[Andy C]

I woke up this morning dumped at a roadside – my last memory was of a guy in sunglasses wearing a black suit saying “look into the flash sir”.

Luckily he only managed to erase the side of my memory that had been affected by the free gin they had plied me with.

The H3 – well it is definitely a Hummer – there is no mistaking that. I was kind of expecting a Jeep / Landover hybrid type thing but I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. It will definitely stand out amongst the crowd.

The H3 certainly reminds you of the H2 – I had the image of the H2 sucking its cheeks in to look thinner and smaller without losing its main characteristics. A sort of H2 on a diet feel going on. It was difficult to truly gauge the size of the thing as it was the only vehicle in the garage so there was nothing else to compare it against.

It is lacking in the aggression department – definitely softened out and more subtle – but I get the feeling that is exactly what they want – it will certainly appeal to a larger audience – it is no urban assault vehicle – an image that I believe GM may be trying to move away from with this vehicle.

I’m not going to ramble on about the features – I think Jason has pretty much covered everything in his write up. I am going to agree with his thoughts on the interior – a very classy feel going on in there – the seats were particularly good looking (they did not have the memory feature – but I have never used mine anyway) – my only complaint being that it did feel a little cramped in there – but I am not a small fellow – at 6’4” and 235 lbs I have a tough time finding any vehicle that I don’t feel cramped in. I did not sit in the drivers seat so I cant comment on the feel that you would get behind the wheel – I couldn’t get in there as they had to surgically remove one of our party from that location.

The rear storage seemed to be pretty well thought out – there is a good sized storage bin (not lockable unfortunately) above the wheel arches and they have stashed the spare wheel change kit in a compartment fitted into the swinging door. The rear swinging door seemed to give acceptable access to the rear of the truck – it is also fitted with a hydraulic piston to slow it down a bit – handy for those windy moments that could cause it to fly open. The hinges on the door are pretty beefy – as they need to be – there is a lot of weight there with the door and spare wheel. They looked solid enough to take the beating that some hard trail riding would inflict upon the hinges – the reason that old Landrovers wound up carrying the spare on the hood was that the rear swinging door would eventually fall off due to the weight of the wheel stressing the hinges.

I did get a good look at the front end – there is a decent looking skid plate there – plain – no H3 logo.

They really need to get those plastic bits fitted more securely in the wheel rims – honestly I didn’t touch it – it just fell off – that’s my story and I am sticking to it.

Overall it is a good looking vehicle – it will appeal to a larger audience as I said – it is not as intimidating as the H2 and looks as if it would be easier to handle in those extreme situations that we take them into every day – parking lots for example.

It is going to be interesting to see how and to whom GM are going to market this vehicle.

I have to agree with everyone who was there though – they are definitely on to a winner with this one.

Now if only I could remember what the gin memories were.