Why GM could revive a Hummer to battle the Jeep Wrangler

The calendar may say 2015, but one of the most popular vehicles on the road remains a trucklet born in World War II. As the Jeep Wrangler sets sales records in the United States and around the world, General Motors could finally field a true off-road truck under the GMC brand — if it can only make up its mind after more than a decade of eating Jeep dust.

According to The Wall Street Journal, executives from the GMC brand were asking dealers at a recent national conference whether adding a small off-roader to the lineup was a good idea. Last year, Jeep sold 234,579 Wranglers worldwide, with sales up 13 percent in the United States.

For car fans, this is deja vu all over again. Back when it was building Hummer into a sizable business at the turn of the century, GM laid plans for a Wrangler-killer that would have been called the Hummer H4. The car above was a concept version, dubbed the Hummer HX, unveiled at the 2008 Detroit auto show. Sometimes concept cars are little more than mockups; the HX had a full spec sheet, including a 302-hp V-6, removable roof panels and 24 inches of ground clearance. The H4 would have been built off a modified version of GM's mid-size truck chassis, but the economic collapse and GM's bankruptcy sank the H4, the entire Hummer brand and the executives who wanted to kick Jeep in the teeth.