The Hummer has been a target for environmentalists ever since the brand was developed from the military's humvee in 1992. GM bought it in 1999, and the hulking sport utility vehicle became a status symbol in the U.S. and abroad. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger bought several Hummers and helped popularize the brand.
But that image changed when gas prices soared. As the BBC's Jorn Madslien put it, Hummer is now "a symbol of conspicuous consumption, or of a lack of regard for the environment" that makes its owners "look distinctly out of touch with the current public mood." Even Schwarzenegger recently pointed to the brand as an example of the U.S. auto industry's failings, The New York Times noted.
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Rising gas prices put Hummer on the road to extinction. GM sold only 9,046 of the SUVs last year, down 67 percent from 2008.
"This car was like the high-fructose corn syrup of automobiles, something that concentrated everything bad about motoring," said BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow.
"Poor Hummer. It was the Sarah Palin of cars. It took on the spite and ridicule of those who reveled in hating it and its fans reveled in being hated," Abe Sauer observed in a comment on The Awl. He went on to note that the Hummer H3 gets better mileage than some other big SUVs.
"Rust in Peace" was the sardonic sendoff for the embattled brand from Michael Graham Richard at Treehugger.com. Richard added that although Hummers are "more symbolic than other gas guzzlers, they aren't even close to being the biggest problem with our transportation sector."
AlterNet's Tara Lohan also said there are still many other environmentally unfriendly giants on the roads, but "Hummer drivers were the funnest to taunt for the pure absurdity [of] their vehicles."
The outlook for Hummer has been bleak for a few years. In 2008, when GM said it was looking to unload the brand, Salon ran a report headlined "The short, disgusting life of the Hummer." Autoblog has a lighter take on the iconic SUV's history in this photo gallery: Top 10 Hummer Moments in History.
While Hummer is the first major SUV brand to be junked, it won't be the last, Douglas A. McIntyre predicted on 24/7 Wall St. Jeep and GMC might be destined for the auto graveyard, too, he said.
The rise of the Hummer was a sign of the times -- and so is its fall.
America has "always been obsessed with largeness, equating it with bounty and success ... Being big and powerful is essential to our national identity," Tunku Varadarajan wrote Thursday on The Daily Beast. But in a time when fuel costs are high and money is tight, bigness begins to signify excess and self-indulgence, he added.
"The demise of the Hummer looks like more than the end of an automotive brand," Varadarajan said. "It looks like the start of an age when we need to measure ourselves afresh -- and maybe start to resize America."
As the United States turns a corner in its love-hate relationship with gas guzzlers, other nations might follow. The buyer GM was courting, Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machines, said the Chinese government refused to approve the deal because of its new emphasis on saving fuel and protecting the environment.
