Hummer H3 2010 News

This week a planned deal by General Motors to sell the army-style brand to a Chinese company collapsed, however GM is still considering expressions of interest from several other potential buyers.  Hummer Club Australia founder Tom Richards, 36, said he was confident the iconic brand would either be bought or, at worst, shelved for a few years before being reborn when economic conditions became more suitable."I fell in love with them when I first saw them," said Richards who owns a H3 Luxury with "loads of four-wheel-drive accessories".  It's a serious off-roader that will hold its own off road with anything.  I love the looks. It's different and I don't like to follow the pack."Hummer's size has made it a target for greenie activists, but Richards defends the vehicle and finds no conflict in being the owner of Reverse Organic Recycling and a Hummer owner.  "There is a big misconception of the vehicle's environmental footprint," he said."The H3 is more economical than the petrol Prado.  I haven't had any abuse, but you do get rude gestures from some people; like I really care.  The positives outweigh the negatives. Little kids just love them."Richards founded Hummer Club Australia early last year and has about 240 internet members worldwide.  GM Holden said that if the Hummer was axed, they would continue to honour warranties and provide service support and spare parts to current Hummer owners.Richards said there was also a ‘huge range of aftermarket accessories still available’.  "If it does get axed, it may increase the vehicle's value because enthusiasts will still want them."HistoryHummer began in the early 1980s when AM General developed the M998 Series High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV, pronounced Humvee).  The US Army awarded a contract to build the massive 4WD vehicle which featured in the first Gulf War in 1991.It became an unlikely star of the TV coverage of the first Gulf War and Schwarzenegger asked AM General to build him a civilian version with a Corvette V8 engine.  This attracted so much attention, they began making civilian versions as serious off-road vehicles.GM took over in 2002 and renamed the vehicle the Hummer H1, then followed up with a new, smaller model called the H2 which has been imported into Australia in small numbers by right-hand-drive conversion companies such as Performax International in Gympie since 2005.That was the year GM produced the H3 midsized SUV which arrived here in right-hand drive two years later, the delay due to several Australian Design Standards issues.GM Holden created a premium brand unit to sell Hummer and Saab, with 273 H3s sold in 2007, rising to 1078 in 2008 and only 429 last year.  GM this year sold Saab to Dutch sportscar company Spyker.

But it's not what you think, and definitely not the much-loved FJ Holden from the 1950s.  The new FJ is actually a Toyota, not a Holden, and so different from the all-Aussie 'humpy' that it should be given a different name for Australia. The new-age FJ is a Cruiser that is coming in October as part of a youth push at Toyota Australia that also includes the funky, boxy, Scion xB.  Both are already sold in the USA but the Australian models are being tweaked with right-side steering and other changes for their time Down Under. The Scion will also have a Toyota badge in Australia. The FJ is part of the LandCruiser family and is built up from the mechanical package of the previous-generation Prado. It is likely to be sold with both two and four-wheel drive, as well as a V6 engine, although Toyota Australia is making no comment despite a preview last week at a major dealer convention in Melbourne.  We do not comment on future model plans," says Toyota spokesman, Mike Breen. Pricing for the FJ Cruiser is likely to start around $40,000 and it will definitely have the same bright body colours and Hummer-style looks as the American model.  Toyota based the FJ Cruiser's design on the famous FJ40 LandCruiser, a working-class four-wheel drive made famous in Australia for its work on the Snowy Mountains scheme in the 1950s. Design cues taken from the FJ40 include the grille, upright windscreen and chunky bumpers, square wheelarches and the rear-mounted and exposed full-size spare tyre. Toyota has upgraded the design with rear 'suicide' rear doors to allow easy access to the rear seat and there is swing-up glass hatch incorporated into the side-hinged rear door. The glass hatch opens independently of the rear door and can accommodate longer items. The Cruiser is designed for serious off-roading and the seats are even covered with a special water-repellent fabric while the floor and rear luggage area is covered in an easy-to-clean rubber-type material.  The ladder-frame body uses a double-wishbone independent front suspension and four-link coil-spring rear suspension. Opinion - Paul Gover The FJ Cruiser looks a lot more fun than it is to drive.  It turns heads, particularly in lollypop colours, but I gave one back to Toyota after less than two hours of a planned two-day drive in California. For a start, the FJ is a reverse-Tardis - just like the Hummer H3 - with far less space inside than its big body promises.  Visibility is poor, the cabin is overly-plastic, the performance is adequate at best, and people turn to look - but often look as if they are about to laugh. The FJ shows the sort of direction Toyota needs to take to put some excitement and fun into its boring local showrooms, but it will need a lot of local tweaking to satisfy the needs and dreams of savvy local buyers.

They say the person with the most toys wins, but maybe you can get points for the biggest toy on the block.British engineer Dr James Brighton has produced what could be the most sought after toy of the year.But in becoming a toymaker, the good doctor has sneered at the idea of miniature cars, bypassed the display of carefully stacked scale models and gone straight for the giant size.The highly respected purveyor of academe at Britain’s Cranfield University has developed a remote control Hummer H3.Apparently the job took about a month to complete and probably had Dr Brighton topping the popularity polls of all those engineering students who spend years of study in absolute certainty that what the world needs is a better gizmo.Because as far as gizmos go — and ones like this go very far indeed — they’d say you really can’t beat the idea of a remote controlled version of one of the world’s biggest private vehicles.Sure, various armies have remote controlled vehicles, but they’re used for very serious purposes indeed. And nobody’s allowed to take them home for the weekend and have a bit of backyard fun at the Sunday barbie. Or at least, certainly not the ones we’ve been invited to. Yes, that was a hint, in case anybody at Defence Central who’s reading this has the keys to that remote controlled armoured tank we keep hearing about.But back to the Hummer, which opens up a whole world of possibilities for Christmas and birthday gifts —- although also a huge world of problems with wrapping paper and bows.Don’t just imagine this is for running around the backyard during the barbie. For a start, it won’t fit. A nanosecond’s pressure on the remote control toggle will have it crashing over the fence and forging a new path through the neighbour’s begonias. Which could mean a very interesting explanation to your insurance company.But where your usual remote controlled car is stalled by a couple of dust bunnies on the hallway carpet, this is a toy that can tackle really tough terrain.Dr Brighton says it can climb a four metre vertical wall, traverse a 40 degree side slope and ford through 60cm of water. He doesn’t say why you’d want it to do any of those things, but people with the word ‘Dr’ in front of their names are much smarter than you and me, so there must be a reason.But perhaps the Doc hasn’t properly researched the abilities of this vehicle.Your blogger at one stage supported her uni studies by lounging around a shopping centre computer store, purporting to serve computers to the public.Business was slow, the boss was often absent and even playing with the latest techno-gizmodo can pall after seven straight hours —- unless you’re a teenager, perhaps.The solution was to send for food by clipping an order and some money to the aerial of one of the remote control cars in the store and sending it through the shopping centre. Extra points for startling little old ladies along the way.Now with this Hummer, you can leapfrog modest goals like getting a bag of biscuits or a box of takeway pad thai in the tray of a scale model ute.The Hummer could thunder over to your local supermarket and come back with a month’s worth of groceries. Then it could take itself off to the car wash and self bathe. Hitch a brace of mowers to the tailgate and have it do wheelies on the lawn while you sit with your feet up on the verandah railing. The possibilities are as huge as … erm, an H3 Hummer really.Dr Brighton’s toy might be able to scale walls, but has it brought him any Thai takeaway? 

I thought I would hate driving this huge, hubristic hunk of Americana – and, to be fair, I did – but it did have unexpected benefits. For a start, I saw a lot more of Sydney that I have in any other week, as I circled, endlessly, looking for somewhere to park this brash behemoth. Unfortunately, I work in Surry Hills, where the streets are reluctant to give up space to anything bigger than a bicycle, which meant that, on two days out of five, I had to ring my boss and tell her I was unable to make it in because I couldn’t stop anywhere. I also feared for my safety because a lynching party had been formed by environmentally concerned locals and I felt it unlikely the Hummer could outrun them, even though they were on sandalled foot. The fact that the tank I’d been lumped with was painted the same colour as the cheese you find on McDonald’s burgers wasn’t helping my feeble attempts to remain incognito. Still, I did rediscover parts of my CD collection that had been long forgotten, because the lumpy ludicrousness of the Hummer made me feel like I could only listen to ZZ Top, Def Leppard and Led Zeppelin. I also discovered that there is nothing particularly wrong with my left knee, thanks to the handbrake, which is cunningly positioned so that it gives you an arthroscopy every time you enter the vehicle. It’s also accursedly difficult to use, which led to the venting of spleen that was probably building up dangerously inside me. Sadly, that’s about it for positives. Hopeless handbrake aside, the cabin annoyed me from moment one, mainly because it achieves the rare reverse-Tardis effect. While the Hummer looks big – to engage in mild understatement – it is ridiculously small inside, with less headroom than one of Russell Crowe’s hats. It also feels like you’re sitting in your grandmother’s living room, because there’s virtually no natural light, thanks to the windows – and the windscreen for that matter - being roughly the size of a lunchbox lid. Speaking of Tupperware, that’s what the centre stack of the dash feels like, which comes as a surprise in any $50,000-plus car, but more so when it’s one based on a rough and tough military vehicle. Mind you, I was shocked and awed by how ugly it was, from every conceivable angle. It even has a plastic picnic table glued to the bonnet, for reasons unknown. Then there’s the 400kg the rear tailgate, which is heavy enough to knock any woman foolish enough to mess with it flat on her back. Oh, and somehow, in their ingeniousness, they couldn’t find room for a footrest, so your left leg is always hovering over the clutch. That is, of course, one of the least annoying things about driving the H3 – the baby of the Hummer range and, thankfully, the only one available down under, thus far. The fact that it feels as wide as a terrace house is off putting, but things get worse when you try and drive it around a bend. The Hummer corners like a… well, like a terrace. The ride is also unfortunately firm and fidgety, yet too soft at the same time. This should be impossible. Driving over speedhumps can induce mild nausea. It’s also very, very slow, as you would expect from a 2198kg (for the five-speed manual tested, the four-speed automatic is 2303kg) vehicle powered, if that’s the word, by a 3.7-litre, five-cylinder engine. It doesn’t take a Newtonian scientist to work out that 180kW and 328Nm are not enough for the task of moving so much metal. The one thing that a car this intimidating shouldn’t be is underpowered. The manual gearbox also reminded me of my grandfather’s old tractor, for some reason. And yet… while I couldn’t think of a single thing to recommend it, everyone else loved the damn Hummer, and it attracted almost exactly the same amount of attention as driving a Ferrari. Possibly more, in fact, because when you’re in a sports car people just hate you from a distance and stare daggers, but in the Hummer, everyone wants to talk to you. I had one guy walk up to me while I was parked in peak-hour traffic in the CBD and ask where he could get one. As I drove off, he ran alongside me, still asking questions, despite my having refused to tell him any details, for his own good. Children who drive past you make Christmas-morning faces and whoop “Hummmmmer” out car windows. It’s also the only non-Porsche I’ve ever been asked to take people for passenger rides in. Mind you, no one was impressed. With all this inexplicable interest, however, it’s no wonder they reckon they can sell 700 of them a year. With prices starting at $51,990, that’s not a bad business case. Then there are the anti-Hummer types, who don’t talk to you but glower and think to themselves, what sort of person buys a vehicle like that? I had to have a t-shirt made up that said: “It’s not mine. I am the Stig.” The environmental question comes up a lot, too, and most people were only mildly surprised to hear that, if you run out of petrol, you can actually run the Hummer on shredded Toyota Prius pieces for short distances. Buying this car shouts: “I’m with John, there’s no such thing as global warming”. In fairness, it should be pointed out that the H3’s official rated fuel consumption is 13.7 litres per 100km, the same as a Mitsubishi Pajero. It’s also 12cm shorter and sits 1cm lower than a Pajero – but it is 12cm wider. It does, however, make a Pajero look like Megan Gale. So, in summation, people are going to buy this car, no matter what I say, because a lot of people really like big things, and other people staring at them. I think they’d be better off buying Mardi Gras floats, but each to their own.  

The solution, a “bling-pack”. Imagine this. A H3 Hummer, add some huge 22-inch chrome wheels, some more bling to the front brush guard, fancy door handles, side steps and towing points and a dual chrome exhaust. It's all now possible at Suttons City Holden where you can transform your Hummer into a blindingly shiny beast. While the range-topper H3 Luxury usually retails for $60,990, there's a new exclusive model at Suttons City which “pimps” it to the max, bringing the total price tag to $89,000. And there are upgrades inside as well as the aesthetic chrome changes, with satellite navigation, a better sound system, a rear-view camera and two DVD players in the headrests for the children in the back, which means there will also be less fighting as they can watch a different movie at the same time. Customers are also able to add the features individually. And the enhancements have already proven to be very popular. Suttons City sales representative Paul Conibeer says every customer who has bought a Hummer since the extras were made available in December, has added some sort of chrome to the mix. That includes many celebrities, such as cricket player Nathan Bracken and So You Think You Can Dance? judge Jason Coleman. Suttons imports the parts and extra features from the US, but all the changes to the car are carried out at the dealership. It takes about two days for the makeover, which can be done on any colour Hummer. And a short drive in the gangster-looking stunner showed it really does know how to attract attention. The chrome dressing sparkles on even the mildest sunny day and there's no way this car can hum along unnoticed. The rear-view camera and satellite navigation are the only really useful added features, but the rest feels like a must-have for individual appearance and the sheer enjoyment factor. “It's more of a car to be seen in,” Conibeer says. “It's a lot to do with the ego. You just want people to notice you and you can see it coming a mile away, you know it's a Hummer.” Suttons says the Hummer with a twist has been sold to many families and businesspeople who want to be noticed on the road.  

Despite the obvious appeal of a utility version of the popular US off-roader, General Motors engineers haven't engineered the car for our roads.The H3T was revealed at the Chicago Motor Show as a dual-cab version of the H3 SUV that's available in Australia.The wheelbase has been extended 55cm to accommodate the load area in the rear.The H3 available in Australia is built at the company's South African plant, which produces left and right-hand-drive variants.GM plans to build the H3T only at its North American plants, and has not considered a right-hand-drive model.“Absolutely we're interested in it, but at this stage it isn't engineered for right-hand drive,” GM premium brands spokeswoman Emily Perry says.However, she warns not to rule it out if interest in the car in right-hand-drive markets proves strong enough to convince GM to engineer an Australia-friendly version.Hummer Australia chiefs have made no secret of their desire to expand the local line-up, and the H3T would be an ideal candidate.The larger H2 has been discounted as too big for Australian roads, and the Hummer brand doesn't have anything else to offer at present.But expansion is not on the agenda, with the current H3 on back order.The company is still trying to clear the rush of orders from the car's launch, resulting in a waiting period of up to three months. 

Hummer caused a sensation when it was debuted at the Brisbane International Motor Show last year and it's back for 2008.After some delays in launch owing to minor compliance issues such as mudflaps, the “baby” Hummer H3 hit the showrooms and in the first three months sold 272 with about 600 orders still outstanding.GM Premium Brands communications manager Emily Perry said more than one in three Hummers have been sold to Queenslanders."It's a suitable vehicle for the outdoors lifestyle of the Sunshine State” she said.The GM Premium Brands stand will feature the H3 Luxury and Adventure models and the new hero "Torch" orange colour for the first time.Sharing the stand is the Swedish Saab range, which will continue its environmental theme with economical diesel and renewable ethanol vehicles.The Saab stand also highlights the tri-fuel offering with the 9-3 range of vehicles available in petrol, diesel and ethanol models.Saab BioPower is Australia's first ethanol production car and it will be on show in a white Convertible and a black Sport Sedan.

Customers will have to wait for the South African-built 4WD, the Hummer H3 has been pushed back to October. The US-designed, South African-built four-wheel-drive was to arrive next month, but delays in Australian-spec production have slowed the big unit's progress.GM Premium Brands director Parveen Batish says the delays are due to Australian Design Rules changes.“We've had some issues with ADR things — mudflaps, wiring looms, the towbar. We've had to get the right cars in Australia but it's led to a slight delay,” Batish says.“We'll launch in October. We're hoping to get cars to customers sooner. We'll keep in touch with them. We've even got a computer desktop icon that, once uploaded, will tell them when there's more news.”The change in the factory from other right-hand-drive markets to Australian-spec vehicles has taken a little longer than expected.At present GM Premium Brands is holding 300 orders for the brash, squared-off 4WD with military heritage. The $2000 free accessory deal, which ended in May, helped to drive interest.“We've got more than 300 orders now, which is fantastic given that no one has seen a right-hand-drive car,” Batish says.“We took a lot of orders at the motor shows. They generated a lot of traffic.”Batish says the sub-$60,000 price for the top-end model means the initial orders have been a high percentage of the flagship.“The model mix is high-end. The Luxury spec is about 70 per cent, with the Adventurer representing about 20 per cent and 10 per cent for the base model. I think it's because it's good value,” he says.News on the V8 and the rumored a turbodiesel is limited, but the Australian arm appears keener to get hold of a diesel model, given the market demands Down Under.“There is a lot on the horizon for the brand,” Batish says.“We'll try to expand what we have and see what comes up. We'd like to have the diesel. It's a little way off.“The V8 and the diesel look like late 2008 for right-hand-drive or early 2009. We have to evaluate the engine as well. We'll have to make a decision as to what we'll take.”

In July, GM Holden will begin importing the small H3 version of the box-shaped SUV made famous in the first Gulf War and by proud owners such as Californian Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. We will get the 3.7 litre in-line five-cylinder model, however, a 5.3-litre V8 H3 sport-ute is set for release in the US next year. GM spokesperson Emily Perry said they had no plans to bring the V8-powered Hummer to Australia and that they had nearly 150 orders for the H3 since announcing pricing and specification at the Brisbane Motor Show in February. The H3 five-cylinder petrol engine (180kW and 320Nm) will be married to either a five-speed manual or electronic four-speed automatic transmission. This compares with the US V8 Alpha version which delivers 220kW and 430Nm through a four-speed auto and 4WD. If you ache for something bigger and meaner, Performax International of Gympie converts left-hand-drive 5x2x2m H2 Hummers. The H2 boasts a six-litre Chev V8 which can be supercharged to deliver 242kW power and 495Nm torque. GM Holden will import three South African built H3 models. The base model ($51,990 manual, $53,990 auto) features stability control, traction control and ABS standard. The more off-road capable H3 Adventure ($57,990 manual, $59,990 auto) has fully locking electronic rear differential and rugged suspension. Top of the range is the Luxury with chrome trim exterior and leather interior ($59,990 auto only). GM expects to sell 750 Hummers this year and 1400-1500 in a full year.

The General Motors-made vehicle is considered one of the largest and least fuel efficient SUVs in the world and comes at a time when vehicle sales in that segment have dropped 23.1 per cent in the year to date. But that's irrelevant to the appeal of a Hummer, which Holden says needs no explanation. "There's nothing like it anywhere in the world," a spokesman said after the announcement at the Australian International Motor Show. "What it represents needs no explanation." The Hummer was originally a military and government vehicle called a Hum-Vee - an acronym for High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle. GM changed the branding to Hummer once it took over marketing and distribution from the military division of American Motors. The Hum-Vee saw significant action in the Gulf War and was catapulted to pop culture glory after featuring in movies such as Three Kings. Holden plans to sell the H3 Hummer, which is the smallest model on the market. "The H3 perfectly matches Australian conditions because of its size, and it has what Australians expect to see in terms of capabilities," a Holden spokesman said. The H3 Hummer is considered to have serious off-road capabilities and will compete against the Toyota Prado, Nissan Patrol, and Jeep Grand Cherokee. Pricing would be announced closer to its mid-2007 availability. Holden claimed the Hummer had a shorter turning circle than the Ford Territory and also a shorter wheel base. Few Australians have seen a Hummer in the metal, with boutique importers bringing in low volumes of H2 Hummers and converting them to right hand drive. The H3 will continue to be made at GMs Port Elizabeth factory in South Africa, and will be the first factory-made right-hand drive Hummer available. Initially, the H3 would be available in Australia with a 3.7-litre inline five-cylinder petrol engine, producing peak power of 180kW at 5600rpm and peak torque of 328Nm at 4600rpm. A diesel version could also be offered at a later date. Private sales of SUV diesels grew 1.6 per cent in 2006 compared with a 12.1 per cent drop in petrol sales. FAST FACTS Engine: 3.7-litre Vortec 3700 five-cylinder engine with dual overhead cams and variable valve timing. H3 will offer an MA5 five-speed manual transmission or 4L60-E electronically controlled four-speed automatic transmission, depending on specification. Fuel economy under the US EPA city/highway measurement of 6-8 km per litre for the manual and 4-5 km per litre for the automatic. Electronically controlled four-wheel-drive system features traction control, underbody shielding and StabiliTrak control system. Safety features include roof rail-mounted side curtain air bags and rollover protection system. H3 can traverse 407mm of water at 32km/h or 610mm streams at an 8 km/h pace, 407mm vertical steps, rocks and sand. 11.3 m turning circle 216mm ground clearance and maximum break-over angle of 23.5 degrees make it possible to clear large obstacles in off-road driving. maximum approach angle of 37.5 degrees and maximum departure angle of 34.6 degrees.