Longing for the days of Hummer?
Mike Colias RSS
Automotive News
December 1, 2014
DETROIT -- Dealer Joe Serra lost more than 1,000 customers a year when General Motors phased out Hummer about five years ago.
Some of them returned -- but only after Serra added a Jeep franchise, one brand that seems to offer the sort of capability and cachet that meets erstwhile Hummer customers' tastes.
"Thank God I was able to acquire Jeep and retain some of those Hummer people," says Serra, owner of Serra Automotive Inc., which has 34 dealerships in seven states and sold 1,462 Hummers from its Grand Blanc, Mich., store in 2006. "Jeep has it going on right now. It's like they've got that niche all to themselves."
Booming sales of pricey SUVs, tame gasoline prices and the torrid growth of Jeep have left some former Hummer dealers and brand loyalists to wonder what might have been. It also has rekindled chatter about whether GM should take another run at a Jeep Wrangler fighter.
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Mike Colias RSS
Automotive News
December 1, 2014
DETROIT -- Dealer Joe Serra lost more than 1,000 customers a year when General Motors phased out Hummer about five years ago.
Some of them returned -- but only after Serra added a Jeep franchise, one brand that seems to offer the sort of capability and cachet that meets erstwhile Hummer customers' tastes.
"Thank God I was able to acquire Jeep and retain some of those Hummer people," says Serra, owner of Serra Automotive Inc., which has 34 dealerships in seven states and sold 1,462 Hummers from its Grand Blanc, Mich., store in 2006. "Jeep has it going on right now. It's like they've got that niche all to themselves."
Booming sales of pricey SUVs, tame gasoline prices and the torrid growth of Jeep have left some former Hummer dealers and brand loyalists to wonder what might have been. It also has rekindled chatter about whether GM should take another run at a Jeep Wrangler fighter.
CONTINUE AT AUTONEWS.COM