DETROIT — Snap a salute at the General, whose military-styled Hummer H2 looks to be a legitimate, four-wheeling hit.
Seems General Motors Corp. can do no wrong in trucks these days. And the 2003 Hummer H2 starts with the proven GMT800 chassis of the Chevrolet Tahoe and other full-size GM sport-utility vehicles.
That chassis has been stretched and toughened to lift the Hummer brand from an expensive novelty to a truck for the masses, without losing its uncompromising off-road ability. With a new plant and UAW work force in Mishawaka, Ind., GM and partner AM General can build 40,000 H2s annually, including a pickup version due in 2004.
The original Hummer debuted as a 1991 model, AM General's civilian version of its military Humvee. Despite lavish publicity, some fueled by high-profile enthusiast Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Hummer H1 was never a truck for real people. It was a six-figure toy for overgrown boys.
The H2 offers vastly improved highway comfort and civility, with near-equal off-road capability. With a base tag of $48,800, less than half the H1's price, expect the Pvt. Walter Mittys of America to sign up.
The H2 certainly looks the martial part: massively scaled, brutally rectilinear, with a near-vertical windshield and relatively tiny glass areas. All that's missing are camouflage and gun mounts.
A handful of Hummerphiles have groused that the H2 is just a Tahoe with a Hummer body on top. Although 40 percent of their parts are the same, that's not the case. As Schwarzenegger himself warned in his Bavarian accent during a tour of the Hummer plant, "Don't call zis ze 'Baby Hummer.' You might make it maaad."
The H2 actually is five inches longer and an inch taller than the H1, but almost three feet narrower. Ground clearance is 10 inches, versus the H1's 16.
GM extended the H2's wheelbase to 112.5 inches, nearly seven inches longer than the Tahoe's. More importantly, it chopped eight inches from the front and nearly two from the rear, for an overall length about nine inches shorter than the Chevy. In other words, the H2 has the extremely short body overhangs necessary for dipping into insanely deep holes and hopping huge obstacles without bashing a bumper.
Underneath, steel skid plates and welded box sections protect the H2 when it's scraping over boulders the size of Miatas. Rocker panel protectors bolt directly to the frame, and a heavy plastic shield protects the gas tank.
The underbody armor was well-tested in South Bend, Ind., at a daunting obstacle and off-road course where Hummer personnel put the U.S. military, along with several allies, through driver's ed. At this former hunting preserve for the Studebaker family, whose auto factory once operated nearby, the H2 proved it's the real off-road deal.
The H2 relies on GM's excellent Vortec 6.0-liter V8, with 316 horsepower and 360 foot-pounds of stump-pulling torque.
But the H2's full-time four-wheel drive is unique. The Borg-Warner system's four driving modes cover every imaginable driving condition.
It splits power 40-60 between front and rear wheels in the "high open" mode you use in everyday driving. Or you can lock the front and rear wheels if traction gets truly dicey.
Drop down into low range, and you're ready for extreme use, with a 33:1 crawl ratio that lets the Hummer climb and descend rugged slopes like a steroid-addled mountain goat.
Finally, an electronic rear differential lets you lock the rear axle shafts so they rotate at the same speed, making it easy to get light wheel spin when you want to power out of the slop. A special traction control mode allows a bit more slip before reining in the wheels.
Add it up, and you have a true truck that can venture where many four-wheel-drives fear to tread, let alone car-based softies like the Toyota Highlander.
It's amazing how four-wheeling at 3 mph can be as much fun as driving on a racetrack at 100.
Along the Hummer gauntlet, we dropped the front end into gullies so deep you'd swear the truck was about to perch on its front end, then eased up the other side without a scratch. On deep-rutted climbs, with one wheel pointing skyward and two others slipping in mud, the single-wheel traction control delivered enough torque to the lone gripping wheel to power up the slope.
It helps that the H2 is shod with 17-inch wheels and 35-inch tall, 315/70R/17 tires, the largest ever on a GM passenger vehicle.
OK, I know what you're thinking. When am I ever going to encounter that kind of mud, slime and treachery, other than a state political campaign?
Well, perhaps never. But that's mostly beside the point.
Even Hummer says only 10 or 15 percent of H2 buyers will ever sample the off-road menu.
But if you need the capability, it's reassuringly there.
It's certainly worth asking how the H2 fares outside its natural element, as in the driving you do 99 percent of the time.
The answer is, not bad at all. But don't expect it to ride and handle like a sedan. Or even a highway-centric sport-utility like its Tahoe sibling, which has milder tires and weighs about 1,400 pounds less. The laws of physics still rule that a 6,400-plus-pound fortress on wheels won't stop, go and turn like a 90-pound figure skater. With a gross vehicle weight rating of 8,600 pounds, the H2 is a Class III heavy-duty truck not subject to EPA fuel-economy standards. But figure about 11 miles per gallon in combined city and highway driving.
The massive rubber and wind-blocker shape create more tire and wind noise, respectively, than a typical truck. But the cabin volume isn't too unpleasant and nothing like the high-decibel assault of the original Hummer.
The ride and steering are easily acceptable by big-truck standards, but the H2 can feel oafish out of its comfort zone. There's plenty of body lean in turns, and the steering wanders a bit at cruising speeds.
The interior? Again, acceptable, but it certainly pales before the audacious exterior. Engineers say they focused the big development bucks on the structure and performance, but you wish some cash had been left over for a truly distinctive interior design.
If the view within is adequate, the view without is another question. The tiny window areas turn the H2 into a giant blind spot, with limited visibility out the back and around the flanks.
Final judgment?
It's pretty clear the vast majority of consumers want sport-utilities designed for the highway first. But a vocal minority still demand genuine four-wheelers.
In a world of sport-utility poseurs, the H2 will make a certain type of recruit snap to attention.
Pros and cons of the 2003 Hummer H2
Rating: HHH (out of four).
The ultimate adventure vehicle goes mainstream, can still handle raging streams.
Bragging points: Commando styling. Unmatched off-road skills. Acceptable highway ride and passenger comfort. Half the price of original Hummer.
Nagging points: Gargantuan weight, lumbering handling. Predictable General Motors interior, unsupportive seats. Thirsty for fuel. Poor rearward visibility.
Base price: $48,800 As tested: $52,370.