Here is the tail end of Sturday's no-more-H1 article in the NYTimes (Largest Hummer ...):
For its part, G.M. said high fuel prices were not the reason it pulled the plug on the H1. Instead, G.M. said Hummer's maker, A.M. General, "will dedicate its engineering, manufacturing, marketing and dealer resources to bringing more new or significantly revised models to market."
Despite the decline in H1 sales, ...
I'm no auto economist, but there may be a causal relationship between high gas prices and low H1 sales. Among other things.
... Hummer dealers expressed disappointment that the gargantuan vehicle's days were numbered.
"The H1 is where it all started," said Ben Olin, sales manager at Ed Schmidt Hummer, a Maumee, Ohio, dealership that was one of the first in the country to sell the H1. "There's a lot of heritage that goes along with it."
Mr. Olin sold just two H1's last year. Many buyers, he said, are now turning to the less overbearing H2, which is based on the Chevrolet Tahoe S.U.V.
Indeed, G.M. has sold more than 100,000 H2's and more than 50,000 H3's, based on the Chevy Colorado pickup, since each went on sale. Leo Karl III, president of Hummer by Karl in New Canaan, Conn., said he was surprised at G.M.'s decision to discontinue the vehicle after spending a great deal of money to revamp and refine it from its military days. The H1 has a "beautiful interior and unbelievable" 6.6-liter, turbo diesel V-8 engine, Mr. Karl said.
Mr. Karl said he would miss the H1. "If there's one vehicle on the road that's like nothing else, that's it," he said.
There's a tear in my beer 'cause I'm cryin' for you dear ...
Note: Here is Hank Jr.'s (and Sr.'s) version on YouTube. Back in grad school, we went to see Steve Earle (the heroin days), Tanya Tucker (yep) and Hank Jr. Hank Jr. finished the set with his duet and ... finished up. No encore even after it was most obvious that it was in demand.
*About that headline. From Wikipedia's List of Neologisms on the Simpsons:
Grampa says in "A Star is Burns" that "The metric system is the tool of the devil", and that his car gets "40 rods to the hogshead, and that's the way [he] likes it," which is about 0.00198413 miles per gallon, or about 10.48 feet per gallon (118 547.97 l/100 km, or about 119 m³/100 km). Grampa makes the comment as part of his explanation as to why it would be too confusing to adopt the metric system. Both the rod and the hogshead are real (although antiquated) imperial units of measure.
