Hummer Becomes Most Popular Luxury SUV in U.S.
The Gazette - April 11, 2003
Motor Trend
As hundreds of Humvees stream toward Baghdad, their half-priced Hummer cousins have become the top-selling luxury sport/utility vehicle in America. Priced about $50,000, the Hummer H2 has edged out Lincoln Navigator with an 8-to-7 margin and has a slightly wider advantage over Cadillac Escalade.
Despite its military bearing, image has more to do with the H2's dominance than patriotism, said Haig Stoddard, an analyst with Ward's Communications, a Detroit-area company that tracks the auto industry.
"Part of the reason is it went into production last year, and there was a lot of pent-up demand for it," Stoddard said Wednesday. "And there really isn't anything out there like it in its segment. It allows you to get a Hummer at a lower cost than what the (Hummer) H1 is at," Stoddard said.
The base price for a Hummer H1 is about $106,000.
In Colorado Springs, H2s are hot. Records at the El Paso County Clerk and Recorders Office are sketchy: At least 59 Hummers are registered, but the number might be as high as 96.
Al Serra Hummer, the sole dealership in El Paso County, has at least 10 H2s on its lot, with another 60 trucks on the way. Selling time is 10 days versus 60 days for other Al Serra vehicles.
"We sell as many as we can get," General Manager Jerry Colten said. "If 4-by-4 is a super-big thing to you and you want something that is really powerful and strong, then this is the baby."
Colten expects to sell 15 Hummers this month. Sales were averaging 20 vehicles, largely because Al Serra was taking customers away from other dealers. The company decided on a volume sales approach, unlike dealers who tacked on thousands of dollars to the suggested retail price.
Slightly more than half of Al Serra's buyers are Springs residents. The rest are customers from as far as Phoenix, Albuquerque and Kansas City. Many buyers are women.
"In no small part, the popularity is due to the Hummer name, which has a certain panache to it," said Dave Breggin, president of the Colorado Hummer Association, a group of Hummer owners and fans.
Breggin says patriotism is behind some sales, but he says the H2 has touched something in the American psyche.
"It's different, and I think that it definitely instills some kind of feeling or well-being in the owner," he said. "It's not price. There are more expensive SUVs."
GM sells the trucks without interest-free loans. It owns the marketing rights to the Hummer, but AM General, an Indiana-based company that makes Humvees, manufactures the vehicles.
Will the H2's popularity last? Colten says yes.
Although sales on the East and West coasts have cooled, they still are strong in the Rocky Mountain region, where most people buy Hummers for their utility, he said.
"This is where (GM) expects it to dominate as a vehicle," he said.
Stoddard, of Ward's Communications, isn't so sure. He says the H2 will continue to be profitable for GM, but once the novelty wears off, sales will fade.
(c) 2003, The Gazette, Colorado Springs, Colo.
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