Well we don't all have money falling out our butts! We all can't just go out and buy whatever the newest cool thing is, nor do we nesearilly want to. I bought my H3 on the spur of the moment type thing. I saw 1 and a week later decided i would look. It was gone. The following week they had another and Iwent and got it. I traded in my 98 Ranger mini monster. I was tired of fixing it.2 trannies in 3 years at 1800 a crack is rediculose. Plus I never really was a ford fan.

 

Doesn't bother me as I bought my H2 cause I REALLY WANTED ONE!!! 4 years later, I owe ZERO and there is NOTHING ELSE out there that I'd rather be driving!!!

I've had Jeeps, Tahoes, a Denali, and in a few years, there was ALWAYS something NEW I wanted....not so with my H2!!! Can't see EVER getting rid of her.....

 

No, no. Didn't mean you NMHUMMERGUY. I (like you) was responding to Doc Olds's post.

He was commenting on my driving a Subaru in his post. He didn't mention it by name,..but he knows I drive one from other threads.

I stopped by the Hummer dealer this morning to turn in the other set of keys and the remote start fobs. They have LOTS of H3's there. We're talking 50-70 of them.

Poor guys. Their top few sales guys left. Probably were having a hard time making the numbers.

I'd love to get my hands on the design of the H3. I'd make it fit adults,...shave off 600 lbs or so,...install a direct-injection turbo engine that gets 3-4 mpg better mileage yet makes 280 hp and 300 ft lbs of torque (BMW's 135 and 335 engine is a 6 cyl turbo,...makes 300 ft lbs of torque from 1,400 rpm straight to redline,...and I mean straight. Had one on the dyno and the torque curve wasn't a cuyrve at all,...it was a flat line. Zero turbo lag,..perfect for both off-roadingand city driving).

Andoffer aturbo deisel engine that makes 230 hp and 400 ft lbs or torque.

I'd widen the rear cargo area by 3-4 inches. Re-do the door pannels so they look nicer and the armrests would go all the way back to the "B" pillars (like the Mazda) so adults have a place to put their arms,....install adjustable pedals,...drop the rear suspension an inch.

Make the rear headrests removable and/or have a quick release for the rear seats like the Mazda CX7 does (one pull of the lever in the tail gate and the rear seats fold flat by themselves (real handy for hauling stuff).

I'd make the sun-visors slide out like the Mercury Milan's do,..so that taller drivers can get some shade when the sun is to the side.


There's absolutely NO acountability inthe engineering departments at the Big 3. If a part makes it through validation,..it's OK. No matter how horribly it is designed. Until they change that,...domestics won't competevery well inthe real world. They tried with crazy financing scheemes,..but now that has come back to bite them,..and most cars can't even be leased anymore. And the ones that can have $200+ a month premiums attached to them.

An exmple of domestic design. New Camaro front suspension. Control arms designed to be aluminum. Then they decide to save money and do them in cast-iron. OK,..give up some performance,..save a couple dollars. Well the problem was,..they don't bother to re-design it (smaller in diameter because it's going to be cast-iron). So it ends up being super-heavy,..and because it uses so much cast-iron,..it actually ends up costing the same as the aluminum part would have.

So they add 40 lbs or whatever to the front suspension,..and save nothing. Of course it passes validation testing,...so everything's just hunky-dorrey. The engineers for GM I spoke with said the average GM product is 200+ lbs overweight,...and most of that was in the suspension.

 

I a

 

I am so angry with "ducky's" response......I can't even type. He needs to get his Mazda and do whatever in it............ewwwwwwwwwwwwww[:'(].

Nice to know he has all the answers to re-engineering the H3. Wish we all knew as much as Howard the Duck.

 

Well, duckstu, I guess since your Hummer is gone this is adios.

Have fun on your other forums like iwsti.com. Sounds like you pretty much can't fit in or like just about any car:

And Corvette bashing

I'm sure with all of your great ideas one of the smarter car companies will be knocking on your door soon for advice. With the hundreds of posts on necessary Subaru upgrades I'm sure Subaru might be the first one to call.

 

There aren't many "necessary" Subaru upgrades. They're pretty well designed right out of the box.

The only flaw in the STIthat I can think of is therally-inspired inverted struts (which had a short life-span of 35,000 miles or so),....Subaru has replaced quite a few. But other than that,..can't think of much. I'd like to see the Forester have a telescoping steering wheel.


Some are OK with poorly designed domestic products. I'm not one of them. It pains me when a home-room full of designers completely miss the boat on something,.. (like the 2006 H3 door pannels (read armrests and window switches). I live in detroit and my business is very much affected by how the big-3 fare.


The C5 Vette seats did suck to high-heaven. But guess what? Enough people bitched about them and the C6 seats are dramatically better. The electrical issues from the 2002 ZO6's were remedied as well. The C6 is a dramatically better car. Not that full sized adults can fit in it. Of course it wasn't designed for them. 5'7" women are the target market. Which explains why 70% of Vettes come with automatic transmissions,...(v.s. the STI which only is available in an 6-speed manual and has about 5" more headroom. It'starget market ismen.)

GM and the others are learning the hard way. Ford and probably GM are now on a mission to shave off much of that completely unnecessary weight as they can.The cars will get better, faster, more fuel efficient etc. I just pray that they can do it before they go out of business.


I cringed when Ford came out with the latest F-150. Yes it's very nice,..and quieter inside,...but just when everyone with an I.Q. over 50 was thinking they need to get more fuel efficient,...Ford adds nearly 1,000 lbs to the truck. WHY? (What, to take advantage of a tax deduction that ran out on Jan 1, 2006?)

Yes trucks sell on things like towing capacity,..but guess what? If a guy has a 15,000 lb boat to tow,..or is in the granite & marble business,..Ford already makes a truck for them. It's calledthe F-250 (or F350, 450 etc).

So now anyone who just likes trucks,..or wants to haul their dirt-bikes to the trail,..or haul the occasional load of stuff back from Home Depot,..well,..they have to drive a 6,000 lb beast or buy foreign. It's enough to make me want to scream. So the big-3 loose market share, I loose business,and guys like you give megrief for being angry.

Yes I'll consider the Mazda CX7. It's made on a Ford chassis, and Mazda is 24% owned by Ford last I checked. And if Ford hadn't screwed their leasing companies,..I'd be getting an Edge.

I considered the Mazda 6, Ford Fusion and Mercury Milan recently (all the same chassis). And ended up with the Milan just for the name-plate. Seats suck,...would be nice to have the Mazda seats,..but my wife is5'1", and she's fine with not having any back support.

My dream replacement for the H3 was the Ford Flex. I had told some Ford guys 5+ years ago that they needed to macho-up the Windstar. (every familly NEEDS a mini-van,..but no one wants to be seen driving one) Square up the hood,..add fender flares, bigger wheels and tires, a rear sway-baretc. Well,..they finally did that,..but the steering wheel doesn't telescope, so when I sit in it I can barely touch the steering wheel. I am really sad about that. I'd love to have one, I think they look great. But it would just be toopainfull to drive leaning foreward with my arms fully extended all the time.

I might do the Mercury Mariner instead of the CX7. I can't drive the currect ones because my knees hit the streering wheel if I try to use the brake (again,..designed for 5'7" women). I've looked under the dash to see if i could moove the pedals like I had to to drive the H3,..but I'm not sure it can be done as easilly/ HOWEVER,.... there is a mid-year update comming later this month that finally adds a telescoping steering wheel. (Finally,..after 8 years of Escape and 4 years of Mariner production). So I might just end up with 2 Mercuys in the driveway. It's almost as nice as the Mazda but not as roomy inback. But I'm willing to take one for the team (like I did with the H3) if it means I can have a domestic nameplate in the drive.

 

Much nicer reply, duckstu (not that you are accountable to me or any of us). When you were bashing the H3 here, what did you expect? You have good ideas and many good comments but attacking what many of love here in the forums is bad mojo.

It would be great to have many of the features you requested and they do exist - but it is in a $70K H2, not an H3. Everything costs money and every car (except maybe the Bugatti Veyron) is a compromise of sorts. I don't have a flat folding rear seat in my H3 but I have good ground clearance. The body is unique, a bit narrow perhaps, but it is a styling cue that works for me. Wish lists are one thing but attacking the H3, well, that will likely prompt attacks back if you post them here.

I wanted a good offroad vehicle first, not a nameplate, American or otherwise. What was I going to get? FJ? looks cartoonish to me. Jeep JK? don't like the crudeness of Jeeps. Xterra? Don't like the concept. I think I got the best of class vehicle with the H3 despite its flaws. The others, IMHO, have greater flaws. Escapes, Grand Cherokees, X5s, etc did not enter into the discussion because they could not compete with the H3 for my purpose of mud and rocks.

So please understand that I'm not jumping on you here, just saying thanks for the good reply above. Differences of opinion are great for forums like these.

 

how can duckman say that american products are poorly designed?? Just look at what has come out of Detroit lately:
Malibu
CTS (the new one)
Challenger
Flex
Edge

Any one of these cars can go head to head with what ever the imports have to offer especially the Malibu the best car for quality, performance, and price.


In response to ducky Some people are OK with buying products from a company whose home country bombed us 60+ years ago and who's soldiers stuck our soldiers with bayonets. I am not one of them. It pains me to see bunches of ignorant consumers rave about PRECEIVED quality because that is what the media tells them what is so (so they believe it). I ALSO live in Detroit and MY business is affected by how the big 3 do - BUT UNLIKE YOU, I DON'T BOW DOWN TO THE IMPORTS AND KISS THEIR A$$ES.

How can you just constantly rip the corvette?? I am sure the only way for seats to give out after 500 miles is if the driver weighs 500lbs.

It's not that you cannot find an American car that fits your body it's you cannot find one that fits your EGO I worked with an annoying indian guy about 10 years ago (Anad) who would constantly quote tourque and hp numbers from every import and brag about how superior those cars were to American cars....glad he's gone. Unlike you, I will support the Big 3 and anyone who buys their vehicles as Detroit goes, so does the USA.

BTW, who led 2007 with the most recalls?????? TOYOTA!!!!!!!!!!!!! Not GM. Not Ford. Not Chrysler.

 

That's deffinately a good list. Nothing really high performance (unless you include the TOTALLY AWSOME Cadilac CTS-V),..but a good list of cars.

I'd addthe Pontiac G8 to that. I drove the G8 V6 auto about a year ago and was rather impressed. The V6 has enough power to burn rubber for 1/2 a block,...and they have a 361 hp, 385 ft lb Gt version. Same platform as the new Camaro. 4 doors,..good seats, great engines and the new GM/Ford 6 speed trannys. (and a GT-R version I can't tell you about because I'll get someone in trouble).

Of course both the Challanger and the G8 are heavy (3,995 for the G8 GT, and 4,160 for theV8 Challanger), which putsboth in the 18-20 mpg area (combined city/highway). i don;t think either will sell really well as a result. Not sure what the domestics are smoking with these cars. Very nice, the Challanger especially is beautiful,..but their time was 10 years ago when gas was cheap. Now they need direct injection engines and a 900 lb diet to deal with $4.50 gas (and for sure gas will be $7.00+ before their life-cycles are over).

So as great a car as these 2 are to drive,...I think they will prove to be failures for their respective companies.