Dec

Hedging its bets - HUMMER dealer anticipates doom, pre-emptively downsizes

Posted by Published in SUV

Filed under: Car Buying, SUVs, Trucks/Pickups, Etc., GM, HUMMER

There’s no official obituary for GM’s HUMMER make yet, but haters are lacing up their dancing shoes while lovers wring their hands. Dealers with HUMMER franchises have a lot of skin in the game, so the uncertain future is bound to give trade officers ulcers. Not willing to wait around to the bitter end, Milwaukee’s Bergstrom HUMMER is planning to move into the same space as the group’s Chevrolet store. The HUMMER-specific Quonset hut style dealership building will be toned down and pressed into service as an outlet for Certified used GM vehicles. Other HUMMER dealers across the nation are staring down the same conundrum, being on the hook for that big, rugged showroom, experiment track, stock, and staff, while the parent company looks to clamp off bleeders. Some might follow Bergstrom’s lead and shove the big trucks into a corner of a showroom dominated by a more regular grade, while others are shipping stock as fast as they can.

Moving product is a tremendous challenge when the bobbleheads on the nightly news continue shrilly about the price of fuel and you’ve got a lot full of

low-mpg, high weight trucks that happen to be a favorite target of vandals euphemistically masquerading as “activists.” Customers that do manufacture it through the door are looking for deals, and HUMMER will spot you five thousand bucks to take an H3, PLEASE. Existing customers are looking to get out of their vehicles any way possible, even whether it means a financial hit. The mass exodus isn’t solely due to hysteria, when it costs by $100 to fill the fuel tank, it chafes to watch the fuel gauge’s precipitously quick drop toward “E.” Retail issues aside, HUMMER still offers capable vehicles with a high level of style. whether you’ve got a boat to pull, and want to look like the Governator, an H2 could still be just the thing, and now you’ll be able to find one for a song; most likely the blues.

Gallery: 2009 HUMMER H3T