What Happened To The Hummer H2

What Happened To The Hummer H2

General Motors produced The Hummer H1 and H2 versions, the best pickup truck vehicle from GM. But what Happened To The Hummer H2?.  

What Happened To The Hummer H2

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. 

Part 2: What Happened To The Hummer H2

The Hummer was huge, brash and often brightly colored, and it became a favorite choice for adventurous buyers who didn't mind attracting attention. 

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. 

And 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. 

Hummer had a brief life spanning just under two decades, but it made a lasting impression. 

What Happened To The Hummer H2

Why The Hummer Disappeared From America

- Hummer's History

This Hummer H2 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. 

Also 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. 

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. 

Part 2: Why The Hummer Disappeared

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 Hummer H2 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 Hummer H2 was part of its credibility. And the Hummer was a success for a while. 

What Happened To The Hummer H2

General Motors Takes Over - GM Company

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 6. At its peak in 2006, Americans bought more than 71,000 Hummers. 

The Hummer H2 was an oddity in the marketplace, huge, blunt and aggressive. 

But that appears to be part of what people liked about it. 

Hummer was a vehicle that absolutely could not be ignored. 

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 Hummer H2. 

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. 

Part 2: General Motors Takes Over

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. 

Hummer 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 Hummer H2 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. 

Also 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. 

The Hummer did introduce a smaller multi-culti H3, but by that time, I think that damn, that's pretty much already done. 

What Happened To The Hummer H2

The Future of Hummer

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. 

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. 

Even if you look at what their pickup truck sales were at the time, those had just fallen off the cliff as well. 

Hummer 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. 

Part 2: The Future of Hummer

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. 

And over the years, even Schwarzenegger has been seen piloting Hummers, running on alternative fuels. 

Schwarzenegger:

• One of my Hummer has been turned into a hydrogen Hummer. And that, of course, emits no greenhouse gases at all. 

• The other Hummer has been turned into a biofuel Hummer and that one now releases emits a 40 to 50 percent less greenhouse gases. 

• 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 4,650 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.  

How much hype was there around the Jeep Gladiator launch? 

People are, you know, still very excited about that Hummer H2 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 Hummer H2. 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.