Hummer - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

First of all the good - Hummer sales overseas are getting better every month. They are snapping up Hummers before they disappear. Though U.S. sales were down significantly in 2008, sales outside of North America were up 5.5%. GM’s Asia Pacific region saw the largest gain. Hummer sales were 26,220 in 2008, but according to The Phantom during April 2009, Hummer sales in the Pacific region and Asia "were estimated at being up 29% from 2008."

Now for the bad - I walked through the lot of my local Hummer dealer Sunday and saw just a handful of H2s and H3s. The inventory was 20% of what it normally is and there were very few used Hummers on the lot. As I looked into a new black H3 on the lot, I noticed a Pepsi can still in the drink holder of the console, just a sign of decreasing attention to detail on the lot and a reduced staff at the dealership. To add insult to injury, there was a new black Chevy Tahoe in the display room.

Are you ready for the ugly - I looked at the four 2009 H2s in the lot and they all had highway tires on them. Who wants an offroad vehicle with highway tires? Somebody really dropped the ball here and they look plain ugly on the new H2. Any thoughts I had of buying one of the greatest and perhaps the last of the H2s were almost instantly dispelled as I looked at those OEM highway tires. They would be horrible in the mud and snow!