With consumers finding it difficult to get credit and the nationwide average price of gasoline at more than $3.60 per gallon, auto dealerships across the country are shutting their doors. In what therefore should not be a surprise, the nation’s largest Hummer dealer just announced that it will close.
Towbin Hummer of Las Vegas will close tomorrow, The Wall Street Journal’s Deal Journal blog reported. It’s at least the eighth Hummer dealer to close this year.
Deal Journal provides an example that makes it plain why consumers aren’t exactly lining up to buy Hummers these days. “With the national average for a price of gas resting at $3.66 a gallon, it costs $84 to fill up Hummer’s smallest model–the H3,” Deal Journal said. “At that price, an H3 owner in Las Vegas could fly to Los Angeles for a roundtrip weekend getaway for about as much as it would cost to drive the H3.”
Auto dealers of all stripes are closing, but especially those that sell U.S.-made cars. The number of new-car dealers in Georgia has declined from 623 in 2005 to 603 this year, according to the National Automobile Dealers Association.
There are at least four Hummer dealers in metro Atlanta, including Bridges Auto Group’s Hummer of Union City.
Dealers are being forced to offer more financial incentives on Hummers than any other car brand, and still they’re not selling, Deal Journal said. U.S. buyers received an average of $8,861 in various incentives for each Hummer sold, the blog said, citing Edmunds.com. In comparison, BMW is offering an average of $84 in incentives for each Mini it sells.
One Atlanta-area Hummer dealer, Lou Sobh Hummer in Duluth, is offering $10,000 off all 2007 versions of the Hummer H2 SUT, according to its Web site.