I read C&D monthly for its ROAD tests, not for its OFFROAD tests. Essentially they did overall scoring based on the criteria they use to judge sports cars, sports sedans, crossover SUV's.

Agreed H3 power is weak for high speed highway driving, visibility out the back is very bad and rear seat space tight. And the offroad tires do not have the crispness of low profile Z-rated $500 summer tires. C&D is so sports car oriented that they complain when a car has "all season" tires instead of "summer" tires. That's fine, I like sports cars too and own one.

Obviously the H3 has certain significant highway weaknesses resulting from the offroad capabilities that were designed in. Not sure everybody is willing to put up with those weaknesses if they rarely offroad. I rarely offroad but I knew the H3 was biased towards offroad capabilites when I bought it and I accept the tradeoffs.

BTW H2's suffer from the same tradeoffs. They are slow on the road and suck even more gas, look at the C&D tests for fun.


S.