Bad press.......

[CONRAD II]

Found another fan while online

bla bla bla I wish I could write so maybe I could buy a hummer (http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/10894597.htm?1c)

[CONRAD II]

Found another fan while online

bla bla bla I wish I could write so maybe I could buy a hummer (http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/10894597.htm?1c)

[CONRAD II]

I'm still waiting on the back porch option to come out for mine.

[LasVegas]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by CONRAD II:
Found another fan while online

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/business/10894597.htm?1c <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hmmmm, don't think you have the right link there. Sends you to a registration page. But he can have this http://jm.g.free.fr/smileys/vtffani.gif

[KenP]

Still to a reg. page.

[Klaus]

Posted on Mon, Feb. 14, 2005



Impressive waste of a lot of cash
Hummer H2 SUT is a mobile steel hunting shack with high seats, low ceiling and miniature back porch
TONY SWAN
Knight Ridder

DETROIT - If the Bauhaus design people were correct, and form really does follow function, then the challenge with the Hummer H2 SUT is discerning just what that function might be.

Invading adjacent neighborhoods? General intimidation? Style statement? Conspicuous consumption?

It certainly works well for all of the above, but when it comes to ordinary vehicular functions -- going, stopping, turning, towing, transporting people and cargo -- it's hard to see how taking a perfectly useful General Motors full-size SUV chassis and making it look like something out of a G.I. Joe comic book enhances its usefulness.

The Hummer H2 SUT is a variation of the H2 wagon, which rumbled onto the sport utility battlefield as an alternative to the H1, the civilian version of the military Humvee.

Measured against the warlike H1, the H2 seemed to make some sense. It was easier to live with and far less expensive.

The element that earns the SUT distinction -- Sport Utility Truck -- is obvious: a shorty pickup bed grafted on behind the four-door cabin. It's less than 3 feet long, less than 2 feet deep, and not quite 4 feet wide between the wheel arches.

That's pretty snug, but GM has also equipped the back of the SUT's cabin with a mid-gate feature, borrowed from the Chevy Avalanche pickup.

With the mid-gate open and the rear seatbacks folded forward, the load floor stretches more than 6 feet. As you'd expect, GM's publicity materials make much of this feature, noting "the H2 SUT is functional, versatile and almost endlessly reconfigurable, exceeding even the most demanding consumer's standards."

Oh, really?

Apparently, the standards of those demanding consumers do not extend to ease of entry, interior room, general usefulness, all-around driveability and, of course, fuel economy.

Yes, the mid-gate doubles cargo capacity. It's one of the neatest pickup truck innovations in decades. But taking advantage of it means the back of the cabin is open.

That's not a big deal, unless it's cold outside. More to the point, the floor of the cargo bed is a considerable distance from Mother Earth -- just over 40 inches -- the price that owners pay for the 20 inches of ground clearance that gives the SUT its off-road credentials.

My test truck was equipped with a rear-mounted spare tire, which blends right in with the SUT's combat-ready appearance. But it does have some practical drawbacks. For one, it takes a hemispherical bite out of what you see in your rear view mirror.

The spare also affects towing.

How can that be? Here's how. The H2 has big feet -- huge all-terrain tires on 17-inch wheels -- and the clearance between the bottom of the spare and the top of the trailer hitch ball is tight enough to make it impossible to get the hitch onto the ball.

There are other irritations.

For example, it's about 26 inches from ground to door sill, a pretty good-sized step up. To mitigate this, my tester was equipped with step rails just below the rocker panels.

They were chromed, with hard rubber inserts in the areas intended for feet, and they served their intended purpose well enough when dry.

But when they're wet, it's another story.

The steps are just over 3 inches wide, and the surface gets pretty slippery in rainy, snowy or muddy driving, giving the user an excellent opportunity to bark his or her shins climbing in, and the almost absolute certainty of muddying a pant leg climbing out.

Once in, the high seat and relatively low roofline conspire to limit head room.

Assessed as something to drive, the SUT grades out about as you'd expect for a vehicle weighing almost 6,800 pounds.

The big 6.0-liter GM Truck V-8 emits a satisfying rumble and generates plenty of power -- 325 horsepower, 365 pound-feet of torque -- but mass is mass, and rectilinear bodywork doesn't help.

It takes more than 9.5 seconds to reach 60 mph, and by that time, you're displacing mass quantities of air, a process that becomes increasingly audible as momentum mounts.

All maneuvers are deliberate, and stopping quickly just isn't part of the deal.

Ride quality, on the other hand, is surprisingly good, and of course the SUT's full-time four-wheel drive system, with a low-range feature for tough going, gives it impressive off-road capability, despite its long (122.8-inch) wheelbase.

Fuel economy, as it relates to vehicles such as this, is an oxymoron. The EPA ratings are 10 mpg city, 15 on the highway. My own experience was about 12.

And then there's the price. The manufacturer's suggested retail for the Hummer H2 SUT, including destination charges, is a resounding $52,845.

That does include a pretty good inventory of luxury items -- leather seats, sunroof, audio, automatic climate control, power everything.

But my tester was, uh, enhanced with a $3,740 luxury package, which included lots of chrome, those assist steps one quickly learns to hate, XM satellite radio and a six-disc in-dash CD changer.

The chrome front brush guard cost another $850, and there was still another chrome package that added $550.

All told, the bottom line on the window sticker read $58,475. For a mobile steel hunting shack with high seats, a low ceiling and a miniature back porch.

If you want a really useful four-door pickup, you can save about $20,000 by strapping yourself into one of several four-wheel drive crew cab trucks that will do a better job than the SUT in everything but really rugged terrain.

And they won't look nearly as ridiculous doing it.

Hummer H2 SUT

BASE PRICE

$52,845

LENGTH

203.6 inches

ENGINE

325-horsepower, 6-liter V-8

TRANSMISSION

4-speed automatic

FUEL ECONOMY

10 mpg city, 15 mpg highway (EPA rating)

UPSIDE

Pretty good inventory of luxury items -- leather seats, sunroof, audio, automatic climate control.

DOWNSIDE

Where to start? Difficult to enter and exit. Low roof. Pickup bed not practical.

[Klaus]

We don't need no stinkin' registration!

http://www.bugmenot.com/