From the not terribly surprising file, GM recently announced that production of the 'civilian' Hummer H1 would cease at the end of the summer. Apparently, demand for the über-ute, which has been available to retired generals and urban ranchers since 1992, has waned over the last couple of years.
At roughly $140,000 -- about $15,000 more than the average price of a single family home in Indiana, where the H1 is produced -- GM claims that the original Hummer was rather impervious to the price of fuel (diesel in this case) may actually be true. The way people wealthy enough to own an H1 are viewed by their peers, however, is worth great deals of money and I am sure that few of these owners will have any remorse in repurposing their behemoths as a 'driveway weight' or fancy anchor.
Nearly 12,000 H1's have found homes, or rather had specially built warehouses and garages since its introduction. Gov. Schwarzenegger is said to have had a small fleet of H1's, but apparently the number is now down to a more modest three. As the Governor of the single most environmentally conscious state in the Union, he prefers to drive his Harley's these days and just uses the sides of the parked Hummers on which to project his past blockbusters over the weekend, in typical Kennedy drive-in fashion.
One might think that this announcement might inspire celebration among the environmentalists out there, and while members of the Sierra club have dubbed it a 'step in the right direction,' it has gone off with relatively little geo-notice. One reason for this is that the H1, with its comical stature and garish design, was of obvious military origin.
The hulking profile was actually quite familiar, having been quite commonplace on CNN or traveling on the right shoulder in an endless convoy, hazards ablaze along the New York Thruway. Aside from camouflaging the desert tones with 'competition yellow' or 'flame red pearl' and replacing the machine gun turret with a roof rack and light bar kit, the H1 Alpha is nearly indistinguishable from it's more fatigued kissing cousin. People just accepted that this was the silly play toy of a few silly playboys.
The volume-minded H2 on the other Shaquille-sized hand with its gasoline-fueled power plant, laughable fuel-inefficiency, and complete disregard for all socioeconomic and political decorum is the one that really makes the perfect overweight, spoiled, rude, sticky, melted-ice-cream-all-over-the-face-and-hands poster child for everything that is wrong with our bloated and wasteful culture.
The other reason the passing of the trendy H1 is less than newsworthy is that its lack of presence in your local Hummer showroom will really have no bearing whatsoever on how many additional H1s are produced. The plant that produces the vehicle is, in fact, welcoming the ability to shift line workers to the military application. (The war in Iraq and emergent need to protect our southern borders has upped demand).
Hmm, this sounds fishy. Are we sure Halliburton and the guy on the grassy knoll don't have something to do with this?
Regardless, the passing of this vehicle leaves little more than an in-your-face counter culture and sidebar in Automotive's history of 'all the rage' (and blood and guts, quite literally) designs. The irony however, that we must shift production of these trucks to make more military versions to fight wars and conquer oilfields to fuel our habits and then drive them again at home, is not lost on anyone.
At least the H1 gets better 'footage' than the new $1,200,000 Bugatti Veyron with its 1,000 horsepower and 10 radiators (4.82-7mpg city, 2.1mpg at full throttle and at a commuter-friendly 253 mph). The playboys are already lining up, but the Alsace-based plant vows to make a mere 300 copies.
Anyone feel like picking a fight with the French?
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