They were everywhere two decades ago. I get people have moved on to SUVs. But even before gas prices spiked, I can’t remember the last time I saw one. It’s not like people suddenly became way nicer and are planning to unite mankind under a banner of happiness and lollipops.
Are they really that hard to repair? You’d think a few would still be in the mix…
They weren’t everywhere two decades ago where I lived, either.
Hmm, I’d say I still see the original on the road (in DFW), but very rarely. I think there’s a person in a nearby neighborhood that owns one, I know that there was one in a nearby neighborhood when I lived in Ft. Worth about five years ago. I see the other two civilian iterations about as much as I do the original, but probably slightly more often.
That said, I see very few 20 year old cars on the road these days compared to the number of similarly aged cars I saw in the 80s. What I am surprised by is the number of 30 and 40, and even 50+ year old cars I see on the road now. I still see cars from the 80s, 70s and 60s on the road, several each week. In the 80s, I can remember seeing exactly one car from the 40s on the road, none from the 30s. I met the guy who owned the 40s Pontiac I saw. He had swapped the flathead for an OHV Chrysler engine (probably a slant 6, but I don’t trust my memory).
But yeah, I’m not that surprised that a rare-ish 20 year old vehicle is thin on the ground these days. Even here, a 20 year old Ford Ranger is kind of a surprise to see. On the other hand, a 20 year old F150 or C1500 doesn’t take too long to spot.
There were 11,818 original H1 Hummers produced between 1992 and 2006, with probably a good chunk less than 10,000 still on the road. I suspect a fairly large percentage are in the field for more technical use and aren’t being used as regular passenger cars that you’d encounter as a daily driver.
Over 150,000 H2 Hummers (based on a more mainstream GM truck) were made between 2002 and 2009.
My recollection of the trajectory of H1 sales was that there was a large initial splash for a 5-ish years while they were the “in” fad car for the “screw you” brigade to drive, then sales tapered off a lot for the rest of the production run.
Point being, the bulk of H1s are pre-1997 and hence now 30+ years old. As noted above, 30+ year old cars are very thin on the ground nearly everywhere. Since it was at that time an AMC product, I have my doubts about durability and subsequent parts support.
Aside:
Since 2022 GMC has been producing a GMC Hummer EV - Wikipedia. So the brand name lives on even if it has zero in common with the original military Humvee or the civilian semi-lookalike H1.
There are also broadly similar Chevy, GMC, and Cadillac branded EVs, but it’s unclear to me how much they’re the same or different from the “Hummer” flavor.
I think this would be a huge part of it. There was nothing about them that was actually that practical for the average driver. They were just fashionable. And there is nothing so intensely unfashionable as something that used to be intensely fashionable.
They’re also the sort of thing that a few collector people might well keep alive and drive occasionally.
But they’re absolutely positively not the sort of 15yo car a poor person working a min wage job might buy off some scruffy used car lot. And even more so once it’s a 25yo car being bought private party from some other poor person.
I think part of the issue there really has not been much cosmetic changes in the way cars look in the past 20 years—at least not as noticeable than the way car looked in 1986 compared to 1966.
For example, I couldn’t tell the difference between 2006 Honda Accord and 2026 Honda Accord without looking closely.
Compare with Range Rovers, which typically develop obscure electrical faults after five years that are very difficult to cure.
Would have been nice to press [Enter] after I typed this last night
On top of that the H1, & to some extent the H2 (priced comparably to a Cadillac Escalade) were marketed as luxury vehicles. Cost of a new H1 20 years ago would be equivalent to over $200,000 in today’s dollars. People who could afford that certainly could afford newer toys than a 20 yo vehicle. I was in one a couple of times, they were wide & loud; not great for having a conversation while driving. They also got horrible gas mileage; while anyone paying that much for a new car probably doesn’t care about the cost to fill the take, someone buying it used probably would be more likely to care about the operating costs.
While there were many military ones made, there were < 12,000 civilian H1s sold. With that small of a market & how old they are, replacement parts are probably hard to come by, whether that’s a fender after an accident or a gasket that is worn out (though probably less likely to occur due to I’m sure most of them were carefully maintained & garage kept).
There are a number of fire companies that have them as a brush / off-road apparatus that still exist but wouldn’t necessarily be on the road, per se because they mostly sit in the firehouse
They look quite pricey online today. I see a lot of them for sale between $100k and $200k; mostly late model years. I think you’re spot-on – there are a lot better options in that price range today.
Are you sure? In the 80s, 20-year-old cars were from the 60s. 1960s cars looked very different from 1980s cars. But my 20-year-old car looks much like modern cars. I’m sure an afficionado could recognize “Oh, that’s a Toyota Camry from the mid-00s”, but it in no way stands out. Well, I suppose it’s not an SUV, but it doesn’t stand out from any of the other non-SUVs on the road today.
The Hummer H1 definitely stands out from other cars and trucks.
I think Lucas sells a Universal Electrical System Smoke Replacement kit.
I do know someone who owns a HMMWV, but it was military surplus; a bare-bones model & probably beat to shit before he bought it. The H1 was the civilian version of the HMMWV
I see one every now and then.
But, this is Arizona. I see one-owner 1961 chevys with original paint driving around, too.
I don’t see a lot of any 30 year old luxury cars on the road. Cars of that vintage are kept on the road largely through the efforts of people who have to (or like to) economize..An expensive used car that is probably also difficult or expensive to maintain - not to mention fuel - is a non-starter.
I know what happened to one of them. The first Hummer arrived in Anchorage when I lived there. One of the employees at the dealership took it out for a drive and totaled it.
Maybe Arnie is losing his sex appeal:
ETA: apparently, paywalled (for me, too), but you get the idea.
I had a military license for the H1. It was so wide that on local city streets and highways it was challenging just to drive and maneuver around traffic. I imagine most of any remaining H1s today are used in the field and on farms. It has been several years since I’ve seen an H1 on the streets. They’re not very fun to drive for civilian use.
I have a friend I served with who bought one long ago. I haven’t talked with him in years but I’ll ask him if he still has it.