Buh-bye Hummer....?

A few years ago, I attended a GM press conference at the Cooper-Hewitt in NYC where the lead designers of General Motors assembled to drone on about the new exciting lineup they had recently rolled out including their drive-by-wire hydrogen-powered "Autonomy" Concept, and the new Hummer (before they called it the H3). It was certainly a big splashy confusing juxtaposition of priorities, ostensibly pronouncing to the press, "We care about the environment! And also, we don't care about the environment!"  

I raised my hand to ask a question, and rambled on about some Honda Insight fansites I had recently spent some time on that outlined all the various techniques that Insight owners employed to squeeze out the absolute maximum in fuel economy from that sweet little hybrid car (since discontinued, dumb). I also noted that the gauge in the dashboard was a hugely prominent element in the instrumentation design, expressing the Insight's singular purpose...Save As Much Gas As Possible. So I asked the panel if they were aware of this squeeze-blood-from-a-stone subculture, if design cues from the Insight dash could tell us anything about future thinking on the relationship between a car's purpose and its driver information feedback loop, if the Autonomy would ever come with a trunk (its current design was simply sci-fi masturbation), and maybe a few other things I can't remember anymore.

My barrage was met with a pregnant silence, and a "Next question, please."

It was on this day that I decided that GM stood for "General Meatheads" (GM designers included). Their announcement today is, well, predictable. Iconic brand, my ass. Iconic brand for "Insecure, crass, fat, and testosterone-obsessed Americans." The Hummer brand should never, ever have been conceived, and I'm sure they spent a fortune doing market research as to the viability of a take-no-prisoners vehicle in that category. There is a point where you have to admit that "market intelligence" is an oxymoron if not untrustworthy. Now it appears that that very category is very much on the way out. How fickle we are.

[Breaking: Here's a great video on "Hypermiling", the art of squeezing every ounce of fuel efficiency out of a common non-hybrid car. Hypermiling stands as the anti-thesis of Hummerness, which can aptly be described as "Undermiling". Thanks, Bon]

From "GM to close 4 factories, may drop Hummer" :

WILMINGTON, Del. - General Motors is closing four truck and SUV plants in the U.S., Canada and Mexico as surging fuel prices hasten a dramatic shift to smaller vehicles.

CEO Rick Wagoner said Tuesday before the automaker's annual meeting in Delaware the plants to be closed are in Oshawa, Ontario; Moraine, Ohio; Janesville, Wis.; and Toluca, Mexico. He also said the iconic Hummer brand may be discontinued. [...]

Wagoner announced the moves in response to slumping sales of pickups and SUVs brought on by high oil prices. He said a market shift to smaller vehicles is permanent.