The Hummer has become a lightning rod for attention since people started taking global warming seriously, and in light of record-high gas prices.

People Actually Want Hummers

So why not sell it to someone from an area that controls oil production and gas prices?

If a sale goes through, the more Hummers sold, the more gas guzzled.

General Motors still is not sure it wants to sell the Hummer brand, though certainly it is taking offers.

So far it appears interest will not come from the Asian market. Asia Pacific Automotive Insights reported recently that Indian and Chinese firms declined the opportunity. Mahindra and Mahindra, India’s top SUV and tractor maker, publicly announced it would not purchase the brand.

The Indian company is actually thinking about bringing its own SUV model to the American market in 2009.

But at the same time, Middle East and Africa Automotive Insights reported that General Motors Middle East logged a 7% increase in sales from year to year. Oman saw a 45% increase, the market of Lebanon-Syria-Jordan grew 32%.

Selling a Hummer in Russia

Hummer is on the market as GM hurries to raise up to $4 billion by selling assets to try to survive the tough economy and fend off bankruptcy.

Part of the plan is to invest more than $500 million in the United States to allow the company to build a new compact car better suited in this era of record-high gas prices.

Ultimately the Hummer could be replaced by something called the Cruze, with a 1.4-liter engine built in a new plant in Flint, Michigan.

Whether that comes to fruition remains to be seen. The Cruze is not expected to reach American showrooms until the second half of 2010.

Meanwhile, GM analyzes all its markets, in the United States and beyond, to link its cars with those who most desire them.

For some reason, Russians adore the Hummer. There, GM sales went up 60% year on year, including 45% for the Chevrolet brand.

At the Moscow Motor Show in early September 2008, GM planned to showcase 10 new cars, including a new engine for the H3 Hummer, a V6 that Russian fans reportedly are excited about.

Save the Hummer, Instead of the Whales?

Will it be enough, though, to save GM and the Hummer brand? The company, after all, lost $38 billion and 80% of its stock value the past 18 months.

Western motorists have strayed greatly from GM’s core gas-guzzling offerings, and the company doesn’t have a broad enough or attractive enough fuel-economy segment to impact the market fast enough.

Four GM plants in North America, now building pickup trucks and SUVs, will be shuttered in coming months.

Meanwhile, there is talk of building a new GM factory in Russia. 

Russians are not alone in their love for the Hummer. A strong faction still exists in America – just not as large compared with the brand’s heyday.

The Gulf War of 1990-91 and Arnold Schwarzenegger, of course, propelled the car to near cult status shortly after GM bought the Hummer’s original military vehicle builder, AM General.

Originally it was called the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, later dubbed by soldiers and the media as the Humvee.

The post Fate of the Hummer May Rest in Eastern Hands appeared first on Cash for Cars Selling Tips.

Same goes for smaller cars today. It’s been written ad nauseum that American motorists are turning toward smaller cars and away from the beastly sport utility vehicles and trucks of the turn of the century.

Small, But Gets the Job Done

The term crossover is being loosely applied to a variety of vehicles, a new marketing tool for car sellers. Consider it the corduroy shorts of the OP shorts era.

Not only are sellers touting vehicles formerly called wagons or coupes “crossovers”, they are racing to pack them full of standard and optional features that will make the next owner think they’re onto the next big thing.

Let’s take, for example, the Toyota Matrix and Pontiac Vibe, two cars that are somewhat related due to an interesting partnership between Toyota and GM.

The two car-making behemoths together own the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant in Fremont, Calif., where the Toyota Corolla sedan and Tacoma pickup and the Vibe are produced.  (The Matrix is built at a plant in Ontario, Canada, that also builds Corollas).

Off to Disneyland

What auto-sale trends are indicating is that while motorists want to save money on gas, they are not inclined to squish themselves into a Mini Cooper or so-called smart car to do it.

Families need the space to haul kids to the beach from Thousand Oaks, back-and-forth to school in Santa Clarita, or to Disneyland from Long Beach.

To sell a car in Simi Valley, dealerships are attuned to family demands and know the Prius is not for everyone.

The SUV is no longer an option in high-gas-price areas like Anaheim or Santa Ana. Hence the push for the crossover.

Not all consumers are aware of what it means. In loose terms, a crossover is a sport utility vehicle built on the chassis of a car, making it handle more like car, and generally boosting fuel economy.

But they still maintain the interior space and hauling ability of an SUV.

The Vibe was introduced at the end of the 2002 model year, the Matrix during the 2003 model year.

At the time they were really small SUVs, maybe even station wagons, aimed at the younger audience. With the 2009 model year, however, both Toyota and GM have set their sights squarely on the gas-conscious audience, regardless of age.

Popular for All Ages

The Matrix is based on the Corolla platform. The new model starts at a bit more than $16,000, and its 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine gets 25 to 32 miles per gallon.

A new sporty model, the XRS, comes with a 2.4-liter four-cylinder engine getting 21 to 29 miles per gallon.

Toyota marketers are saying it presents “The body of a five-door hatchback and the soul of a sports car.”

Extras on the XRS give a glimpse of how Toyota is positioning the Matrix as its next round of surf shorts: a leather interior, rear spoiler, sport suspension, electric power steering and 17-inch alloy wheels.

Inside, there are sport front bucket seats, a high-efficiency climate-control system, and a leather-trimmed steering wheel with audio-system controls.

Particularly attractive in California today, with its new can’t-drive-and-talk law, is the option of a hands-free Bluetooth phone connection.

Engine performance has also been praised, especially for a vehicle that on the outside looks like a small SUV. An interesting note: Toyota is just now calling it a crossover; previously it was a small wagon.

The Vibe now comes in a base model with the 1.8-liter engine, an all-wheel-drive version with a 2.4-liter engine, and a sporty GT version.

Beneath the body, the Vibe is a Matrix. However, GM redesigned the outside look to make it more Pontiac-distinct.

It started as a compact hatchback, the only in American Pontiac’s lineup, but has morphed into a crossover. It is similar to the Matrix in every aspect but one: you can get optional all-wheel drive.

A Good Option

The crossover is a good option for those who have a family to haul and want something as efficient as possible, both on the pocketbook and on the environment.

The post Marketing the Crossover to Cure the SUV Blues appeared first on Cash for Cars Selling Tips.

There are other reasons the SUV market is struggling, and at this point it is nearly impossible to sell any of them used.

Go ahead, try selling one.

Please Buy My SUV

“A rude awakening at U.S. gas pumps is leading owners of large cars to another rude awakening as they try to sell their cars”, UPI reported July 2.
The bottom line is, the less the demand, the less the value.  And there is hardly a demand for buying a used sport utility vehicle.

Many owners are dealing with a new reality if they have tried to sell an SUV themselves, or, especially, if they tried to trade one in for a new vehicle.

The general manager for a Ventura, Calif., dealership told the Ventura County Reporter weekly newspaper, “Some of the people are shocked at the trade-in value and don’t trade them in”.

Dealers are keen to what lot-visiting customers desire. And it’s not a gas guzzler – so they are disinclined to offer anything close to Kelley Blue Book value.

In California, that means offering $4,000 to $6,000 less than what Kelley Blue Book lists as a value. So if you truly want to sell your SUV, be prepared to be flexible on the price.

There Are Just So Many of Them

Dealers are noticing that more people want to trade in their Hummer for a four-cylinder hybrid. This was an unheard of trade just a few years ago.

A challenge for owners of new SUVs or large trucks today is, on top of a $700 monthly payment, they will pay $700 monthly in gas.

It’s the equivalent of having a $1,400 car payment, one dealer said, questioning why sellers are so reluctant to accept lower offers. In the end they will end up saving money.

Another trend is dealers or buyers offering up to $10,000 less for large cars than what the owner still owes.

Numbers tell the story: today it takes an average of about 70 days to sell a sport utility vehicle, that’s about twice as long as three years ago.

Additionally, owners are selling for discounts around 25% below resale value. Even when dealers buy them, they need to present incentives up to $6,000 to get them off the lot, according to news reports.

The gas-guzzler blues can get even worse if you try to sell one yourself.

The seller of a Chevy Suburban in Venice, Florida, recently told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that he has had a for-sale sign on it for six weeks and received zero calls.

The Trend in Downsizing

To put the automotive big-to-small trend in perspective, if you want to sell a Ford Focus it should take less than a month, according to CNW Marketing, a vehicle research company.

It’s no secret that buyers are going for lighter cars with smaller engines, or crossover vehicles that provide more interior space than a car but can still convey good fuel economy.

Sometimes the change in engine size does not need to be severe. For example, switching from a V8 to a V6 engine, a motorist could save $250 a month on gas.

This does not mean everyone is downsizing. In the same Ventura County Reporter article, a Moorpark man is selling his Toyota 4Runner – so he can buy a Chevrolet Tahoe to haul around his growing family.

Others are intent on keeping their SUV, because they have a second car to use to commute or for long rides.

And some automakers still plan to heavily market larger cars, such as Chrysler and the Dodge Ram for 2009, because, basically, some people still need them for work.

It’s quite a gamble, considering the downturn in the housing industry and fewer jobs for construction workers who depend on trucks.

Those buyers also are gambling. What might they face in selling a big truck down the road?

The post Woe the Fate of SUV Owners Wishing to Sell appeared first on Cash for Cars Selling Tips.

It’s both difficult and easy to understand the interest in this vehicle.

This is an American automaker rolling out a brand new vehicle which is essentially built to move lots of people that looks like a sport utility vehicle.

Does America Have Room For Another CUV?

Our question is this: Wait, isn’t the SUV dying a slow death due to high gas prices?
Sure, it’s a crossover, which results in better fuel economy, but enough to entice prospective new-car buyers to return to big?

The Flex is intended as an alternative for families from minivans and, yes, SUVs.

Why? Its official market is the crossover, or crossover utility vehicle.

Crossovers are cars, not trucks like SUVs, and are therefore easier to drive and less painful at the gas pump.

A crossover uses a car’s unibody construction, unlike the body-bolted-to-frame construction of SUVs and trucks.

It’s easy to see the interest, as people can drive around in what looks like an SUV and still haul all the kids and cargo, without getting killed at the gas station.

Still, there are skeptics. Some say the crossover is merely a marketing term. In January 2008, a Wall Street Journal article called CUVs “wagons that look like sport utility vehicles but ride like cars.”

Being Different, Inside and Out

So why is Ford rolling the dice with the Flex, a car with many parallels to an SUV in an anti-SUV society?

Some say the attraction is in the versatility, size and resulting better gas mileage.

Others like the way they look and feel. The Flex’s exterior is indeed unique, more squarish in the back than typical SUVs, with options for different window placements, including on the roof.

Some say it looks like an old-school station wagon.

That is, without being able to detect the pillars and windows – they are blacked out to blend together.

The roof comes in white, silver, or a cool style called “body-colored.”  Its large wheels, 18- or 19-inch, stick out nicely. There are neat features and gizmos inside and out.

Something that will open the eyes of its owners is a “capless” fueling system, which does not have the usual door and cap, instead using a sealing system that avoids losing emissions from the tank.

Options include

• An integrated navigation, phone, satellite radio, DVD and CD system
• Programmable lighting to create “moods”
• A refrigerated console between second-row chairs

The refrigerated compartment can cool up to seven 12-ounce cans, four half-liter bottles or two 20-ounce bottles to 41 degrees. It can also freeze down to 23 degrees! Perfect for tailgate parties.

How They Build the Flex

Ford’s new CUV comes in SE, SEL and Limited trims, and is powered by a 262-horsepower 3.5-liter V6 engine and six-speed automatic transmission. Front-wheel drive is standard; all-wheel-drive is optional.

The Flex name comes from its production at what Ford calls a “flexible” assembly line in Oakville, Ontario, the same place that produces the Edge and Lincoln MKX crossovers.

Among Ford’s crossover lineup, it serves as its full-size CUV, bigger than the mid-size Edge and full-size CUV /wagon Taurus X.

Price-wise, its starting manufacturer’s suggested retail price is $28,295, more than the Taurus X, but not as much as the Explorer.

A key to early raves is its seven-passenger capacity.

First the minivan carried that many people, until it was surpassed in coolness by SUVs.

Basically the Flex melded the shoebox shape of the minivan with utility of an SUV. Only time will tell if Ford succeeded in crossing over the market.

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