we all know the h1 is truly the king of offroad and we all miss it but here is my opinion, please tell me what you think.
first of all instead of making small efforts t save the H1, GM should have realized earlier that the hummer was pretty much doomed with the rizing price to produce etc. and they hould have stopped trying to sell it like a reg. car. they could have downsized the production of the h1 civilian and used some of the space to produce the military version. ok so with the space designated for the h1 they should make it as special order, they could order the products needed to ake the h1 as needed, avoid surplus and be 100% sure they will sell the one theyre making also, with less in production they would be able to put better craftsmanship and attention into the cars and offer a wider variety of upgrades/custom features.

Okay, so what someone, a great entrepeneur, could do to bring back the h1 is to:
1.)buy facilities to produce the cars in (buildh1's like those kit cars and replicas, independitly produced for special order..)
2.)purchase the rights/blueprints of the h1, everything you need to know how to build them and to do it legally, (hummers pretty much done with them)
3.)start advertising and taking custom orders like i previously suggested. plenty of hummer fanatics will be lining up, excited to see the legend back.

 

The main issue was getting them certified for sale in the US. ( passing crash tests, emissions tests, etc ) If it wasn't going to cost them millions to recertify the truck AMG would still be making it. I am hoping that they come out with a stripped down version for sale to the serious off road types but I doubt that will happen. I have my 2006 and 1997 wagons and am fortunate to be able to enjoy such amazing vehicles. As I have said many times, if AMG comes out with the civilian H1 again I am #1 in line to get one.

 

What killed the H1 was GM. They wanted to name of "King of Offroad" but didnt understand the H1... They thought it was for the very wealthy that wanted another ride to show off...Sure some of the H1 market was that but most of the H1 market was Average Joes that loved what an H1 was. Just a Functional offroad/truck plateform with I guess alright creature comforts.. But that was ok to them they dont care about leather/heated seats, nice interior etc... All we cared about was functionality of the ride and basic interior was fine to us... Easier to clean the mud off of and less worry when it got muddy. Also with the creature comfort upgrades came the dramatic price hike which priced it way out of the average joe market for stuff we could care less about...Then comes the DMax/Allison addition... Now this definately was something Functional and sure we would love to have it but at the cost of the price hike just wasnt realistic. So in conclusion the H1 did its best when it was very basic yet very functional at an affordable price. As soon as it was priced out of reach for the average joe for items that really shouldnt matter to the type of people driving an H1 it just didnt make sense to us anymore. Heck I am sure alot of us came from a Jeep background(I know I did) and as you know with the jeep although the creature comforts are getting nicer it is still very basic compared to other creature comforts and that is alright by us since we dont care about the fancy stuff we just care about the functionality of our vehicle.

 

yes, injunfarian, you are right especially about comparing the jeep and h1. they both started as military vehicles that offroaders loved so much they made into consumer cars. they both became legends and grew bigger brands but the hummer was never realistic. the jeep still is pretty basic and stripped down and not making very dramatic efferts to change that, but hummer, like you said, kept trying to make it have more creature comforts and kept trying to make the interior one of a luxury SUVs. Unfortunately hummer was never very realistic with its goals for the h1 from the beginning when they tried to market it as the ultimate offroader (which it is) that you can also use as a family car(ya right) Hummer should have worried more about costs than luxuries.

 

I think the only goal GM had concerning the h1 was getting rid of it. They only wanted the name, which is now, unfortunately associated with blinged out poser mall-cruisers.

 

A little cynical there ronb. I think GM wanted the H1 around long enough to cast its aura over the other models, which it has done. It is nearly impossible to build a vehicle in such low quantities and break even. It took two years for AMG/Hummer to sell the 691 2006 models they did build. Unfortunately high costs/low sales killed the H1. I love the H1s and have encouraged AMG to bring the H1 back, even in a stripped down version, to the civilian market. Given the certification costs and low volume I just don't think it is going to happen.

 

I agree with you that a stripped down version would be the way to go (I also agree that it will never happen), and you seem to agree with me about GM using the name then getting rid of the flagship. If that's being cynical, then so be it. With a 14 year average of 850 trucks per year (the biggest year was '96 with just over 1400) the h1 has never been a big money-maker for amg or gm -- it's a hand-made speciality vehicle with minimal sales (similar to the mog at over $100k?). No mystery there.

My problem with gm is that they over-inflated the price and steered people to the h2 saying it was the new, better version of the military truck (happened to me) when part of the marketing deal was to promote and support the h1. I'll be pc here and say that niether truck really is better than the other...they are apples and oranges and serve different purposes. GM's support blows as well -- how many dealers actually work on the h1's? Many say they do but in reality have no idea and/or minimal training on how to deal with an h1. I've pulled into hummer dealers before (there's alot in CA) with my truck and all the sales people come out to look at my truck like they've never seen one before. Mike Sabrese (formally of Cerritos Hummer) had trucks shipped to him from all over the country to be worked on. It's funny how rare it is for a hummer dealer to be able to work on a hummer...pretty telling.

 

I agree. Mike is at Tustin Hummer now. Kyle at Weseloh Hummer in San Juan Capistrano is a very good H1 mechanic. Hopefully Mike left a couple of good techs at Cerritos before he went to Tustin. You can see what type of following he has by looking at the service lot now. pre-Mike there was the occasional H1, now there are usually 8-10 back there all the time. I loved my H2. It was a dream to dive on the road and a pretty damn good off road vehicle also. The H1s are a dream to drive off road and for a truck guy like me a pretty good on road vehicle too, even though many would disagree that the H1 is even decent to drive on pavement. Keep your fingers crossed on a new H1 but don't hold your breath.

 

Mike S has hooked me up so many times -- It was a bit of a haul to get to Cerritos, now Tustin is a bit too far so I'm gonna go meet the guys in Valencia. A friend of mine swears they are cool -- any experience with them? Mike's fab shop just did some really cool extra shock/limit strap mounts for me a few months ago (similar to his race truck). Just beat on them on John Bull and they will do just fine!

rb