A Farewell Bid To Hummer H1 Thursday, Sep 18 2008

Soon, it will be the time to say goodbye to the Hummer H1. This vehicle is actually a truck which is produced by the General Motors Corporation. One of the latest news from the company is that the Hummer H1 would soon be on the list of those that will move on no further.

The Hummer H1 truck has been known as a gas guzzler. It also has been crafted, designed, and popularized as a military-style status symbol. To top it all off, this vehicle has also been suffering from poor sales. That is the very reason why the company has decided to cut and entirely halt the production of the Hummer H1 and instead, focus on marketing and focusing its resources on their other vehicles that sell well and bring in the cash.

Since 1996, this vehicle has already been in production. It has been crafted in three styles which comprise of the convertible-like soft top, the four-door hard top pickup truck, and the station wagon. On the other hand, there are still some other styles for the Hummer H1 which did not quite cause a stir among automobile buyers. These other styles include the pick up truck with two doors and the slantback which holds four doors.

The last batch of Hummer H1s would soon be rolling out the company’s production plant come June this year. It is not so effective when it comes to mileage for it could only run some 10 miles on a gallon of fuel. Despite this, the Hummer H1 would still be remembered fondly since it is the foundation of the Hummer brand.

According to Dayna Hart, GM’s spokesperson for the Hummer brand, “We are discounting it because it’s a low volume niche vehicle and we will dedicate out resources now to produce smaller-sized and higher-volume vehicles for Hummer.”

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The History Of Hummer Thursday, Aug 14 2008

Hummer was originally developed in 1979 in response to the Army’s need for the development of a high mobility multi-purpose wheeled vehicle. In the race to create such a vehicle was Teledyne, Chrysler defense and AM General; it is AM General who succeeded the competition and created what is now known as the Hummer.

Eleven months after it’s initial design AM General’s Hummer design was being tested in the Nevada desert. The Hummers design had to fit a stringent set of requirements for the army, it had to have light amour, deep water fording capability, and Arctic and desert operational ability to name just a few. In January 1985 Hummer produced it first fully equipped and ready for action vehicle. The Hummer became famed for its role during the American Army’s Operation Desert Storm Operation in the Gulf War; and has continued to be used during combat ever since.

It was in 1992 that AM General began producing the Hummer for civilian use, rumor has it that this was in response from Arnold Schwarzenegger who saw a platoon of the vehicles during the filming of Kindergarten Cop. H1, the first civilian model, retained many of the original features of the Hummer minus the combat machinery, this lead to the vehicles great popularity amongst those seeking the ultimate in toughness and mobility.

In 1999 Hummer sales slowed significantly and AM General went into partnership with GM Motors to jointly pursue product, marketing and distribution opportunities for Hummer; in doing so GM secured the exclusive ownership of the Hummer brand meaning securing the company with the rights to use the Hummer brand on any future vehicles, although AM General still reserve the right to build the H1. General Motors wasted no time and set about developing the H2 model based on GM’s Tahoe vehicle.

Now 20 years old, the Hummer is still humming along and is now available in a variety of models.

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