In February 2008, dealer David Ferraez in Green Brook, N.J., was days away from breaking ground on a new Hummer dealership. Ferraez was already selling Hummers at a Buick-Pontiac-GMC store.
Then, he says, he got a call from a General Motors executive, who said: "Don't do anything. We think Hummer's going to take a different direction."
That turned out to be an understatement. In fact, there were a couple of different directions, ending last week in an official pronouncement of death.
A plan to seller Hummer to a Chinese company died in February. GM entertained other offers but said last week that time was up.
Last week GM announced a final clearance sale for the remaining 2,200 vehicles in the United States.
The relative good news is that Ferraez escaped needlessly spending $2 million on a new Hummer building. The bad news: He now has to find a way to replace the profits from the 40 new Hummers he was selling each month in 2007.
(Source: Automotive News)