http://blogs. moneycentral. msn. com/topstocks/archive/2009/02/26/gm-ready-to-pull-plug-on-hummer. aspx#comments
Get ready to say goodbye to one of the most polarizing and controversial cars to ever hit the road. General Motors (GM) has been desperately shopping its Hummer brand around, but as weeks tick by with no clear buyer it's looking like Hummer production will soon end.
GM has said it would decide by next month whether to kill the Hummer line. But that could happen as early as next week, according to the Financial Times. Hummer's heyday was in 2006, when it delivered nearly 72,000 models in the U.S., but sales fell 51% last year.
Hummer would join a number of other GM models in the automotive graveyard. Saab is also for sale, and will receive bankruptcy protection in Sweden. Pontiac will become a niche brand with just one or two models. Saturn is headed for a 2011 phase-out.
It's sad to see so many names go, but GM needs to throw out the dead weight if it hopes to become a healthy, profitable company. Saturn, Hummer and Saab generated an average pretax loss of $1.1 billion a year between 2003 and 2007, according to the Globe and Mail.
GM's survival was even more in doubt Thursday, after the company said it burned through $6 billion in its fourth quarter. Quarterly sales fell by a third to about $31 billion.
GM is closing plants and cutting production, and it expects to burn through another $14 billion this year. Its bank account is pretty much shot; it ended the near with just $14 billion in cash -- including the first $4 billion in loans it received from the government.
GM has said it needs at least $11 billion to $14 billion to stay in business,
Get ready to say goodbye to one of the most polarizing and controversial cars to ever hit the road. General Motors (GM) has been desperately shopping its Hummer brand around, but as weeks tick by with no clear buyer it's looking like Hummer production will soon end.
GM has said it would decide by next month whether to kill the Hummer line. But that could happen as early as next week, according to the Financial Times. Hummer's heyday was in 2006, when it delivered nearly 72,000 models in the U.S., but sales fell 51% last year.
Hummer would join a number of other GM models in the automotive graveyard. Saab is also for sale, and will receive bankruptcy protection in Sweden. Pontiac will become a niche brand with just one or two models. Saturn is headed for a 2011 phase-out.
It's sad to see so many names go, but GM needs to throw out the dead weight if it hopes to become a healthy, profitable company. Saturn, Hummer and Saab generated an average pretax loss of $1.1 billion a year between 2003 and 2007, according to the Globe and Mail.
GM's survival was even more in doubt Thursday, after the company said it burned through $6 billion in its fourth quarter. Quarterly sales fell by a third to about $31 billion.
GM is closing plants and cutting production, and it expects to burn through another $14 billion this year. Its bank account is pretty much shot; it ended the near with just $14 billion in cash -- including the first $4 billion in loans it received from the government.
GM has said it needs at least $11 billion to $14 billion to stay in business,
