As bad as the H2 is, how about the H1? That's the original Humvee, and it makes the H2 look like an economy car.The barrier to entry is a bit higher, though - $100k, or very close to it. So you don't see as many of them (thank goodness).
The following is an excerpt from a Seattle Times article about SUV owners, from a couple of years ago. You should see the photo of this guy that accompanied the article - he's grey/bald/fat, his wife looks at least 25 years younger than he is and is not originally from the USA, if you know what I mean.
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The Hummer owner is Mike Paull, 48, of Seattle. He retired after 11 years at Microsoft. He has two kids from a previous marriage, and he remarried five years ago. He bought the 1999 Hummer wagon for $68,000. New ones list for $114,000. It gets 10½ miles to the gallon.
"My wife claims it was a midlife crisis — I soundly deny that!" Paull insisted. "I never lusted after a sports car. My dream was a Toyota Land Cruiser. I like to ski, enjoy camping, generally liked to travel 'the road less traveled.' "
Paull continued: "I guess I've never cared all that much about what others think of me, so the social 'stigma' of owning a large vehicle was never a consideration. Safety and stability are always major considerations when I make a vehicle purchase, and no SUV in the world has the side slope, approach or departure angle stability of the Hummer — it's a wide mother! And, at a fully loaded-out weight of close to 8,000 pounds, Newton's law makes it pretty clear who loses in case of a collision."
I asked Paull for some Hummer anecdotes.
"Well, I've had the truck egged in front of REI," he said. "And, although I try to be sensitive to the fact that I'm driving a fairly wide vehicle, people often tend to pull over for no apparent reason. The Hummer has some pretty big blind spots. On the freeway, people often tend to hang in the blind spot, looking the truck over, which could be disastrous if I were in the habit of executing lane changes without turning my head and looking back first."
There is something else that Paull said that stood out, and I think he spoke for many SUV owners: "They definitely do not have the 'My life is a failure and my name is NORMAL' stigma attached to, say, a minivan."
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My head explodes, my ears ring, I can't remember just where I've been.
posted January 12, 2004 10:49
