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The Hummer's Dead End?
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We would be remiss if we did not mention the Hummer's role in disaster relief. A group called HOPE, Hummer Owners Prepared for Emergencies, used their vehicles for what they were intended -- extreme conditions -- by helping the Red Cross ferry medical supplies and other aid around New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. A Hummer can cross two feet of water which, you must admit, is pretty cool.
But few Hummers have been put to such tests. They're more likely to be sighted, spotless and bone-dry, rolling up to a red carpet in Hollywood, disgorging an underfed starlet or an alpha-dog executive.
The Hummer has won a place in the culture, appearing in "The Simpsons," "The X-Files" and "24." The Hummer 1 carbon-bootprinted its way through some "Jurassic Park" films, a poetically appropriate casting considering the 7,000-pound vehicle's engine was burning up what used to be dinosaurs.
North American sales of the Hummer family peaked at 75,939 vehicles in 2006, according to Ward's AutoInfoBank data. The drop since then has been precipitous, no doubt owing to high gas prices and social shaming. This year, only about 3,000 H2s have been sold. (At $4 per gallon, the $57,000 H2's tank costs $128 to fill.)
So, the Hummer may go the way of the brontosaurus and other lumbering herbivores, actual and metaphorical, all grazing peacefully in the growing shadow of the incoming meteor.
But if you think Detroit is in danger of "getting it," fear not: The coming months will bring us a brand new pony car war, straight from the ecologically sensitive days of 36-cent gas in 1970!
In something like a glorious death rattle, Chrysler's Dodge is releasing an updated version of its famed Challenger, the soul of which is a 425-horsepower V-8 engine that probably makes the hood torque when you gun the throttle in neutral. GM's Chevrolet is joining this Cold War face-off with some impressive throw-weight of its own, a pending re-do of the Camaro, with 400 horses underfoot. (Italian horn necklace: not included.)
