[clydecpa]

I respect your opinion, but I disagree.

You can ask a consumer to sacrifice power in exchange for fuel economy, or vice versa. When you give hime a brand new product offering with no power and no fuel economy, that's a problem. Let's not sugarcoat it; the H2 gets 11-12 mpg in real world driving (my neighbor has one, so i know first hand). Given the reduction in size and weight of the H3, I don't consider 14-15 mpg to be "damn good." If you do, good for you.

I don't see why GM spent so much money developing the H3, but couldn't design a more power/fuel optimized engine. My next door neighbor is a GM employee (engine specialist to be exact for the Saturn plant) and cited this to me recently as another example of GM higher ups being asleep at the wheel.

My company was the exclusive Hummer dealer for the entire state of Tennessee region in the mid to late 90's, so I know a few things about Hummers and marketing them to customers. Right now, they've been made more affordable to the masses, but appeal probably more strongly to the hardcore offroad enthusiast. That's fine if that is what you are; you probably don't want it to have curb appeal to "soccor moms." Nevertheless, as fuel prices continue to climb GM will be forced to up the mileage ratings on the next significant change to the H3 or H?.

I simply stated that the deal killer for me was the combination of poor power with poor fuel economy. That combination is a fact! I tried to deny that for a couple of months, but when it came time to buy, I came to my senses. You can continue drinking the kool-aid you like so much, no problem. And nobody generally cares what the mileage estimates are based on. People care about what REAL WORLD mileage a car gets!

Don't misunderstand me, I like everything else about the H3, but the engine just had me shaking me head and walking away from purchasing.

Sorry I haven't updated my profile in 2 years, maybe it should say, "Hummer wannabe."