Or both? What percentage of these overpriced, wasteful examples of in-yo-face consumption ever actually see an unpaved road?
Gee, sounds like a “Great Debate” to me. Haven’t we done this before, every month, for the last 3 years?
I vote for stupid.
Several months ago I pulled into the local Wild Oats store and found a woman in an H2 unsuccessfully trying to pull out of her parking space. The parking lot is small–a consequence of the neighborhood and the configuration of the lot–but after watching her pull point after point without making any progress for about three minutes I finally got out of my car and knocked on her window, figuring that I’d offer to direct her out. I ended up deparking the stupid thing myself (after four or five maneuvers), with her sitting beside me constantly bitching about how the parking lot was “too small.” Right, okay.
And the thing is a piece of shit; this is a new one and yet already decals are falling off the dash and one of the front brakes is grinding. Most of them I’ve seen on the road have some decorative item flaking off. I’ve driven the original AM General HMMVV, which was had a reputation as a bitch of a vehicle to maintain but which handles quite well. The H2 doesn’t even compare. It is a typical GM piece of shit vehicle. (As a former driver of the Chevy Corsica and Pontiac 6000, I think I’m qualified to complain about the quality of GM products.)
For US$50k I’d much rather drop the bundle on a Toyota Land Cruiser. It’s still a massively overpriced vehicle that most owners will never take off-road, but at least it’s a well-designed ego-bauble. The Hummer is just an overhyped piece of crap.
Stranger
Who cares if any SUV sees unpaved road? Let people buy what they want, free market, free society and all that.
How about people who drive around in giant RVs? Or people who fly first class, thereby burning 66% more fuel for their trip than those in coach? How about the people who have big houses, or speedboats, or who fly their family overseas every year on a huge fuel-burning jet?
Should we just hate them all?
Hummer drivers are stupid. It’s BMW drivers who are evil.
I think Hummers are pretty cool. Like Ferrari’s, I’d own one just 'cause I liked it.
Don’t care about driving Lemans or off-road.
In this case…yes. I hate those bastards blocking the highway and wavering across two or three lanes in their RVs.
In the case of H2 and H3 Hummers, not only are they an egregious example of excess, they’re also a poorly designed piece of crap. And the people who pay outrageous prices for them are, well, stupid.
Don’t even get me started on people who think Mercedes builds infallible cars. And while, as Beware of Doug suggests, most BMW owners are, in fact, servants of Satan, they are impressively performing (if not especially reliable) machines.
Stranger
That’s a pretty sweet mark of the beast.
Anyway, provided that the Hummer owner can actually drive the thing well enough not to get me killed, why should I care? I think they’re the biggest waste of money on the road, but it’s not my money being wasted.
I’m waiting till they come out with the Mini- Cooper that has the Photon Torpedo launcher mounted on its hood.
That way, every time up pull up behind a Hummer you could just blow the fucker to smithereens!
Size matters indeed…
(Seriously though, I have no problem with Hummer or their drivers in general.
I feel compelled to share a humorous anecdote.
I was walkling across a parking lot the other day with an intelligent, well-educated (MFA) freind. She sees a Toyota 4Runner – a fairly large fullsize SUV –
and walks over to look at it, saying that she really likes this car, it looks nice, etc. Then, with alarm, she stops and says “Wait … is this an SUV?”
(Incredulously, after a pause) “Um, yeah.”
“Oh. Well, forget that; they’re terrible. I’ve done a lot of reading about them and they’re just bad in every way.”
What makes this amusing is not the fact that she was convinced SUVs were horrible without being really sure what they were; it’s that I drive a Jeep Wrangler, which she has ridden in, and yet I don’t think it dawned on her (and hopefully never will) that that was an SUV.
Just as a general rule of thumb…I like to believe that the cost of one’s vehicle is inversely proportional to one’s dick size.
The few that are around here are amusing to watch when the driver manages to get himself stuck between buildings because the street is simply too small for a car that size to be on. Other than that, I don’t much beyond eye-rolling annoyance at people who buy cars that can’t be driven on 90% of the roads without taking up a second lane.
I don’t care about the people in first class, I’m pissed at the guy sitting next to me in coach who’s so huge that half my seat is being covered by his ass. It’s not jealousy at people who spend more money, it’s annoyance at people who have chosen (make what excuses you want about the guy on the plane, nobody’s forced to buy a Hummer) to become a hazard and inconvenience for everyone else on the road.
There was an interesting comment in Car & Driver (which leans strongly toward free-market libertarianism when they do touch on politics) when they reviewed the H3 in August. Reviewer Aaron Robinson: “For me, playing GI Joe in a pseudo Jeep is just uncomfortable while real soldiers are dying in the real thing.”
Nyeh. Toss me in the 'let ‘em spend their money where they want’ camp. I wouldn’t drive one and I think purchasing one is one of those undignified conspicuous consumption status things but I wouldn’t stop anyone from doing it.
Which is why I’m tooling around town in my Matchbox car.
Maybe I haven’t had enough caffeine yet, and there’s a really good possibility I’m about to whoosh myself, but . . . I’m pretty sure the folks in first class are using exactly the same amount of fuel as those in coach.
Pretty sure . . .
I saw a Hummer this morning on my commute and was wondering why someone needs a vehicle that big. It’s irritating enough trying to see around a van or an average SUV, but these things are even worse to see around, plus they just seem unnecessary. As I was mumbling curse words at his obnoxious ass, I thought of The Pit, but realized that we’ve “been there, done that” as the kids say these days.
Oh you had a Crapsica, too? I hated that piece of crap.
So if mine was free, I guess that would mean my dick is of infinite size. 
Matchbox car? I’ve got one of those cotton-reel/rubber band/matchstick contraptions. 
(plus a trailer for m’ trouser snake, you understand)
For those in the hate-it column, I’d recommend googling “killedit.wmv” Nothing quite as funny as watching a factory Hummer snap its front axle like the Thanksgiving wishbone when it attempts off-roading.
Last night I reformatted my hard drives. That video made it onto a transfer/archive disc.