Awsome 2000 H-1 Hummer Soft Top on 2040-cars

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Hummer H2 burns to a crisp; now the owner won't need the hoarded gas

Here's your daily Autoblog public service announcement: Don't hoard gasoline, but if you do, absolutely do not let 20 gallons of it catch fire inside your 2004 Hummer H2. You might end up, as a Florida owner learned the hard way, with a very crispy Hummer. According to CBS affiliate WABI, in Citrus County Fire Rescue was called out to the scene at a Homosassa, Florida, Texaco station yesterday morning. The Hummer owner had just filled four five-gallon jerry cans' worth of fuel and placed them in the back of the vehicle. It's not clear what started the fire, but when emergency crews arrived the SUV was already, as the kids say, fire. The vehicle was a total loss. Photos show it completely singed and missing the hood and windows. One fender sat forlornly on the ground nearby. One injury was reported, but the individual refused to be taken to the hospital. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection was called in to handle the fuel cleanup. There's been a run on gasoline across the eastern seaboard due to a shortage caused by Colonial Pipeline, one of the major refined petroleum pipelines on the East Coast. Due to lax cybersecurity measures, the company fell victim to a ransomware attack, which shut down its operations over the weekend. Hackers based in Russia demanded a payout of $5 million to release control of Colonial Pipeline's computer systems, and Colonial paid up and has since resumed operations. Between fires, fights and admonitions by politicians not to hoard — probably one of the few things Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Joe Biden agree on — that's probably good advice to follow. Gas stations should be resupplied in many affected areas within days. In Tampa, Florida, a third of the city's gas stations were out of fuel on Thursday. In Miami, outages stood at nearly 40% and growing as residents rapidly filled up their tanks. The outages would make sense if the largest U.S. gasoline pipeline served those cities. But it does not. South Florida is seeing the worst outages among areas not directly impacted by the line closure. "If you want a perfect case for where hoarding has made the situation what it is, that's southern Florida," said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. "They should not be having any issues at all - they get gasoline from a barge." Statewide, about a third of gas stations are out of product, according to GasBuddy.

AM General's new CEO has strong military roots

AM General has a new president and chief executive officer. Current CEO Charlie Hall is retiring from the company. In his place, the defense and automotive manufacturer has named industry veteran Andy Hove. Though primarily a defense contractor, AM General has produced a number of civilian vehicles as well. The company is perhaps best known for the Hummer (or Humvee in military parlance) and continued producing both the original H1 and the subsequent H2 after selling the brand to General Motors. Even after GM shut down the brand, AM General continued producing Humvees for military use and as a civilian kit. The company is also behind Mobility Ventures, which produces purpose-built wheelchair-accessible vehicles, assembles the R-Class for Mercedes-Benz, and has been linked to potential commercial van and pickup truck assembly for GM as well. Based in South Bend, IN, AM General shares its roots with the Jeep brand. It was split off from American Motors Corporation after the latter was bought by Renault and then by Chrysler. Today it's owned by New York-based investment firms Renco Group and MacAndrews & Forbes. A former Army officer, Hove arrives at the company with considerable experience in the defense industry, particularly in vehicle manufacturing. He has previously served as president of HDT Global and before that of Oshkosh Defense. Prior to that he headed up the Bradley tank program for BAE Systems, where he increased sales from $250 million to $2 billion within five years. His departing predecessor Charlie Hall was named CEO in 2011, assuming day-to-day responsibility for the company's operations from the suitably named chairman James Armour. Related Video: AM General Announces Vehicle Manufacturing Industry Leader Andy Hove To Serve As Chief Executive Officer Hove Succeeds Retiring CEO Charlie Hall SOUTH BEND, Ind., Dec 8, 2015 – AM General, the global leader in light tactical vehicles, today announced that Andy Hove will serve as the company's new Chief Executive Officer and President, succeeding Charlie Hall who is retiring. Hove brings to AM General a track record of excellence at a diverse array of defense and commercial companies in the United States and around the world. Hove most recently served as the President and CEO of HDT Global where he rapidly proved the quality of his leadership in helping transform the company.

An all-electric Hummer is reportedly under consideration at GM

GM is reportedly considering a return to the Hummer brand, but not in the traditional Hummer way. No, a report from Bloomberg says that GM is mulling over the idea of building an electric Hummer. The report cites unnamed sources within GM, as the folks prefer not to be named due to the private nature of the conversations. At this point, Bloomberg characterizes the Hummer talks as preliminary discussions. GM is figuring out how it wants to organize its future electric trucks and SUVs, and Hummer is a part of those discussions. Just as anyone would expect, Hummer could be used to profit off the current demand for rugged and tough vehicles. Mark Reuss didn't commit either way to a Hummer revival when asked by Bloomberg. "I love Hummer. I don't know. We're looking at everything," Reuss said. Other GM sources said that the company sees an opportunity to compete with Jeep for off-road vehicles that have creature comforts commanding high premiums. The report states that designers have done work with Hummer concepts, experimenting with Hummer styling to implement it on GMC-branded products, too. There's also the question of whether an electric Hummer is a smart move to begin with. Folks bought up Hummers before because they're big, brawny, good off-road, and gas was cheap. Gas is relatively cheap today, but attitudes around cars that achieve 10 mpg have changed. Rivian thinks that consumers are interested in premium electric SUVs and trucks, and the hype around that company is real right now. An electric Hummer would undoubtedly go after the same space as the Rivian R1S. The number of people willing to drop over $70,000 on an electric adventure vehicle is still untested, though. Even if GM did give an electric Hummer project the green light, we're still years away. We know GM is currently in development of an electric pickup truck platform, but that doesn't mean it's anywhere close to production. We haven't seen a new Hummer since GM halted sales of the brand in 2010. The recession and high gas prices drove sales down so low that Hummer declared bankruptcy in 2009, but GM still kept the brand in its portfolio. It's hard to think of a better time than the SUV and crossover hoopla of today to introduce something like an electric Hummer, but until we hear something more substantial from GM, the vehicle is going to remain a rumor.