An Indian car company, A Chinese car company and a Russian car company walk into a bar. Bartender says "We're having a special on Hummer, you interested?" They all laugh. Depressing news this week for GM if the company is serious about offloading Hummer as three automakers from three rapidly expanding car markets deny that they're at all interested in the brand. The comments from the companies range from a simple denial to a dig at Hummer itself. The lightest rebuff came last Thursday from Russian Machines, owned by allegedly mobbed-up Oleg Deripaska, which merely denied they were doing anything in an official capacity:
"Russian Machines neither received any proposals to consider acquisition of the Hummer assets, nor is strategically interested in such a deal"
China's Changfeng merely points out the obvious:
"The Hummer is way too expensive for the Chinese military and demand from civilian buyers is not big enough to justify a purchase, especially with oil prices running near an all-time high"
Our favorite is Mumbai-based Mahindra, which not only denied interest but also took a swipe at Hummer's image:
"We are pursuing our own models strategy and we do not want to tarnish our lean warrior strategy."
Ouch. That strategy they're talking about is the diesel-electric Scropio and Appalachian. Maybe those ice cream men can pool some money together. [Reuters, Reuters and Reuters]