Vegas buyers desert Hummers

The Wall Street Journal reports that Towbin Hummer will no longer sell the military-style SUVs. What is noteworthy about the dealer's announcement is that Towbin Hummer is the only Hummer dealer in Las Vegas, a city known for its excess -- especially including heavily customised Hummers with massive chrome-finish alloys and all the glitter.

Also significant, Towbin Hummer is the eighth Hummer dealer to draw down the blinds this year, making GM's sell-off of the brand -- assuming that goes ahead -- that much harder.

According to the WSJ, the Vegas dealership's principal, Dan Towbin, is a Hummer enthusiast and the dealership should have been in the perfect location for its demographic.

"It's all about bling and it's in the desert," said Towbin.

"I feel very aligned with the brand. Neither General Motors nor I wanted to go this way."

But Towbin saw the writing on the wall once he began offering as much as US$6000 per car in incentives to buy, for vehicles ranging in price from US $31,000 for the H3 to $64,000 for the flagship H2.

Despite that, Hummer sales across America are 47 per cent below the same period for the year to date, 2007.

Towbin is a multi-franchise dealer and the Hummer setback is disappointing, but not fatal to his business. He plans to commence selling smart cars shortly, alongside his other franchises, Dodge, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Infiniti and Vespa motor scooters.

GM, however, is in a more difficult situation. With each successive dealer dropping off the twig, it becomes just that much harder to sell Hummer and, increasingly, the brand will need to target consumers in foreign markets like the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe -- but even assuming the business case for Hummer can be reinvented and revived, there still needs to be a bold buyer out there willing to take a chance.