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Team Miller Fisher finishes the 20th Anniversary Rallye A"icha des Gazelles

Team Miller Fisher finishes the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles - Click above for high-res image gallery
Team Miller Fisher has crossed the finish line of the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles - in a Hummer H3 driven off a Parisian dealer's lot - and battled from 51st to 12th out of 98 teams after a mistake on the first leg. The Rallye Aïcha, a six-stage trek through the desert, allows no use of GPS, no pace notes, no cell phones, and no binoculars. Pilots and co-pilots find their way between checkpoints with maps, compasses and pencils, and whoever completes the journey in the shortest distance, wins.
The race was made even harder this year by using not the 1:100,000-scale maps of years past, but scraps of paper with increasingly less route information as the race went on. Olympic skier and co-pilot Wendy Fisher wrote to say, "This continues to be the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. An unbelievably tough event. Days were SO long, almost impossible to get all of the checkpoints."

Automakers tussle over owners of 'orphan' makes

When General Motors put down several of its brands in recent years, it also let loose thousands of brand-loyal customers who will eventually need another car.
R.L. Polk Associates estimates there are more than 18 million cars from 16 discontinued makes on the road today. Those "orphan owners" have sales-hungry competitors seeing dollar signs. GM is offering Saturn owners $1,000 cash toward a Chevy Cruze, Cadillac CTS or a GMC Acadia. Ford is giving its Mercury lease customers a chance to get out of their contracts with no early-termination penalty and offering to waive six remaining payments if they drive off in a Ford or Lincoln.
Edmunds.com research shows the efforts are paying off somewhat for GM, with 39 percent of Pontiac owners, 37 percent of Hummer owners and 31 percent of Saturn owners taking delivery of another GM-branded vehicle. But that leaves as much as 69 percent of owners going elsewhere. Ford, Honda and Toyota seem to be attracting many former GM owners.

Low gas prices bring the Hummer back to life

It took more than the high cost of gas to kill off the Hummer brand, but the military/civilian vehicle's near-endless need for fuel didn't help sales when gas prices started to climb. Turns out, there is still a thirst for the gas-devouring vehicle in the US. The evidence is anecdotal at best, but since we know prices at the pump can change car shopping behavior in America, the idea that more people want a Hummer now than they have these past few years doesn't surprise us at all. Gas prices in the US are currently sitting at $2.926 a gallon, on average, much lower than the $3.186 per gallon they were a year ago and below $3 a gallon for the first time since 2010. According to the Washington Post, this is causing a slight uptick in used Hummer H1 sales. With a fuel consumption rate of around 12 miles per gallon, every penny drop in gas prices has a big impact on the H1's running costs. Read more on the newfound Hummer lust at the WaPo, including how online interest in H1s was up 11 percent at Autotrader last month. Late last month, TrueCar issued a report on the recent increase in new vehicle sales of large SUVs and pick-up trucks, thanks to falling fuel costs. TrueCar president John Krafcik said in a statement that, "Hybrid popularity is waning, and the country's love of the full-size pickup truck is remarkable.'' Looks like that love extends to the used lot as well. Anyone know someone who has re-joined the Hummer brigade? News Source: Washington PostImage Credit: Carolyn Kaster / AP Green Hummer Gas Prices hummer h1