Hummers - Compensating America.

Yesterday, a conversation arose about an acquaintance of ours and their ownership of a vehicle called the Hummer. By now most of us are familiar with what a Hummer is, as they've become the trophy car of wealthy Americans who wish to make a statement about their success. My usual response is to vomit when I see one of these vehicles on the road.

It's not just because gas is $3.00 a gallon, that makes me scratch my head and ask "Why?", when I see one of these behemoth Hummer H1s on the road. In fact, before the Hummer, became a common upper-class privilege, adorned with an interior and the creature comforts; I balked when Hollywood stars began driving converted military versions of the Hummer and drove them on Los Angeles freeways. This was back when gas was just over a $1.00, and to me the idea of a 5 mile per gallon vehicle was insane to me.

So now we've got the H2, and H3 Hummer. A little smaller, a little more gas efficient, and alot more creature comforts. The question however arises, is why do people feel compelled to buy these vehicles which are excellent off-road vehicles, but are still lousy on gas mileage and probably will never climb a curb by most of the people who drive them. In the case of the H3, I'd probably be willing to compromise and say it could be the land-rover of America. OK. But where as Brit's buy land-rovers as a luxury vehicle, America buys the hummer as a huge strap-on dildo to replace their otherwise non-existent bravado. "Look at me, I'm working 3 jobs to pay for my Hummer!" Even the name Hummer... kinda insinuates a sexual expression. Maybe if we priced the Honda Civic at $50,000 dollars and put a Hollywood celebrity driving around in it, we could get these idiots to buy something more sensible.

Maintenance and reliability is horrible on them too.

As much as I like to buy American, the Honda and Nissan line of trucks are far superior with regard to performance and reliability. I see someone driving in one those and i don't think the driver has status, I think he's a moron for pissing away his money on a crappy product. If you need something big, then get the new Hondas or Nissans.

Hell, they are made with American labor, that means more to me then where the nuts and bolts are made and where the corporate head quarters is.

My friend is a big Land Rover enthusiast. The Brits originally made them to be rugged and able to have major maintenance done on them with just a few wrenches in the middle of the desert. Now that Ford owns them, much like Volvo, they are a far cry from what them popular.
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Actually I was reading in a recent "popular mechanics" an article where they took the new Corvette on a cross country road trip, and it averaged close to 30MPG... I don't remember the exact numbers, but they were very impressive for a 400 HP vehicle.

I don't think there really is a problem with spending too much money on a car if you make that much money, and indeed its the vehicle you want. If you buy a Corvette, your more then likely going to open it up and use the power of the vehicle on occasion. Where as the Hummer which is primarily built as an all-terrain off road vehicle generally does not end up transversing the back country by the wealthy business people who own it. Unlike the corvette which does get decent gas mileage when your not doing top speed runs down High Point rd, the Hummer does not get better gas mileage if you don't use it outside of its performance specifications.

Its like getting a gold toilet. It won't work no better then a porcelain one, but it sure will cost a whole lot more.