I have dreamed of owning a hummer for 19 years ever since I was in the Army. With the price dropping for them it may finally be a reality. However I have read through all 18 pages of posts on the H1 and have received great info but I need a little more.

If you could all help I still need the following questions answered.

I have heard a lot about the cost of owning these things but not specifics.

How much is the required maintenance?

On average how much a month should one budget for maintenance?

How much are broken part repairs on average? If your not trying to destroy the darn thing and doing just normal off roading how much can you expect to spend on replacement parts???

I realize evryone will be different but if you guys could give me some of your totals. Like you have had it 3 years and put 4,000 worth of parts into it, etc?

How much of the maintenance can be done at home with modest tools and skills?

Any insurance quotes would also be very very helpful.

Thanks

 

After dreaming for so long about having one of these things and actually being able to afford it. Then realizing I may be able to own one but not be able to pay for maintenance and repairs is very frustrating. Again any help would be greatly appreciated. These boards are awesome and have been very helpful.

Tom

BTW I'm looking at a 35 to 40k budget for the H1 itself. I heard the 98 was best but now I see the engine was not so great?????

 

Tom,

There are so many variables that it is hard to generalize. It all starts with buying the Hummer. Be sure that you get copies of receipts for all work done. usually the shop that has done the work has a record of everything they have done. Get the owner to give those guys permission to share that info with you. You want to make sure that the owner has done all of the required maintenance and service. If a lot of things have been deferred the tab can get costly. Hummers are not that difficult to work on and many owners do much of the normal maintenance and service work themselves.
The 12K services run about $1200.00 plus parts for anything needing to be replaced. Verify that everything works when you buy it and taking it to a Hummer dealer or service shop that works on them for an evaluation can save you lots of money. For 35-40K you can buy a pretty nice truck that should not need much of anything. ( 95-maybe a 2000 ) Be aware of the #8 cylinder issue with the older trucks. Most will have had the motor replaced but any real low mileage trucks and it would be worth a little investigation. 97.5 and up have a better HVAC system. 99 and up have TTM which most people that offroad aren't fond of.
Mild offroad won't hurt the trucks. Dumb drivers can. If you are moderately adept at offroading you won't have any problems.

 

I want to thanks 3hummers for his post and hummech, who I've been exchanging emails back and forth with this morning, for their help. It was great to get good clear answers and now I'm sure I can finally get my hummer. This is a great forum and please keep the answers coming.

 

I had mine for 1 year, 10,000 miles on it, moderate off roading but 90% local city driving.

I had $3,000 in immediate repairs since I never had a through inspection. 1800$ was due to a leaking heater core and had the core and the whole HVAC system redone since it was apart. It was about 800$ labor 1000$ parts. Transfer case died out [somewhat rare], and since I was stuck I wound up ordering a refurb replacement for 1200$. Afterwards I found out my t-case could have been fixed for 40$ in parts plus labor.

I spent about 2500$ or so in diesel fuel in the last year and about 3000$ in misc accessories and upgrades. Most of that was buying 17" OEM wheels and new tires.

Maintenance isn't bad if you do it yourself. Check the air cleaner, oil change [8 quarts of 15W40], oil filter [3$], check brakes and do an underchassis inspection every so often.

The only off road related repair I had to do was a power steering return hose that came loose and took me 5 minutes to fix on the trail.

When searching I'll pay a little more for a truck in nice cosmetic shape. That way it's easier to resell down the road if you need to get rid of it. A well off roaded truck may be ok with good maintenance but it'll suck to have to do paint and body work before you have to sell it otherwise you'll take a bath on it.

I'd look for a 97.5 or 98 or higher. Any turbo truck 96-00 you should look for one that had the engine replaced as those had a higher then normal block failure rate [#8]. If you find a really nice condition 96-00 truck that still has the original engine, I'd get it still if the price was decident, knowing that an engine replacement will run 8-12 grand for parts and labor.