• The GMC Hummer EV has expensive lights that cost over $3,000 each.
• The complexity of light units on modern vehicles has caused their costs to skyrocket.
• We can imagine that with this information in hand, owners are going to be doubly careful with their Hummers.
In the old days – old days being the 1980s, in this case - it cost about $19.95 to replace one of your vehicle's headlights. And if a light burned out, all you had to do was buy a bulb. In the event of a collision, prices would increase because of the repairs that had to be done around these light elements (lens, housing, etc.), but still, the costs were "manageable".
Manageable is not the way to describe the cost if one or both of your Hummer EV’s taillights goes, though!
Word about the price of replacing those elements on a GMC Hummer EV has been making the rounds online in recent days, and for good reason: it’s outrageously expensive.
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How expensive? Try about $3,000 a piece. In USD.
In fact, according to The Drive, which confirmed the information as being in line with General Motors' list price, the bill for each light is $3045.48 USD. Taxes and installation costs are not included.
If both lights are to be replaced, the bill will exceed $7,000 U.S., easily. That’s more than you might pay for a decent used car.
In fact, the cost of each part is $3,045.48 according to The Drive, which confirmed the figure as General Motors' list price. Again, that's for a single light, and it doesn't include taxes. If the Hummer EV is involved in an accident that destroys the rear of the vehicle, the bill will be $6,090.96 for the lights alone.
And what could possibly justify such costs? Those who contacted GM have yet to get much of an official response. But the designs of many modern light units are complex, and many feature software and microprocessors embedded in them that are used to operate them and offer original lighting patterns.
Certainly, knowing the price of these units, some Hummer EV owners are going to be mighty cautious when backing up.
And let's be clear, this is not exclusive to General Motors vehicles. A cousin of mine, after his Audi A4 got backed into by another vehicle, got the surprise of his life when he saw the bill for replacing the headlights: $4,000 CAD a piece.
Welcome to 2022.