings...since those folks at a high enough level to know about any kind of done deal probably aren't being vocal about it with the public at a car show. But you never know...

 

Agreed. The guy at the car show would be the last to know.