Muscular Must-Have
There is no good reason to purchase General Motors Corp.’s new Hummer H2, little brother to the humongous H1, which itself is an exercise in automotive excess. This alone probably ensures that, in Southern California at least, it will be a runaway hit.
This after all is the land of the two-occupant Suburban; the extra-long, extra-cab pickup and the triple-triple cheeseburger.
The H2 retains most of its larger sibling’s militaristic styling. The H1, you’ll recall, is the civilian version of the Army Humvee fighting vehicle that gained prominence racing through Kuwaiti oil fields during the Desert Storm campaign back in the first George Bush’s time in office.
The H2 is a big, rude (but not crude), muscular brute. But it probably will spend more time hauling suburban moms and their 1.2 offspring to school events and soccer matches than plowing over sand dunes and through rugged canyons.
And though its 316-horsepower, gasoline-fueled V-8 doesn’t spew diesel fumes like its big brother, at 10 miles per gallon it is no friend of the planet. Conspiracy theorists might even think that the gas-guzzling H2 is one of the reasons we were over there protecting Kuwait’s oil in the first place.
That said, GM undoubtedly will sell all the H2s it can make. It publicly says that it plans to build 20,000 of the inaugural 2003 model that went on sale last month, and insiders say 40,000 probably is a better estimate of annual demand.
This, after all, is a $50,000 version of the $112,000 H1 boy toy that Arnold Schwarzenegger putts around in. And I’d wager there are at least 40,000 guys out there with enough income and vanity to be willing to play half-price Schwarzenegger--not to mention the women who will want one just because it’s even bigger, and thus must be more secure, than the Suburban or Excursion or Range Rover or whatever else doubles as the family school bus.
I knew GM had a winner when I brought home an H2 last month. My job lets me park a lot of new vehicles in the drive, and the neighbors are a good gauge of what probably will hit the spot, at least with Southern California suburbanites.
I’ve had a lot of dads ask for rides in hot cars such as the Nissan Z or trucks such as the Dodge Ram, and quite a few kids--and their moms--lined up a few years ago to ask if they could go for a ride in the Rolls-Royce Corniche.
But no vehicle, not even Lamborghini’s sleek and exotic new Murcielago, has drawn the response of the H2. Small, shy children, of both genders, aggressively ran up to plead for a ride. So did their moms. And their dads. And their older siblings. It drew a mix even the H1 couldn’t match.
Other auto makers should take note: If you are chasing the elusive youth market, you could do worse than come up with an H2 look-alike. GM certainly has figured it out. The auto maker is planning a smaller, and less expensive, H3 (think Chevy Blazer on steroids) to attract those often cash-strapped younger buyers.
GM doesn’t actually make the H2. Part of the selling strategy is that the vehicle is made by Humvee (High Mobility Multipurpose Vehicle) manufacturer AM General. The H2 plant is a new one in South Bend, Ind., alongside the original Humvee and Hummer H1 plant.
GM bought the Hummer brand, which gives it distribution rights to the H1, and did another deal that calls for AM General to build the H2 using a boatload of GM parts. It has been estimated that the companies expect to split a profit of close to $8,000 for each H2 sold.
And GM, which is requiring its Hummer dealers to build showrooms that pay homage to the vehicles’ rugged military-outdoors background, isn’t stopping there.
Mike DiGiovanni, Hummer division general manager, gets starry-eyed as he talks about sales of Hummer caps, Hummer shirts, Hummer brush guards, luggage racks, chrome packages and on and on.
But to be successful after the first crush of “gotta-be-first-on-the-block-to-have-it-no-matter-what” buyers is satisfied, a vehicle still must perform.
The H2 does.
DiGiovanni says it will do 80% of what an H1 will do, and after a day in the outback with each I won’t disagree.
The beauty of the H2 is that it can take you anywhere a well-equipped Jeep can, but will do so in far more comfort while carrying more people and more cargo and towing much larger boats or trailers.
And the H2 comes ready to roll over the rocks, unlike many Jeeps that must be outfitted with aftermarket axles, wheels, tires and other expensive equipment to be truly off-road tough (although Jeep is about to hit the market with a new Wrangler model, the Rubicon, that has most of those improvements straight from the factory and will cost about half as much as the H2).
The H2 is built on a modified Chevy Suburban platform, with comfy captain’s-chair seats up front, coil spring suspension (independent front, solid axle rear) to absorb road bumps and 35-inch all-terrain tires that work as well smoothing out the highway as they do providing traction in rough off-road conditions.
The base model, at $48,800, is quite well-equipped--6.0-liter V-8, four-speed automatic; full-time four-wheel drive with a really low-geared low range and 9 inches of ground clearance for rock crawling; four-wheel anti-lock brakes; and creature comforts such as air conditioning, CD player, on-board electronic compass, tinted windows and power side mirrors.
A fully loaded model, with leather upholstery, a sunroof, air suspension, heated seats and a host of other goodies, tops out at about $55,000.
We took the H2 up Clark’s Grade, a steep, rutted dirt-and-rock track that leads into Big Bear from the Seven Oaks area off Highway 38 on the trek up from Redlands. The trail started life as a mule track in the late 1800s and has reverted--and then some--since it stopped being an unpaved auto route sometime in the 1930s. Although not as tough as some off-road trails, Clark’s Grade has enough twists and turns, narrow spots and crumbly surfaces to provide a challenge, and the H2 handled it with aplomb.
At 81.2 inches wide, it is narrower than the H1 but wider than any civilian passenger vehicle on the road. But it still makes it around switchbacks and through steep-sided gullies with ease. The width adds to its sure-footedness (tread width is an impressive 69.4 inches) off road and ride comfort on the highway.
A month earlier, we took an H1 through its paces in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, including a spooky descent through Diablo Dropoff, a steep, twisting, narrow cut through the rock that drops several hundred feet from a desert plateau into Fish Creek wash.
A few fellow off-roaders in Jeeps and jacked-up four-wheel pickups questioned whether the hulking H1 would get stuck, but it drove through the wash just fine by riding high up on the rocky walls on its knobby 35-inch tires.
I would have no qualms about repeating the descent in the H2.
And frankly, I’d much prefer the H2 to its big brother on the trip to and from Anza-Borrego, or on any other on-road trip.
The H2 is far superior to the H1 on paved roads and, although smaller, is far more comfortable inside, thanks to its conventional Suburban-like fittings (versus the H1’s barely civilian-ized interior).
Still, my long-suffering wife, who often “volunteers” to test the back seats on these jaunts, said the H2’s rear seats were too soft and flat. She preferred the individual rear buckets in the H1 for off-roading, she said, because they hold you in place, while the H2 bench seat lets you get tossed around.
Another drawback to the H2 is that despite its heft, it really doesn’t have much interior space, although it has more usable passenger space than the H1. It’s fine for four, but try to cram three people in the second-row seat and they’d better be really close friends. And add the optional third-row seat--a solo seat thanks to the full-size spare that takes up half the rear cargo area--and there’s not only an uncomfortable place for a lonely passenger but also almost no room inside the vehicle for cargo.
Final words: It would be better suited to Wyoming ranchers and commercial off-road guides, but expect the H2 to start replacing the Suburban as the family hauler of choice among well-to-do suburbanites who must have the latest “in” things. It is a well-done and very accomplished multipurpose vehicle, even if there is very little need for it.
*
John O’Dell writes about autos and the auto industry for The Times from Southern California. He can be reached at john.odell@latimes .com.
