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Originally Posted by PhilD
I doubt it. It was more based on movie stars requests to have a Hummer. I doubt any thought was given to selling them to ranchers looking for a lost cow, if it was, the World is indeed even odder than I thought  |
From "HUMMER: How a little truck company hit the bigtime", by Marty Padgett, page 91:
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"AM General hardly saw the wholesale adoption of the Humvee by Hollywood coming. President Jim Armour told auto journalist Matt Delorenzo that, "to me, it always seemed obvious that if the Humvee as the latest technology, the best 4x4 in the world, and designed to be the modern replacement for the Jeep, it would eventually go into the commercial arena"
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Armour says that work began in 1988 on converting the war wagon into a consumer vehicle.
Even then, AM General believed the potential for the civilian Hummer would lie in extreme off-road uses, perfect for utility companies, farmers and ranchers, search and rescue teams, even exploration and oil drilling companies.
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The book also discusses Arnold and the hollywood begging-for-hummer, and how arnold got the first one (and the first H2, i think) and all that you mentioned.
But the Humvee was meant by AMG to be civilianized before hollywood.
And the H2 was a concept of AMGs long before General Motors as well - the concept of coming at the civilian market by hummerizing a civilian type vehicle rather than civilianizing a military truck (which they didn't think was working out that well), and they selected GM out of several suitors, after evaluating the GMT8000 platform and its possibilities. (i think all that is true and can look for quotes later in the day if need be). They just didn't have the money and eventually realized they'd have to partner up.