Sport-Brutes: Like Schwarzenegger With Bumpers

By TERRIL YUE JONES

May 2, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEW YORK —

Led by a police escort, the burly, oversized truck motored down 7th Avenue before easing into ABC’s “Good Morning America” TV studio lot--and who should pop out but Arnold Schwarzenegger in a stylish gray suit.

“The Terminator” in a coat and tie might seem incongruous, but Ah-nuld’s message was clear: This is a truck with hair on its chest.

The vehicle in question is the H2 SUT, a concept version “sport-utility truck” from Hummer, the line of brawny four-wheel-drive boulder crawlers with military roots.

The General Motors-marketed H2 and Mercedes-Benz’s 2002 G500 are leading a new wave of sport-utility vehicles that combine legitimate off-road capabilities with luxury trappings--and the price tags that go with them.

Both vehicles were unveiled recently at the annual New York Auto Show.

Schwarzenegger has been an unofficial pitchman for the last few years for Hummer, the brand manufactured by AM General Corp. in South Bend, Ind. The star of “Conan the Barbarian,” “Predator” and “Total Recall” was instrumental in getting AM General to build a civilian version of its Humvee military vehicle, called the H1 (for “Hummer 1”), which sells for $65,000 to $100,000.

The smaller H2 SUT is basically the company’s H2 sport-utility vehicle--which is scheduled to hit the U.S. market next year--but with its rear sheared off into a pickup truck bed. Although executives at GM and AM General say they have not yet committed to building the SUT, well, listening to them, there seems little doubt they will.

“A vehicle like this is a natural,” said Wayne Cherry, GM’s vice president of design. “It has a very short open deck, but it’s so much in character with the extreme, off-road capability of Hummer.”

Schwarzenegger seemed to agree.

“Look at those deltoids,” he joked, pointing at the truck during his presentation at the New York Auto Show two weeks ago. “Look at those calves, eh? Are we talking?”

The SUT concept pumps out 325 horsepower and a massive 370 foot-pounds of torque for those ultimate towing jobs. AM General estimates a production model would sell for about $50,000.

“It has the attitude of the original Hummer, but more civilized,” said Schwarzenegger, who says he was involved in the SUT’s design every step of the way. “It’s ruggedness with luxury.”

But the H2 is going to have competition in that department. After years of gray-market imports, Mercedes-Benz is taking control next year of marketing its boxy Gelandewagen, which also was originally sold as a military vehicle.

Variations of the G-Class, as it is also known, have been built for about 25 years, but the G500 that Mercedes-Benz will sell in the U.S. has a 5.0-liter V-8 engine that puts out about 300 horses and 335 foot-pounds of torque.

For years, a trickle of G-Class SUVs were imported to the U.S. by a New Mexico firm, with prices reaching as high as $125,000--without any of that markup making its way back to Mercedes-Benz. The volume was so small that the company decided it wasn’t worth the cost and paperwork to distribute them.

But that has changed, said Ken Enders, vice president of marketing for Mercedes-Benz USA, speaking at the New York show.

“It’s been totally redesigned. It’s the right time for everything. For years we’ve wanted to import an SUV. We were talking about it well before the M-Class,” he said, referring to the SUV line the company introduced in fall 1997.

The G500 gives Mercedes-Benz the opportunity to develop an SUV that will be more elite than the M-Class, which sold 52,764 in the U.S. last year.

“They realized, ‘If we sell the G-Class ourselves, we can increase the volume and lower the price but still make a handsome profit,” said James Hall, senior analyst at industry consultant AutoPacific in Detroit. “And the G500 gives them a truly exclusive SUV.”

The G500 will go on sale this November for about $72,500, marketed through Mercedes-Benz’s 310 U.S. dealerships.

In addition to the likely Hummer H2, the G500 will go up against such luxury SUVs as the Lincoln Navigator and the Land Rover Range Rover.

Enders noted that Schwarzenegger has been seen driving a G-Class, and quipped: “All we can say to Arnie is, “You’ll be back.’ ” (The G-Class is built in Graz, Austria, which happens to be Schwarzenegger’s hometown).

The G500 will be so loaded that there will be no factory options aside from exterior and interior colors. Mercedes acknowledges that there will be a limited market for such an exclusive vehicle. It expects to import only 1,500 a year.

The Hummer H2, on the other hand, has a wide range of options, including a satellite navigation system, a winch that can lift 12,000 pounds, a tire-pressure controller and even, literally over the top, a 360-degree rotating night-vision camera with a dashboard-mounted display.

“Someone off-road, on a foggy night, in heavy snow, could need it,” said AM General Chief Executive and President James A. Armour. “It’s for people who want to know everything that’s out there.”

Schwarzenegger said he got his first glimpse of a U.S. military Humvee when he spotted a column of about 50 of them in Washington state while he was filming the 1990 release “Kindergarten Cop.” He said he told himself then, “I’ve got to have this car.”

After pestering AM General for months, he finally persuaded management to build a civilian version, and it went on sale in late 1992. Schwarzenegger bought the first one off the assembly line.

(Although he is not paid for promotional appearances for Hummer, GM last month donated $13 million to the Inner City Games Foundation, a charity with which Schwarzenegger is closely involved.)

In December 1999, GM won exclusive rights to the Hummer brand name worldwide. That means Hummer can use GM engines and other parts. In fact, the H2’s frame is built using parts from three separate GM truck models.

The Hummer line has caught the eye of many celebrities who seek to stand out--and who can afford the woeful gas mileage--including boxer Mike Tyson, tennis star Andre Agassi and actress Roseanne Arnold.

As for Mercedes-Benz’s G-Class, it has its own celebrity fan in English rock musician Eric Clapton, an enthusiastic owner who almost always drives his around the U.S. when he is here on tour, Enders said.

Terril Yue Jones, The Times’ Detroit bureau chief, reported from the recent New York Auto Show. He can be reached at t.jones@latimes.com.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

The New Barbarians

AM General and Mercedes-Benz will vie for the same luxury sport-utility niche with upcoming trucks that are brawny, a bit boxy and bred to go off-road. Here’s how the Hummer SUT and G500 stack up:

Hummer H2 SUT

Manufacturer: AM General

Factory location: South Bend, Ind.

Length (inches): 188.3

Height (inches): 75.7

Width (inches): 97.2

Weight (pounds): 5,725

Engine: 6.0-liter V-8

Horsepower: 325

Torque (ft-lbs): 370

Transmission: 5-speed automatic, full-time 4-wheel drive

Passenger capacity: 5