cultural icon on wheels - hummer hate

Well, i'm still waiting to get my new truck back from the body shop, which is getting suckish.

But, i've made a small collection of links to hummer hate sites that i enjoy. I enjoy them so much because ... it's not about the mileage - my normal-cab full size truck is worse, an Escalade (per the caddy dealer, i've enver had one) is only very fractionally better, and a cornucopia of sports cars can burn gas as fast or faster than the ol' humm. Uber-lux cars are also no better (Bentley, rolls). NEver mind an excursion.

It isn't because people use them for daily driving, and not their designed purpose. After all, where are the 1000 web pages freaking out at Corvette drivers for cruising around town and not going 0-60 in 4.5 seconds off of every single stop light, or taking their cars to the track at least once a week. think about that!

It's about what the H2 is in peoples eyes. Its the Countach-in-1988 of SUV's. Love it or hate it, its the one that stands out the most, hands down (well, save maybe an H1 that's looking good) Its the way that people percieve the H2 ... as wildly expensive, as representative of excess in a way that no other vehicle really is. Somehow, this thing really represents decadence of the in-your-face variety like nothing else on wheels. If i was an author, i could put it into words a bit better. It lights peoples fires - for good or for bad.

but on to the links:

A pair from the Sierra Club (i note no general or rational arguments about mileage or SUV's, just flame-boy ranting about the humm)

http://www.sierraclubplus.org/hummer/
http://www.sierraclubplus.org/hummerdinger/

A little article on how evil the humm is:

http://www.sierraclub.org/compass/2006/02/hummer-its-just-so-evil.asp

They even give a step-by-step tutorial to talk silly folks like us out of buying one:
http://www.sierraclub.org/talk/mervin/question7.asp


An entire site celebrating giving the finger to H2's, or even defacing them:
www.fuh2.com

That site even includes some songs, written just for us:
http://www.fuh2.com/inspiredworks.php (i'm sure the composers of said songs drive Bentleys and have no motive to hate the humm :D )



A collection of articles and hate sites - usually focusing on gas mileage as a rationalization for what amounts to a bunch of haters (see above about gas mileage)
http://media.orkut.com/articles/0107.html
http://brianhull.net/writing/000013.html
http://www.stumbleupon.com/tag/hummer-hate-club/
http://www.hummerh8.com/
http://wilson.greenpride.com/Hummer5.htm - coaches us through reasons why it is really important to filp off hummers, and how to get over our nerves and hesitations about the same


and more - a gazillion threads in forums. And then there is the whole jeep-vs-hummer thing. Jeep owners seem to be about as bent over the existence of the big trucks as environmentalists and haters of all varieties. I've seen threads and videos showing that Grand Cherokees are superior off-road to H1's, and on and on and on.


I said it before, i'll say it again. This si the gotta-have vehicle under six figures. hands down.

From what I can tell what a lot of the hate and discontent is about reguardless how it is portrayed is the the hummer is a symbol of war. It sprang from the HMMWV, a military "death machine," and by purchasing any hummer model you must be a war monger. Since we are involved in an unpopular war, although as a vet of this war a very necissary one IMO, people see it as just one more reminder of what is going on. The poor fuel economy is jst something that continues to prepetuate the "invade for oil and get high prices" falasy. At the only, so far, Hummer Happening I went, to we went to the Zoo and had a fun day. As we signed in at the dealership they warned us of the posibility of protestors being there. Once we got to the Zoo, the protestors wound up being a couple of anti-war peace-nicks or GreenPeace tree huggers, I couldn't tell.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Linus Gump

From what I can tell what a lot of the hate and discontent is about reguardless how it is portrayed is the the hummer is a symbol of war. It sprang from the HMMWV, a military "death machine," and by purchasing any hummer model you must be a war monger. Since we are involved in an unpopular war, although as a vet of this war a very necissary one IMO, people see it as just one more reminder of what is going on. The poor fuel economy is jst something that continues to prepetuate the "invade for oil and get high prices" falasy. At the only, so far, Hummer Happening I went, to we went to the Zoo and had a fun day. As we signed in at the dealership they warned us of the posibility of protestors being there. Once we got to the Zoo, the protestors wound up being a couple of anti-war peace-nicks or GreenPeace tree huggers, I couldn't tell.

I have a handful of friends that have been in/are in Iraq, and in general, i take their $.02 over CNN. They do not have a negative outlook on things. (sorry Mikey Moore). But, basically, its my policy to respect anybodies thought-out opinion on whatever, so i don't mind anti-war folks that don't seem to have taken their view from the latest issue of some magazine. In a way, what do i know? i run a manufacturing plant.

The first time i drove the H2 i was gaga for it. Having never owned a car that wasn't a lil sports car or a work-pickup, i expected to hate it as much as i hate my Silverado (i mean that affectionately, it's a great work-truck, its just... such a truck). And what i got was the most enjoyable driving experience i've ever had. In a way, the humm has a sports car kind of cockpit - its not that roomy, and it has that wrapped-up snug kind of feeling in the front. But you're ~1000 feet in the air, and the ride is more lux SUV than pickup. But i digress...

the hate had me wondering for a moment if i should ditch the hummer-fetish. But as i read more and more of it, i found really nothing that wasn't flamish and (based on my rebuke of mileage and on-road use complaints above) illogical, and in the end i think the controversy was a selling point. The h2 is a LEV, i'm having mine converted to E85 (which will consume less oil than a civic)... and i'd be lying if i said part of my motivation for the E85 conversion wasn't just the chance to someday say a big FU to someone freaking out about me changing the climate. i'm sick that way.

to date i've had nothing but love. a guy in a suburban shook his head at me at a stop light, then gave me a grin and a thumbs up. i rolled the window down and said "hey", he said "man, if i could have talked the wife into it, i'd be in one of those". it made me chuckle. i should get that guy a "WAF" handbook. :D

FWIW, along these lines, in about 1000 miles on the new truck, including 2 trips to the shop for this and that (which drops mileage quite a bit both times), the big truck is averaging 13.4 MPG. That's maybe 600 highway and 400 town miles. roughly, maybe a bit heavier on the highway.

on one 150 mile highway trek with speeds limited to ~65-70ish, the short bus yielded 14.7.

on one day of driving all around town just for kicks, it yielded about 12.3 (pure town miles)

So while i must declare as i'm stating this that i'm a fairly mellow driver, it does seem that the claims of 8mpg would fall into the "flame" category.

look folks, i'm not here to say that 13 is good mileage, or that the hummer is a sensible enviro-gem. Obviously, its not, and... not.

just noting that its hardly worth devoting an entire section of the sierra club website to something that gets better mileage than my 3/4 ton Chevy pickup driven by the same guy in about the same way. I wonder what percentage of big, beautiful pickups are driven for work? what % of miles?

So i offer again that all the various hummer hate just doesn't seem opaque when held up to the light.



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I ran into another guy with an H2 here & got to chatting. He claimed to have some funky intake system that raised highway mileage to around 16...

but in taking his souped-up truck for an idle around the block, i noted that his average mileage was 8.7, though i don't know if that was for the life of the truck or if it had been reset. Another character was averaging 11.1, and i'm at 13.3 for about 50/50 town and highway driving over 1300 miles (i'm a fairly smooth driver, not alot of drag racing).

just a FWIW

edit: i talked two 2 more owners, one reported basically the same mileage as my truck, and one about an mpg lower. FWIW, that's about in-line with large SUV's, perhaps a little bit less (i swapped my H2 for an '07 escalade with my neighbor, and got about 15 in mostly highway driving, which is about an mpg better than my h2).

i guess my point is just that big SUVs use alot of gas, and if anybody wanted to be taken seriously they'd have to make a reasonable complaint about bad mileage vehicles in general, and not just rant and rave like a box of fruit loops about the h2 in general.