teggy

By TOM KRISHER and BREE FOWLER, AP Auto Writers Tom Krisher And Bree Fowler, Ap Auto Writers – 1 hr 11 mins ago
DETROIT – General Motors Corp. took a key step toward its downsizing on Tuesday, striking a tentative deal to sell its Hummer brand to a Chinese manufacturer, while also revealing that it has potential buyers for its Saturn and Saab brands.
GM has an agreement to sell its Hummer brand to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. of China, said a person briefed on the deal.

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AP source: GM to sell Hummer to Chinese company - Yahoo! News

This could very possibly be the first step to seeing China manufacturing not only our everyday items (Walmart, etc.) but also Automobiles. China already produces its own vehicles with close resemblance to other well-known world brands like Toyota, Mercedes, BMW, etc. Now with acquisition of Hummer, we might see the shift gain momentum.

PS: Interestingly enough, China has built its own kind of HumVee prior to this deal. It's called Dong Feng Hummer.

fayax

Because of these shifts, almost nothing will be made in US and Europe. All labor job will eventually go to countries with mass population willing and qualified only to do labor work.

firenze

USA is losing its dominance is nearly every single field/sector. The gap is being filled by money from China/India/Brazil.

China - India - Brazil are the new growth engines for next 50 years, US/West will keep declining, the unemployment already reached 9.2% in EU.

SID_NY

This had to happen. Chinese/Indians had been very patient watching calmly the deteriorating situation in american car industry. But I think Obama admin may impose some restrictions not to let china shift the labor outside US. Atleast upto certain time period!

teggy

Lets hope for the sake of domestic labor, Congress can put some conditions on this deal, so at the very least the workforce can be guarded even if the ownership changes. This will effect MotorCity in a huge way.

Other brands are up for grabs too, lets see who comes to the Yard Sale (pun intended). I personally believe "Build Big, Build Raw" strategy of American Automotive industry brought it down because while Asian and Europeans makers were making smaller, more efficient vehicles for a long time, we were still into Rumbling V8s. Ford and GM have taken some initiatives to catch up with the energy-conscious trend of motorists with the introduction of "green machines", but i think the damage is already done on the home front. In other countries though, i think GM still seems to be going strong.

Gujjar Badshah

Its ( GM motors ) already sold to China ...

Spock

Penske is buying the Saturn Brand (just in). This is actually a win win scenario for both companies. Saturn has always had a great dealership platform, something the CEO of Penske has always banked on. The Saturn brand, needed Penske attention!

X2

I can see saturn becoming a bigger force in the coming years.
now if we can just make sure that we get those saturn drivers to buy something else..u know the drivers I am talking about..volvo, subaru and saturn has one type of driver in common much more than other brands..and no that type does not drive the sky, or the wrx etc

BanTaleban

wasn't the hummer originally a russian creation that GM acquired? it's a total waste and whoever buys it will regret it

teggy

^Hummer can be quite useful if it can be hacked to carry a more efficient engine. The mammoth it has right now is just crazy and doesn't even produce that much power.

On a side note: For now Supreme Court has prevent from FIAT from buying Chrysler, lets see how that unfolds.

Overall, it's bad news for GM to be taken apart like this, but then again their vision has done them in. Smaller and more efficient motto should have been adopted a long time ago.

X2

so we can expect to see mini sized hummers soon?

X2

russian creation? AM General made the original version for US military.
it is manufactured in Russia as well, just like it is alos manufactured in south africa

now prior to AM gen making it for US military if they were inspired by some russian vehicle then I dont know

teggy

Quite possibly. I wouldn't be surprised.

I have to say though, a smaller Hummer just would not be The Hummer anymore...i.e. H3 is far from its tough and rugged predecessor H1. H2 can still somewhat fit the bill in the terms of trend, etc.

BanTaleban

TATA buying Jaguar is dumber than China buying Hummer. If TATA's fail it will be sad for India whereas if the Chinese govt fails with Hummer, nobody including themselves won't care

X2

its a bigger play for Tata because they want to start getting in bigger leagues for theri cars.
additionally its a prestige play, dependng on future of F1, I am sure at some point in time you will see an Indian team powered by jaguar. a replacement of force india.

firenze

tata bought the land rover & jaguar.. 2-3 years ago.. i think..

and they got integrated pretty much, and i feel their bet will be payed off big. South Asia is a huge market for luxury like these !