Hummin' down the highway

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 25, 1997 | by Peter Kaplan, | Eric Peters

Marc Barnes of Washington admits his new Hummer isn't practical. It gets 10 miles per gallon and its 8-foot width makes parking a problem. "You've got to pay attention when you're going down the street because there's no room for error," says Barnes.

Commuting to work in a Hummer is like waterskiing behind a tugboat. It's probably more equipment than you need for the job. But that hasn't deterred the growing number of people who are plunking down as much as $66,000 for a commercial model of the 3-ton military transport.

More and more Hummers can be spotted cruising city streets as the truck becomes a favorite of off-road enthusiasts and wealthy attention-seekers. Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger has five. Basketball star Dennis Rodman has one, too, and so does fellow NBA player Chris Webber.

The workhorse of the 1989 Persian Gulf War is like a Jeep on steroids. Its 6.5-liter diesel engine can pull it up the steepest mountain slopes; its gear-driven wheels can propel it over giant boulders; and its fat frame guarantees it won't ever roll over -- although you might have problems getting it into your garage.

Indiana defense contractor A.M. General Corp. has been hawking the vehicle to the civilian market since 1992. The commercial version rolls off the same assembly line as the military's Humvees, with some interior modifications to make them a little more civilian-friendly. (Options include air conditioning, a CD player, a 12,000-pound electric winch and a dashboard switch that inflates or deflates the Hummer's tires without stopping.) Fifty-three dealers in the United States and Canada and another 20 overseas reportedly sold a record 1,400 civilian vehicles last year.

The vehicle inspires fierce loyalty among a small group of devotees. About 100 of them have even formed a Hummer Club and stage annual driveathonsin Moab, Utah. About a dozen corporations ranging from Nike and Masterlock to Mountain Dew and Gatorade are using the Hummers' tough-guy image to hawk their products. "There's a lot of businesses that see this as a mobile billboard, and they're using it that way," says Glen Cardelino, a Hummer salesman with a dealership in Maryland.

Some people buy the Hummer for both business and pleasure. "There's no one who doesn't look at it" says Barnes, who parks his Hummer in front of his nightclub on the district's trendy U Street. "When you come down the street, I don't care what's next to you, a Lamborghini Diablo, they're going to look at the Hummer. Everybody wants to get in it, everyone wants to cruise."

But does anyone buy the Hummer for purely practical purposes? A.M. General spokesman Craig MacNab insists that the answer is yes: fire-fighters, for example, or doctors who live in remote, isolated regions. But most just like it for what it is -- big and ugly. "There are people who say, `It's expensive and it's strange" " says MacNab. "That's part of what we tell people when we sell the vehicle. There are people who really like that."