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Members of the 2005 Detroit News Automotive Consumer Panel test the Hummer H3 on a large rock course at the General Motors Proving Ground in Milford.Product preview
Baby Hummer H3 lives up to family's rugged heritage
Panel: Greatest selling points are boxy lines, broad shoulders
The Hummer takes a steep hill at the proving ground. The five-cylinder H3 gets 16 miles per gallon in city driving.What the panelists liked:
• Finally, an affordable Hummer
• It has the unmistakable look of a Hummer
• Excellent off-road performance
• Good everyday driver
• Standard safety features like antilock brakes and traction controll; easy to handle
• 4-year/50,000-mile warranty
What the panelists disliked:
• Disappointing gas mileage
• Visibility issues
• Cramped rear seat
• Lack of convenience features like steering wheel controls, overhead storage, rear-seat DVD entertainment system
• Not a lot of space in cargo hold
The panelists, who range in age from 17 to 56, peek inside the H3 before their test-drive. Only two said they wouldn't consider buying a Hummer.
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MILFORD -- Dr. Hamish Carpenter, a 36-year-old dentist from West Bloomfield, piloted a 2006 Hummer H3 through the challenging off-road course here at the General Motors Proving Ground and emerged from the bright yellow sport utility vehicle with a smile.
On this May evening, the H3 had navigated large rocks with barely a shudder, tackled a pea-gravel pit that mimicked deep sand with ease and scaled a series of concrete steps.
"You don't feel like obstacles will overwhelm you," said Carpenter, brushing dust off his slacks. "The H3 has the maneuverability of a car and the ruggedness of a truck without feeling like it's bulky. It represents the ideal size for everyday driving."
Carpenter, a member of the 2005 Detroit News Automotive Consumer Panel, was not alone in his assessment of the latest Hummer, the one that GM likes to describe as the "affordable, approachable Hummer."
A majority of the panelists who test-drove the five-passenger H3 with standard four-wheel-drive said they would consider buying one and said they would recommend the smallest Hummer to their friends and neighbors.
The H3 is on sale now, starting at $29,500, including a $565 destination charge. That's a real bargain, panelists said, especially when you compare it to the Ferrari of Hummers -- the massive H1-- which starts at $129,399.
The panelists said the H3's greatest selling point is that with its boxy lines and broad shoulders, it looks like a Hummer. The H3 is nearly 17 inches shorter than the full-size H2 SUV. The H3 is powered by a 3.5-liter I-5 engine that makes 220 horsepower and 225 pounds-feet of torque.
"They've got a winner," said William O. Lee, 46, a Detroit resident who works as a data processing program analyst for the city.
"They are going to sell a lot. The price is right, and you can tell from a distance that it's a Hummer."
The only two panelists who said they wouldn't buy the H3 were two women in their thirties, a critical group that Hummer has its eye on as it rolls out its first mass-market offering.
"I don't like the flat lines and tank-like appearance of the vehicle," wrote Lora Leneschmidt, a 32-year-old stay-at-home mom from South Lyon, in her evaluation. "Also, I like a fancier interior."
Leneschmidt was not happy with the fuel economy in the mid-size H3, which she said was similar to what she gets in her full-size Ford Expedition.
The five-cylinder H3 with the automatic transmission gets 16 miles per gallon in city driving and 19 miles on the highway. The EPA says a full-size Expedition with a 5.4-liter V-8 engine gets 14 miles per gallon in city driving and 18 mpg on the highway.
Canton private detective Nancy Rovik, 38, griped that the H3 was impractical and that she'd only buy it "if I lived Up North in the woods and did a lot of camping and towing of boats."
Part of Rovik's test of the H3 included pretending to install a child-safety seat in the cramped rear seat.
"I can't see loading a child in here," she said. "There's not enough space."
"And that's a stupid spot for the rear cupholder," Rovik added, pointing to the rear cupholder that is built into the bottom cushion of the back seat and flips open between the legs of the middle-seat passenger.
The panelists, who range in age from 17 to 56, drove a small fleet of H3s, including models with the five-speed manual transmission and those with the four-speed automatic transmission -- during a three-hour event here.
Besides going off-roading, they took the vehicles on a short highway loop set up within the proving ground. The majority of the panel had never been off-roading. None was a Hummer owner.
The phrase that kept coming up again and again in conversations with the panelists and in their written evaluations was that the H3 seemed "more manageable" than its bigger siblings, the H1 and H2.
"The handling was great," said Reginald Alexander, 41, a Detroit resident who owns a commercial and residential painting business. "The turn radius surprised me. The original Hummer was a bit of a monster in size. This one is more manageable."
Paul Tassi, a 17-year-old University of Michigan sophomore who lives in Northville, used words like "domination" and "power" to describe the H3.
"People who buy cars like Hummers want to feel powerful," he wrote. "I don't think there's anything wrong with that. Hummer sells not only an image, but an idea -- power -- and lots of people will buy it just for that, including me."
It may convey a great image, but the H3 did fall short in some areas, according to the panel.
Rob Blakeley, 29, a special-education teacher who lives in Ferndale, ticked off a list of things that the H3 lacked, including steering-wheel controls, overhead storage and a grab handle on the driver's side. And he said the H3 could use more power for passing.
Carpenter wished it had a navigation system available at launch. Rovik said the lack of a rear-seat DVD entertainment system was an oversight and she wished that GM offered a hybrid gas-electric version of the H3. And almost everybody complained about the lack of space for three adults in the rear seat.
A squished Delores Hunter told another rear-seat passenger, "Your hip is on me!"
"If you don't mind touchy-touchy, it's OK," said Hunter, a 56-year-old Detroit retiree. "But this is tight back here. And besides, I had to crawl in here to get in the back seat. You need a running board, if you're a lady."
Another universal complaint was the blind spots that plagued the H3, from the windshield pillars to the rear pillars.
"I couldn't see over the nose, either," Leneschmidt said. "What if there's a little kid in front of you?"
As the panelists gathered around the H3s as the event came to a close, the consensus was that the new Hummer would hold up well in a crowded field of midsize SUVs that includes the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Toyota 4Runner, Ford Explorer, BMW X3 and Nissan Xterra.
Several panelists said the affordable Hummer gave them access to a product that usually is reserved for affluent celebrities like actor and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Panelist Blakeley best summed up the impressions of the group.
"It's a great truck," he said. "It does what most SUVs pretend to do and, besides, you could drive it every day."
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The Detroit News.
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