GM Sets Price for Hummer H2 SUV; a Lament for Jaguar’s F-Type

General Motors Corp. has always promised that it would bring the forthcoming Hummer H2 sport utility vehicle in at less than half the price of its king-size sibling.

True to its word, GM’s Hummer division last week said the base suggested retail price on an H2 would be $48,800. The H1, a civilian version of the Humvee military vehicle, has a base price of $108,000.

The smaller H2, which was designed specifically to be a civilian vehicle, will hit showrooms in or around July. It comes with a standard 6-liter V-8 gasoline engine (versus the H1’s 6.5-liter turbo diesel) that produces 316 horsepower and 360 pounds-feet of torque. It has a nine-speaker Bose stereo system and 35-inch all-terrain tires but lacks the H1’s standard central tire inflating and deflating system.

A pair of options packages, Lux for $2,575 and Adventure for $2,215, will boost the price past the $51,000 mark. The Lux package adds heated leather front seats and a six-disc CD changer; the Adventure package adds air suspension, brush guards and crossbars for the roof rack.

GM says other options, including fog lights and chrome trim pieces, will be available through dealers.

Auto Financing

Toyota and Honda don’t usually play the incentives game, but to boost demand and respond to incentives from rivals, they have begun to offer low-interest financing on Camry and Accord models.

Honda started offering rates as low as 2.9% on the Accord this month and is giving $750 rebates to dealers as it gets ready to introduce the new-generation Accord in September.

Toyota last week started offering rates as low as 3.9% on the newest Camry.

Cheerio, F-Type

We reported in the Business section a week ago that Ford Motor Co.’s drive to staunch its financial hemorrhaging has created a casualty at its Jaguar subsidiary: the F-Type roadster.

But we did it without lament, and the loss of the F-Type is truly worth lamenting.

We wonder whether aficionados would rather see Ford ax a few dozen top executives and use their multimillion-dollar pay and incentive packages to save the stunning roadster, penned by Jaguar design chief Ian Callum and first shown as a concept at the 2000 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

The F-Type was given the production go-ahead last year by Wolfgang Reitzle, since-departed head of Ford’s Premier Automotive Group, which includes Jaguar among its brands (with Aston Martin, Land Rover and Volvo).

Alas, a 2003 F-Type is not to be.

The bobtailed two-seater, which was to have been an “entry-level” roadster from Jag with a price tag somewhere south of $60,000, is being put on indefinite hold, said Jaguar spokesman James Thomas.

Ford wants all its units, Jag included, “to concentrate on our core products,” Thomas said.

Sad, a little, that at Jaguar these days “core product” means four-door sedan.

Motorcycle Plans

After 101 years in business, the Automobile Club of Southern California has figured out that a lot of its members ride motorcycles and would appreciate some of the club’s emergency services being extended to them when they are two-wheeling.

So beginning this month, the Auto Club will add motorcycle towing to its for-fee services. Cost is $23 a year for up to four service calls for motorcycles. The service calls can include on-site fixes such as flat repair and emergency gasoline delivery, as well as towing to a nearby garage, which usually means trucking the motorcycle on a flatbed or in a trailer.

The motorcycle coverage is offered as an addition to the club’s existing recreational vehicle service program, which now will be called the RV and Motorcycle Roadside Assistance plan.

Club officials said they decided to add motorcycles to the service after a study showed a 15% growth in motorcycle registrations in California between 1997 and 2000.

“We want to be sure that our towing service is available for our members whether they travel on four wheels or two,” said Sharon Supple, vice president of emergency road services.

Members who purchase the RV and Motorcycle Roadside Assistance service option will use a dedicated telephone number that directs calls to Auto Club service counselors who coordinate the special needs required for a motorcycle tow.

New Ventures

It is an ever-shrinking world.

DaimlerChrysler, which used to be Germany’s Daimler-Benz and North America’s Chrysler Corp., now owns a 37% controlling share of Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp. and has a 10% stake in South Korea’s Hyundai Motor Co.

As a result, DaimlerChrysler executives say they are:

* Developing a 10-year plan to integrate support services for the Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler and Mitsubishi brands to be able to share parts distribution, dealer services, logistics and salary payments across the group.

* Discussing a plan to jointly develop front-wheel-drive compact car platforms with Hyundai.

Separately, Hyundai and Mitsubishi have signed a deal to jointly develop engines.

Evo Sales Date Set

Mitsubishi still is doing things by itself, though, and one of those things is importing the Lancer Evo--the rally-based screamer that drivers in Europe and Asia have been able to enjoy for several years.

At the recent Rim of the World rally in the mountains above Los Angeles, Mitsubishi Motor Sales of America President Pierre Gagnon was telling every journalist he met that the U.S. version of the Evo, with 272 horsepower, would start arriving in December.

The sport compact will go on sale around the end of January. Because of its name recognition--the Evo has been a mainstay of several best-selling rally-based computer games--it is expected to be a hit.