In the early 1990s, one of Hollywood's biggest action stars pestered a
U.S. defense contractor to sell him a truck the American military had
famously used in a war with Iraq.
And so America got the Hummer.
The angular, militaristic go anywhere truck became an emblem of 1990s pop
culture, a coveted status symbol sought by celebrities and a sometimes
mocked and vilified example of just how far America's newfound love for
sport utility vehicles had gone.
The Hummer was huge, brash and often brightly colored, and it became a
favorite choice for adventurous buyers who didn't mind attracting
attention. And then it was gone.
As parent company General Motors collapsed into bankruptcy.
I would say there probably isn't many more iconic vehicles of this century
than the Hummer. I would put like the Hummer, the Prius, the Beatle.
I would say they all existed for a time and were so incredibly popular and
their popularity has faded for all of them.
But I mean, Hummer was so ubiquitous at one point in terms of representing
that overly emasculated, aggressive, almost stereotype.
The Hummer had a brief life spanning just under two decades, but it made a
lasting impression.
The vehicle that would come to be called a Hummer actually began as the
U.S. military's High Mobility Multi-purposed Wheeled Vehicle.
The name's cumbersome acronym H M M W V landed the truck with its nickname
Humvee. It was first developed in 1981 by U.S.
defense contractor AM General.
It was most notably used in the first Gulf War, but the kind seen on roads
and highways later on came about because as the story goes, Arnold
Schwarzenegger saw a convoy of Hummers in Oregon while filming a movie and
decided he had to have one.
Upon seeing them, he would later say he could see himself driving the
vehicle in the mountains and in the desert.
Schwarzenegger reportedly lobbied AM general repeatedly for one of the
vehicles. At first, he demanded one of the same Humvees the company had
sold to the military, but he was refused since the truck was not street
legal. Then he began asking AM general to make a civilian version.
He even flew out to the company's headquarters in South Bend, Indiana, to
make his case. The contractor eventually created a civilian version in
1992 and named it the Hummer.
Schwarzenegger was there for the unveiling of the vehicle and drove one of
the first specimens off the assembly line.
By many measurements, the Hummer outdid every other passenger vehicle on
the market. It had a full 16 inches of ground clearance.
That's over nine inches more than the Jeep Wrangler Rubicon.
It was also seven feet wide, almost as wide as the biggest street legal
semitrucks, making it stable and resistant to rollover, despite its
height. The civilian version came with a more comfortable cabin geared for
cruising and commuting rather than combat.
But the truck did retain some of the features found in the original
version. There's a vehicle that was extremely capable of going anywhere
off road. So even if most owners never actually took it off the pavement,
the vehicle did have the credibility behind it.
Owners of the vehicle knew that it could go really far off road if they so
desired. And the capability of that vehicle was part of its credibility.
And the Hummer was a success for a while.
Gm bought the brand in 1999 and expanded the lineup with progressively
smaller models called the H2 and H3.
By 2002, General Motors was launching the Hummer brand in a big way with
the H2, which was a smaller version of the smaller, more consumer
friendly version of the H1 that was heavily based on GM pickup.
Heavy duty pickup mechanicals.
And the timing of it was sort of fortuitous for General Motors because the
second Gulf War was starting and all over the news, all you saw were
military Humvees storming into Iraq.
And right about that time, General Motors launched the H2.
So it was able to capitalize on it was able to capitalize on current
events at the time. It also made it a very polarizing vehicle because
Americans were either in support of the war or they were really, really
against it. Eventually, every celebrity seemed to have one.
Schwarzenegger himself owned at least seven at one point.
Heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson had six.
At its peak in 2006, Americans bought more than 71,000 Hummers.
The vehicle was an oddity in the marketplace, huge, blunt and aggressive.
But that appears to be part of what people liked about it.
It was a vehicle that absolutely could not be ignored.
I think the fact that there were so many of them that were painted bright
yellow sort of spoke volumes about the fact that this is the view that
people really want to be seen in.
I mean, people generally chose pretty extroverted colors to go with this
vehicle. You know, the vehicle was, of course, extremely often capable,
but there were a relatively small number of people who actually use it for
that purpose. Really, it was a fashion statement.
For some people was even a political statement.
And most of all, it was a vehicle that vote for those who were really into
the product. It was something that they really wanted to show off and be
seen in. However, there was also backlash against the truck, which critics
viewed as an obnoxious gas guzzler.
The original Hummer H1 got about 10 miles per gallon, the smallest of the
lineup, the H3 got 14 miles per gallon with an automatic transmission in
the 2010 model year.
To activists and other critics, the vehicle became a symbol of excess and
the American addiction to fuel at a time when prices were beginning to
climb and the country was fighting wars in the oil rich Middle East.
In one high profile case, a dealership in West Covina, California, was
vandalized, including 20 Hummers valued at about $50000 each.
The perpetrators spray painted messages on several of the damaged trucks,
including gross polluter and fat, lazy Americans.
Apart from the environmental backlash.
Rising fuel prices and a grueling recession spoiled America's taste for
big vehicles. Hummer sales fell from their 2006 high to 55,986 in
2007, 27,485 in 2008.
And just 9,046 in 2009.
Unfortunately for Hummer, as the decade progressed, after a decade
progressed, fuel prices went haywire in 2008.
All the sudden, it made the Hummer look very unfashionable because he was
a vehicle that got maybe 10 miles a gallon when gas prices were shooting
up to near about $4 a gallon across the country.
And all the sudden it looked very out of step with the times and it looked
like a dinosaur. And sales fell off like a rock.
They Hummer did introduce a smaller multi-culti H3, but by that time, I
think that damn, that's pretty much already done.
To make matters worse, General Motors itself had collapsed, the largest
U.S. automaker filed for bankruptcy in 2009.
GM put several of its brands to the axe, including Pontiac, Oldsmobile,
Saab and Hummer.
So I think for for those times when General Motors was looking at what
they should do as they were going through bankruptcy, moving forward,
Hummer was a brand that they had to unload.
I mean, even if you look at what their pickup truck sales were at the
time, those had just fallen off the cliff as well.
So it was clear that Americans are not interested in these larger
vehicles. All of the things that had made it appealing.
It's big, loud, brash attitude were now liabilities.
GM would later try to sell the brand to Chinese investors, but that deal
fell through. The strange thing is that as prices have fallen from an all
time high set in 2008 and as the U.S.
has pulled out of the recession, customers have run back to sport,
utilities and trucks.
Fast forward to today and now, although smaller, not Hummer size, SUVs are
nearly 50 per person of the new Khazaal in the United States.
So what's old is new again, essentially, I think that's that in fromwhat
everything. But it seems like it certainly is the case here with Humarr as
well. But it is possible the brand could have a second life.
At least two reports have said GM is considering bringing the Hummer back
as part of a fleet of electric and hybrid sport utilities and trucks.
Gm didn't comment on the report, but a move like that would allow the
automaker to capitalize on the Hummers, military pedigree and adventurous
image while keeping in step with what GM CEO Mary Barra calls GM's all
electric future.
Over the years, even Schwarzenegger has been seen piloting Hummers,
running on alternative fuels.
One of my Hummer has been turned into a hydrogen Hummer.
And that, of course, emits no greenhouse gases at all.
And the other Hummer has been turned into a biofuel Hummer and that one
now releases emits a 40 to 50 percent less greenhouse gases.
So I think those are the kind of initiatives each individual of us can
take. Reviving the Hummer could also be a relatively inexpensive way for
GM to broaden its truck lineup at a time when Americans are scooping up
pickups and sport utilities at an unprecedented rate.
Several industry watchers have said the shift toward utilities and trucks
and the new car market is here to stay.
If that is true, automakers are likely to keep trying to carve out new
niches to distinguish themselves and squeeze higher margins out of each
purchase. Big, butch, off-road ready vehicles are once again the order of
the day. The longtime off-road favorite Jeep Wrangler has climbed from
eighty four thousand six hundred fifteen units in 2008 to two hundred
84,615 units in 2018.
And Jeep added the gladiator pickup truck to its Wrangler lineup for the
2019 model year.
While GM has off-road capable vehicles, it doesn't really have one that
directly replaced the Hummer, nor one that could directly compete with the
Wrangler. Having a dedicated, off-road oriented brand could be a boon to
GM and its ongoing war for truck and SUV dominance with its Detroit
rivals. So I think that it does make sense from a manufacturer standpoint,
but also it seems like the consumer base is there.
I mean, how much hype was there around the Jeep Gladiator launch?
I mean, tons. I mean, people are, you know, still very excited about that
vehicle you know, a year later.
The gladiator is actually a revival of a pickup truck Jeep sold in the
1960s.
In similar manner, Ford plans to revive the Bronco, another once popular
utility vehicle.
Toyota brought back its Supera sports car.
Honda pulled the passport name out of its archives for a new sport
utility. When automakers reintroduced brands, they can take advantage of
nostalgia while also saving money they would have to spend introducing
customers to a totally new product.
Even a brand is notorious as Hummer is still a recognized one.
The Hummer was certainly a polarizing vehicle, but reviving it in this
market is starting to look like a smart bet.