HoodaThunk?

Sichuan Hummer?

And the 1st part of GM to get sold off is…. Hummer! And you’ll just never guess what country they’re going to:

General Motors Corp. has a tentative agreement to sell its Hummer brand to Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Co. of China, Jeff Flock of FOX Business Network has confirmed.

GM announced Tuesday that it has a memorandum of understanding to sell the brand of rugged SUVs, but the company didn’t disclose the buyer.

A formal announcement of the buyer’s identity was to be made Tuesday afternoon.

Sichuan Tengzhong deals in road construction, plastics, resins and other industrial products, but the person briefed on the deal says Hummer would be its first step into the automotive business. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the details have not been made public.

General Motors has not yet confirmed the identity of the buyer or the price being paid for it’s SUV-only division, but said the sale will likely save more than 3,000 U.S. jobs in manufacturing, engineering and at various Hummer dealerships.

Really? You think a Chinese company – one currently involved in the manufacture of industrial products and with an interest getting into the automotive manufacturing business – will just keep plants here in the US running instead of pulling the manufacture of Hummers back to Sichuan?

The only jobs this deal will save in anything resembling the long run are the one working the showroom floors in dealerships. Last I checked, those aren’t union. Nor are they manufacturing jobs, which this whole deal is supposed to be saving. Next up: Korean Corvette?

June 2nd, 2009 Posted by ricjames | Economy, Politics | 2 comments