REVIEW: 'Baby Hummer' is still a big block of truck

[TigerH3]

"MOTOR REVIEW

'Baby Hummer' is still a big block of truck
Visibility, control buttons are issues in latest version

The big question you might well ask, after spending some time with the new iteration of America's only armored personnel carrier for the street is, why? Why are we making this car? Why are we selling it? Why doesn't it just quietly go away?

The answer, like most things in the complicated, highly competitive world of the auto industry, is not as simple as it might seem. True, the Hummer has been hated like no other -- viciously swiped at as the Darth Vader of all the hated sport utility vehicles. On the other hand, it is the kind of rig that gets some people's blood moving, gets them wondering, gee, maybe I could have one of these battle tanks instead of the same old Toyota, the same old Honda.

The new Hummer H3, the so-called "baby Hummer," is the third go-around (viz. the H1 and the H2) on an SUV that started life more than 20 years ago as the humvee, a "High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle" made for the Army by AM General. It is a chunky, wide $35,000 block of a truck, with sharp, no-nonsense planes, a vehicle designed to ford shallow rivers, leap over deserts and plow through forests.

Moreover, perhaps because the Hummer is so aggressive looking and earned a reputation as a vehicle whose sole purpose is to carry soldiers and marines into battle -- think of all those TV images from the 1991 Gulf war, not to mention what is going on in Iraq today -- it conjures up feelings that have nothing to do with neutrality.

In this country, the commercial Hummer became a lightning rod for all the complaints of that amalgam of environmentalists and anti-war and anti-big-oil factions. Hummers were spat upon, egged upon and sometimes torched. Driving one around town is an invitation for the odd sullen stare, the look that says, "that car stands for everything I hate." In Berkeley the other day , a woman pedaled by on her bicycle, looked over at the silver Hummer H3 parked on a residential street and shouted: "Bad gas mileage! Bad for the environment!"

So.... a bit of a time out. Is the H3 all that bad? Start with its size. It's nearly five inches shorter than a politically correct Honda Accord sedan and only three inches wider (it just looks much wider); but it is about a foot and half taller. In the price field of its SUV competition, it fits fine size-wise -- the Toyota 4Runner is three inches longer, an inch wider and five inches shorter.

The Hummer may fit in the same playpen as the other SUVs, but that's where the similarities end. Push the remote door unlocking part of the key fob, climb the two steps up into the cab and sit back in the fairly plush, cloth-covered seats and you immediately get the unerring sense of what this truck is all about. (And it is a truck, by the way -- it's built on the platform of GM's Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickup trucks and uses their 3.5-liter five-cylinder in-line engines.)

It's a bit like crawling into a cave. It's darker, or at least it feels darker. The windshield is quite forward from the driver's seat and for that reason adjusting the rearview mirror is, for some people, a stretch. But the main glitch stems from the original design of the HUMVEE -- it's the windows. They are high up and narrow, shallow. They're like slits.

And it's the windows that really cause the H3's biggest problems -- because they're so high, and because there is so much sheet metal surrounding you, it's impossible to see a lot of what you might back into. This is not a truck for people who live with small children, or have small children in their neighborhoods.

"The car feels like it has blind spots," said Wayne Billheimer, 34, who was carpooling into San Francisco from Berkeley recently in the H3. "The tiny windows -- it seems like you're going to be shot at. I like the upholstery. I keep wondering if it's Kevlar." Asked whether he could feel the car's military heritage, he looked around the interior and said, "It's the Hummer thing. Look at the sunroof. You half expect you could mount a .50-caliber machine gun on it."

Driving the H3 is an exercise in being careful (again, the windows). It has big left- and right outside mirrors (they partly compensate for the slit-like view from the inside mirror back through the tailgate window), but changing freeway lanes can sometimes be a problem if you hesitate. You have to get that bulk moving and hope some little Sentra or Z3 doesn't nip into your space while the 220-horsepower engine is laboring to get 4,700 pounds of Hummer H3 from over from one lane to another.

The steering wheel is thick, for no apparent reason, but it seems natural, given the thick atmosphere of nearly every other aspect of the H3 -- the pillars holding up the roof, for example -- and there are ergonomic twitches that make you wonder about GM's design staff (unlike the H1 and H2, still built by AM General, the H3 is built by GM).

Take the power window buttons. (Pleeeaaassse. TAKE the power window buttons.) In most cars, they fall readily to hand, at the front end of the driver's armrest. In the H3, they're about a foot south and you have to crook up your left arm, reach back and fumble for the correct button.

Or the electronic cruise control. Many manufacturers have managed to get the controls for this frequently used accessory onto the steering wheel. Not GM's H3. It's an awkward arrangement at the end of the turn signal stalk, requiring digital dexterity on a tiny "accelerate" button embedded in the stalk.

So why buy this car? There are plenty of other SUVs out there -- Edmunds.com lists 43 of them in the $25,000 to $35,000 price range -- and most of them will handle better, have fewer blind spots, get better gas mileage and will go faster. Then go back to the Hummer H3 and see if its own particular style appeals. If you want something that looks like a cross between a Brinks armored car and a chopped Jeep Cherokee, well, have we got a truck for you."


Link

[NEOCON1]

awsome man thanx

[Ma\'Deuce]

I'm buyin an H3 because it seems like the ultimate mulipurpose vehicle/suv. It's military styling says something about America's power and inginuity. i understand there are some short comings with the "tank", but it's only in it's first year. this truck is keeping GM alive right now and i think it would be in the company's best intrest to run with the "good thing". I've been a Wrangler freak till now. i've been waiting a long time for GM to build a wrangler style/modifyable suv/so i can get the GMS price, for a long time. they've finally hit the nitch in the market that Jeep has been doing for so much longer. Good job GM.
as for the tree huggers, "F" em. there's a reason America's a free country. there's a whole bunch of ordinary "heroes" risking their lives so that they (the tree huggers) can freely express their opinions. If you don't like it, don't buy it. after all, it's a free country. You can flip me off, cuss at me and even moon me if you feel it nesasary, but don't dare touch my car because you don't agree with the gas mileage because i'll bash your tree huggin, left swingin sense right out of ya. then i'll drive my Hummer over your stupid bike.
Just my $.02.

[NJHummerGuy]

I always enjoy watching how much it bothers people that I have a H3. The best is when you can see them get all worked up, red in the face as they start going on and on about the gas cost. Then I sit them down and get out a clean sheet of paper and do some quick math and explain that the difference between the 25mpg car that they drive and my little tank is not that much more per year...and when they start to feel their bubble burst I add one last thing...
"I have no issues with the extra cash"
That always gets them going.
:-)
My brother-in-law is in the army and he loves driving in the H3....says it is much more comfortable then the field models with no padding in the seats!
Thanks to all the men/women in the service who are out their for our country allowing us to drive what we want and do what we want.

Maybe a Hitchcam or equivilant should be standard.

I like the high beltline, but I'm used to sports cars (Porsches mostly) so it's nothing new for me. Some of the better looking recent sports sedans also have relatively high beltlines and short windows. It's a more common styling trend than people realize.

Kind of like large diameter wheels, a styling trend borrowed from concept cars.

S.

[RazM]

I hate these reviewers who don't bother to take the time and make sure their comments about the exterior dimensions are accurate.

NO, the H3 is not just 3 inches wider than a Honda Accord. He's comparing the Accord's overall width (including mirrors) to the H3's publicized width which does not include mirrors.

Same with the 4Runner.

This guy is an online spec hunter and sucks at it too.

[westhillsat]

Love my H3

[NEOCON1]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">If you want something that looks like a cross between a Brinks armored car and a chopped Heep Chero-pee, well, have we got a truck for you." </div></BLOCKQUOTE> LOL you got to love the H3 !!!!!!!!!!!!

[Highlander]

Hey ODAMO, i have dealt with the same type of people who are always asking me "why this," and "why that", "you dont need that" ! I always ask them "why are you bothering when the money to pay for it didnt come out of your pocket". Why do you think i need your permission or approval ? That usually gets rid of them pretty quick.

[hmrlvr]

Great article. Thanks

[KenP]

He complained about the switches. Just like so many of you. They are stupid n location.

[TigerH3]

"MOTOR REVIEW

'Baby Hummer' is still a big block of truck
Visibility, control buttons are issues in latest version

The big question you might well ask, after spending some time with the new iteration of America's only armored personnel carrier for the street is, why? Why are we making this car? Why are we selling it? Why doesn't it just quietly go away?

The answer, like most things in the complicated, highly competitive world of the auto industry, is not as simple as it might seem. True, the Hummer has been hated like no other -- viciously swiped at as the Darth Vader of all the hated sport utility vehicles. On the other hand, it is the kind of rig that gets some people's blood moving, gets them wondering, gee, maybe I could have one of these battle tanks instead of the same old Toyota, the same old Honda.

The new Hummer H3, the so-called "baby Hummer," is the third go-around (viz. the H1 and the H2) on an SUV that started life more than 20 years ago as the humvee, a "High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle" made for the Army by AM General. It is a chunky, wide $35,000 block of a truck, with sharp, no-nonsense planes, a vehicle designed to ford shallow rivers, leap over deserts and plow through forests.

Moreover, perhaps because the Hummer is so aggressive looking and earned a reputation as a vehicle whose sole purpose is to carry soldiers and marines into battle -- think of all those TV images from the 1991 Gulf war, not to mention what is going on in Iraq today -- it conjures up feelings that have nothing to do with neutrality.

In this country, the commercial Hummer became a lightning rod for all the complaints of that amalgam of environmentalists and anti-war and anti-big-oil factions. Hummers were spat upon, egged upon and sometimes torched. Driving one around town is an invitation for the odd sullen stare, the look that says, "that car stands for everything I hate." In Berkeley the other day , a woman pedaled by on her bicycle, looked over at the silver Hummer H3 parked on a residential street and shouted: "Bad gas mileage! Bad for the environment!"

So.... a bit of a time out. Is the H3 all that bad? Start with its size. It's nearly five inches shorter than a politically correct Honda Accord sedan and only three inches wider (it just looks much wider); but it is about a foot and half taller. In the price field of its SUV competition, it fits fine size-wise -- the Toyota 4Runner is three inches longer, an inch wider and five inches shorter.

The Hummer may fit in the same playpen as the other SUVs, but that's where the similarities end. Push the remote door unlocking part of the key fob, climb the two steps up into the cab and sit back in the fairly plush, cloth-covered seats and you immediately get the unerring sense of what this truck is all about. (And it is a truck, by the way -- it's built on the platform of GM's Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon pickup trucks and uses their 3.5-liter five-cylinder in-line engines.)

It's a bit like crawling into a cave. It's darker, or at least it feels darker. The windshield is quite forward from the driver's seat and for that reason adjusting the rearview mirror is, for some people, a stretch. But the main glitch stems from the original design of the HUMVEE -- it's the windows. They are high up and narrow, shallow. They're like slits.

And it's the windows that really cause the H3's biggest problems -- because they're so high, and because there is so much sheet metal surrounding you, it's impossible to see a lot of what you might back into. This is not a truck for people who live with small children, or have small children in their neighborhoods.

"The car feels like it has blind spots," said Wayne Billheimer, 34, who was carpooling into San Francisco from Berkeley recently in the H3. "The tiny windows -- it seems like you're going to be shot at. I like the upholstery. I keep wondering if it's Kevlar." Asked whether he could feel the car's military heritage, he looked around the interior and said, "It's the Hummer thing. Look at the sunroof. You half expect you could mount a .50-caliber machine gun on it."

Driving the H3 is an exercise in being careful (again, the windows). It has big left- and right outside mirrors (they partly compensate for the slit-like view from the inside mirror back through the tailgate window), but changing freeway lanes can sometimes be a problem if you hesitate. You have to get that bulk moving and hope some little Sentra or Z3 doesn't nip into your space while the 220-horsepower engine is laboring to get 4,700 pounds of Hummer H3 from over from one lane to another.

The steering wheel is thick, for no apparent reason, but it seems natural, given the thick atmosphere of nearly every other aspect of the H3 -- the pillars holding up the roof, for example -- and there are ergonomic twitches that make you wonder about GM's design staff (unlike the H1 and H2, still built by AM General, the H3 is built by GM).

Take the power window buttons. (Pleeeaaassse. TAKE the power window buttons.) In most cars, they fall readily to hand, at the front end of the driver's armrest. In the H3, they're about a foot south and you have to crook up your left arm, reach back and fumble for the correct button.

Or the electronic cruise control. Many manufacturers have managed to get the controls for this frequently used accessory onto the steering wheel. Not GM's H3. It's an awkward arrangement at the end of the turn signal stalk, requiring digital dexterity on a tiny "accelerate" button embedded in the stalk.

So why buy this car? There are plenty of other SUVs out there -- Edmunds.com lists 43 of them in the $25,000 to $35,000 price range -- and most of them will handle better, have fewer blind spots, get better gas mileage and will go faster. Then go back to the Hummer H3 and see if its own particular style appeals. If you want something that looks like a cross between a Brinks armored car and a chopped Jeep Cherokee, well, have we got a truck for you."


Link

[ODAMO]

Back when I had an IH Scout II some people used to say: Why do you need a 4-wheel drive? I get by just fine with 2 WD. Then years later I owned a pick-up truck, then they would say why do you need a pick-up? I'll bet you never haul anything. Then when I bought a RamCharger they again vocally wondered why I would need such a thing. It was the same with my ATVs.....Why?, Why?, Why?...There are those who will always question other peoples choices and these are the same people who will "just never get it". Trying to explain the benefits of and reason for owning such a vehicle as the H3 to these morons is a total waste of precious breath.