Opinion

Hummer bummer: Rising gasoline prices threaten to drive some automotive dinosaurs to extinction

The love affair between suburban Americans and fuel guzzling sport utility vehicles survived environmental guilt trips, but it seems to be foundering on the rocks of $4-a-gallon gasoline.

Perhaps the ultimate symbol of excessive consumption, the 10 mpg General Motors Hummer, is living on borrowed time after sales of large vehicles plummeted in the past few months. The massive, boxy Hummer has its devoted fans, but to others it seems more appropriate as an armored vehicle in a war zone than a conveyance for picking up the kids or shopping.

Also endangered are the oversized pickup trucks that have become so popular with urban cowpokes. Sales of Ford's once dominant F-Series pickup dropped 42 percent from last May's figures, and the pickup was outsold in the United States for the first time by energy efficient Toyota and Honda sedans.

With sales down 30 percent last month and suffering a $3.3 billion loss in the first quarter, GM's chairman and chief executive, Rick Wagoner, delivered the eulogy for big vehicles. He declared that cheap gas is a thing of the past and that the largest American automaker will close four U.S. plants that produce full-sized SUVs and pickups. That will at least temporarily put 8,000 employees out of work. GM will now pursue its Asian competitors by turning to production of smaller sedans and hybrid vehicles.

GM officials say they are considering selling the Hummer brand to anyone who's interested. Perhaps a ruler of a nation awash in cheap gasoline — say a Saudi prince or a Venezuelan autocrat — will take GM up on it.

It seems that the only way to convince America's automakers to go green is to make the nation's drivers see red at the gas pump.