Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. Ltd. plans to purchase the Hummer brand from General Motors, the mammoth U.S. auto maker that filed for bankruptcy yesterday.

Hummer is the brand attached to GM’s line of street-legal vehicles based on the HMMWV, or humvee. The abbreviation stands for High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle. Many people still call refer to a GM Hummer as a humvee.

About Sichuan Tengzhong

Sichuan Tenzhong is a Chinese company based in Chengdu. There is still at least one other company interested in buying Hummer, but those talks are on hold. Bloomberg.com reports that GM has a “memorandum of understanding” with Sichuan Tengzhong.

Sichuan Tengzhong “is a privately owned maker of special-use vehicles, structural components for highways and bridges, and construction machinery,” according to Bloomberg.

Few details on the deal

The agreement between GM and Sichuan Tengzhong is confidential, so the selling price for the Hummer brand is unknown. In GM’s bankruptcy court documents, CEO Fritz Henderson estimated Hummer’s worth at $500 million.

GM did say in a statement today that the deal will close by the end of third quarter. So if you want to buy an American-made humvee you’d better get some quick cash now.

The Hummer business

Hummer has been a highly recognized brand under the GM umbrella since it bought the brand name from AM General Motors in 1998. AM General motors originally only manufactured humvees for the military, but it started making civilian humvees under the brand name Hummer in 1992.

Since acquiring the Hummer brand, GM has sold the vehicles under that name and used the Hummer trademark on colognes, flashlights, bicycles, shoes, coats, hats, laptops, clothing, CD players and other items.

More sales to come

GM’s post-bankruptcy sale of Hummer to Sichuan Tengzhong is only the first in a long line of sales that will go through during GM’s massive restructuring. According to Bloomberg:

GM won approval in its first day in bankruptcy court to sell assets as soon as next month after collapsing under $172.8 billion in debt and failing to adapt to consumer demands for models that use less fuel. It also expects to shed Saturn and Saab as part of its restructuring.

Background on Saturn

Saturn Corporation was established as a subsidiary of GM in 1985. Though GM Chairman Rick Wagoner said in December that 2011 was the end of the “planned lifecycle for all Saturn products,” GM announced at the end of April that it is seeking a buyer for Saturn. According to Wikipedia, if GM does not find a buyer:

it is GM’s intention to phase out the Saturn brand at the end of the current product lifecycle. If the brand were to be phased out, it would be the third such action for GM in the 21st century, following those of Oldsmobile, which ceased production in 2004, and Pontiac, which will cease production by the end of the 2010 model year.

Saab story

At the time the Saab reorganization began, three main potential buyers were identified: Koenigsegg, Fiat and Renco Group.

Your payday loan source says you’ll save money if you don’t buy a Hummer. You’ll likely save on your car’s purchase price, insurance, gas… and traffic tickets.

Ben Mack of Wired gives us yet another reason to downgrade to smaller, more economical, more environmentally-friendly cars. Apparently, Hummer drivers receive nearly five times more (4.63 to be exact) tickets than the average driver.

Quality Planning Corp. surveyed data from 1.7 million drivers and discovered that the Hummer models H2 and H3 are the most frequently ticketed vehicles on the road. At the opposite extreme, the GMC Sierra CL1500 pickup was least likely to be ticketed. OK, maybe that isn’t the most economical car…

Back to the drawing board?

“The sense of power that Hummer drivers derive from their vehicle may be directly correlated with the number of violations they incur, or perhaps Hummer drivers, by virtue of their driving position, are less likely to notice road hazards, signs, pedestrians and other drivers,” said Raj Bhat, president of Quality Planning Corp.

The study suggests such an attitude is unique to Hummer drivers and doesn’t apply to everyone in an SUV. Mechanically, the Hummer resembles a Chevy Tahoe, but Tahoe drivers were ticked less than average. Other cars below average include the Jaguar XJ and Buick Lucerne.

Mack claims that while there are those who hate the Hummer, there’s not a lot of corroborating evidence suggesting cops target specific vehicles for tickets. A lot of people argue people in red cars are more likely to get stopped, for example, but others say that’s a myth.

Whatever the case, statistically, if you aren’t driving a Hummer, you’re less likely to receive a ticket. Fewer tickets means more disposable income during the current recession. But if you do get into a jam and you won’t have the extra money to cover until your next payday, a payday loan can help.

Admit it! Just once, wouldn’t it be nice to own and drive a brand new car? I’ve been driving the same old jalopy for almost ten years and it was ten years old when i bought it. There isn’t really anything wrong with it, not to say it doesn’t have any quirky things that go wrong from time to time, but what car doesn’t, and don’t I deserve it? Maybe so, but I don’t want to have to get payday loans just to make payments, never mind insurance.

After 276,000 miles, you begin to wonder what it would be like driving down the road on a warm summer’s day, with a sun roof open, the wind blowing in your hair, or in my case the lack thereof, talking to your friends with newer integrated blue-tooth features while listening to your favorite music on a state of the art sound system.

Ahhhh! That’ll be the day!

Considering The Costs Of A New Vehicle

I would love to have a new car, but with a new car comes new expenses. Not only does it cost an arm and a leg these days to drive a status symbol down the road, but the newer the vehicle the more expensive the insurance. And when it comes to money I am more about saving than spending.

Then again, every dog has his day.

New Hopes Amidst Strange Dreams Of Very Interesting People

Today was mine. A coworker came into our office giving us an update of her ever changing and always enchanting “day in the life of” stories that we have come to depend on for both humor and good dinner table conversation. We are convinced that if she writes a book it will be a national best seller.

Any way, she is a woman who seems to always get what she wants and today came an intriguing story that may just convince me, and perhaps you as well, to take the plunge.

A True Act of Boldness

The next day she went to the Hummer dealership and told them exactly why she was there.

“Hi, I’m here because I had a dream last night that I bought a Hummer….”

Bold, yes! Did they turn her away? NO!

Putting The Pressure On To Get The Diamonds She’s Looking For

This is one sweetheart I’m sure they thought they could take advantage of. However, had they talked to the last dealer that sold her a Subaru before giving her the keys and telling her to never come back again, they would have been much wiser to turn her away before basically paying to get rid of her as you will find out shortly.

Besides pitting dealerships against each other, this savvy gal who can be as intimidating as she wants to be (did I say she practices kick boxing), managed to negotiate one hell of a deal on a “black on black” 2008 H3 HUMMER.

With a standard retail price of $52,000 dollars, sunroof, built-in blue tooth and the whole nine yards, she negotiated the price down to around 25% of retail cost.

All said and almost done, her monthly payment is going to be about $350 dollars a month which is a hundred dollars less than the Subaru that she has been paying on.

The Girl’s Got Game!

By this time, every one in the office was heavily salivating, so naturally we had to ask for the details. It turns out that the dealerships have been having a hard time getting rid of Hummers due to the reputation that they have had as gas guzzlers and the fact the General Motors, well, they’re not doing so hot right now. The Hummer line is getting canned – and no amount of payday loans is going to save it.

As far as gas mileage, the Hummers H3 line gets about 20 miles to the gallon and General Motors, despite discontinuing the Hummer models, will still warranty them for ten years after purchase.

Guess this is one girl who will be showing us up around here.

For the rest of you out there, if you can get approved for a loan, and you can put a little boldness on display, you may be able to swing a deal as well and save yourself a chunk of change – you may not need payday loans just to keep the thing on the road.