We love our Hummer H3 but this one’s all about brand perception and high gas prices, folks. Hardly a day goes by where we don’t have to correct someone about the gas mileage of our H3. People automatically assume that it has gas mileage numbers hovering around 8 or 9 miles per gallon when it actually has better gas mileage than the Jeep Liberty that Natalie drove for years – a vehicle that people assumed got significantly better gas mileage than it actually did. My how timing really is everything.
With the switch to more fuel-efficient utility vehicles built on car chassis (read STATION WAGONS) rather than those which trucks are based on, it may have only been a matter of time before this was going to happen anyway. It just seems to me that GM could produce a niche level of the H2 and/or H3 to harness the still present off-roading consumers who are going to be quickly running out of options when it comes to buying something new. It looks to me that GM is surrendering that completely to Jeep and, if so, Jeep brand managers should be sending GM gift baskets and thank you notes as it may be THE niche that keeps that entire Chrysler affair alive.
Or… does GM have a play up its sleeve for later? What if GM lets the hummer brand disappear for a while until they can get righted (assuming they can) and eventually buys Jeep (or the government rolls Jeep into GM, however you would want to look at that) which is the only seemingly viable part of the Chrysler group? I don’t know but I just have a hard time coming to grips with a total lack of off-road capable vehicles with the exception of trucks.
For what it’s worth, again, The H3 has been a great ride for us – it gave us the space we were after while staying reasonable in size and a small boost to fuel economy over our Jeep Liberty. Our lease is almost up so we’re going to have to figure out what to do with our vehicles promptly. I suppose we could buy the thing, but that might be difficult to justify financially. Oh well, all things change. If they didn’t they would just stay the same.
