Rough terrain for Hummer dealerships

Long Island Business News, Oct 3, 2008 by Ambrose Clancy

At the Ramp Hummer dealership in St. James, more than 100 of the big, boxy GM vehicles sat cheek-by-jowl in the sunshine. They seemed to be screaming.

"Take off $10,000!" yelled large, colorful cards from the windshields.

"Take off $12,000!"

And, "0% for 72 months." Or "100,000 miles/5-year warranty."

You'd be screaming too if you were GM. Domestic Hummer sales are off 40 percent for the first half of this year. You'd be buttonholing people in the street if, like GM, you took a total $51 billion bath over the last three years.

The catastrophic bottom line is why the venerable pillar of Detroit is trying to unload the Hummer brand by New Year's or early 2009.

But GM has lots of company as it staggers through the financial quarters, rocked by a feeble economy and escalating gas prices. All U.S. auto manufacturers' passenger car sales are down about 8 percent this year and light trucks are a whopping 22 percent off from last year.

So, how do you sell a Hummer?

John Catanzaro, who has been moving cars off lots for 30 years, is business manager of Ramp Motors. He can discuss all things Hummer and he said it recently looked as if GM would sell the brand.

"But GM might also retool or totally dismantle the brand," he said.

No matter what, the day of the Hummer as Americans have come to know it, is probably over.

Catanzaro's office is just off the showroom - a high-ceilinged shrine to the off-road monster, with hats, shirts, coats, jackets and other merchandise all bearing the brand name amidst the vehicles themselves, which are spotlighted like museum pieces.

This is not just some other vehicle, but one that forces an opinion from you: You're either for or against it. It's also a machine, which like the Jeep, is bound up in American history.

The Hummer began life as the Hum-Vee, a military vehicle which sped into America's consciousness during the first Gulf War. In 1992 a company called AM General began selling them to the public under the name Hummer and six years later, GM bought the brand.

For a while it was the most testosterone-driven four wheels on the road. Arnold Schwarzenegger owned eight of them. GM marketed the Hummer as an all-American example of triumphant individualism.

But that was then.

When gas prices started hovering at $4 a gallon, many people in the market for a new ride were stopped in their tracks at what it costs to feed the H3, the smallest of the Hummers. Try about $92 to fill the 23-gallon tank.

But selling a 20th century vehicle stuck in a 21st century ditch of hard times is easy, Catanzaro said, with the confidence only a successful car dealer can project. Perhaps, however, it's the cheaper price.

"We market the Hummer for what it truly is," he said. "A great, safe, all around off-road vehicle with gas mileage better than what the consumer thinks."

Officially, the H3 gets 19 miles a gallon on the highway. Catanzaro said people still are thinking of the H1, which is out of production and only scored about 9 mpg.

Another misconception is the Hummer is an expensive luxury vehicle, the dealer said. Ramp has lowered the price, knocking on average $11,000 off a fully loaded H3, shrinking the total cost to about $27,000.

It's working, Catanzaro said. Bucking the national trend, in August Ramp met its GM quota to sell 16 Hummers. August 2007 to August 2008 Ramp's H3 sales were up 3.5 percent, he said. But the larger H2, on which Ramp is cutting the price by $15,000, was off 13 percent.

The Hummer aficionado comes from all income groups, including a man who works for a landscaper and makes $30,000 a year, Catanzaro said.

"It's a status thing," he said. "He wants to show people he's made it."

Oakdale's Bob Marascia said status has nothing to do with his love affair with the Hummer. He was trading in his 2007 H3 for a new one to give to his daughter Alyssa for her first year in college.

He likes the deal Ramp gave him.

"I'm driving off with a new vehicle and paying $50 a month less than I did for the old one," he said.

Safety is an issue for his 18-year-old, too.

"She'll be safe, unless she's involved with a tractor trailer," he said.

Sayville contractor Dave Bruno said his Hummer is a good work truck.

"It's at every site covered in mud," he said.

But he did dispute the mileage Hummer posts.

"I get nothing," Bruno said. "I'm going to tie it to a horse."

However, he likes driving his H3.

You can see why, if you take one for a spin. The gray, fully loaded H3 leaving the Ramp lot drove like any other new $40,000 luxury vehicle, which means it was like driving your couch. There was no sense of operating an armored personnel carrier.

Which was a disappointment. If you're going to drive a Hummer, you at least want to get the feeling you're one dangerous dude, an All-American road warrior, right?

Tooling up Jericho Turnpike the Hummer handled easily with a healthy response when you punched the accelerator. Cutting up a side street, two boys hanging around a basketball hoop looked up and stopped playing, all eyes as the Hummer stole past.

Were they admiring one cool American vehicle? Or seeing a ghost?