Big, bad and silly - so long, Hummer

Perhaps nothing better symbolized the nation's overindulgent, often misguided, credit-backed pre-Great Recession consumerism than the Hummer. Appropriate then that it appears the Hummer will not survive the economic downtown.

The Hummers were bigger and badder than any SUV on the road. They cost more to buy than most any other car and more to keep going because of their deplorable mileage. These giant cars fit right in during a time of giant homes, giant expectations of never-ending growth and giant-sized debts.

The Hummer traced its roots to the Humvee military vehicle. Ironic then, that while soldiers were risking their lives driving real Humvees across booby-trapped desert roads in wars that had much to do with the nation's addictive-like dependence on foreign oil, non-combatants back home were using their chrome-laden, gas-guzzling versions to pick up some milk or take a Sunday drive.

How silly this was became evident in the summer of 2008, when gasoline prices spiked above $4 a gallon and the reality of a deepening recession set in. Once the object of vehicle envy, the Hummers became for many targets of scorn. For some owners the question was who would show up first - the repo man for the Hummer or the sheriff with the foreclosure notice?

Sales peaked at 71,524 in 2006, but this past December GM sold only 325 Hummers nationwide, down 85 percent from the previous year.

GM hoped to strike a deal to sell the Hummer brand to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines Co. in China, a country of 1.3 billion people that is following the U.S. down the path of car indulgence, a fact that promises to place more strain on global oil supplies and send more greenhouse gases into the air. Alas, the deal fell through and GM announced it will begin phasing out the Hummer model.

Even the Army says this will probably be the last year it buys Humvees.

This is not good news, of course, for those working at Hummer plants in Louisiana and Indiana. Perhaps the plants can be retooled to produce hybrid vehicles - or the coming GM Volt electric car.