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HUMMER H3
Everything they said was true – this third-generation model is like nothing else on earth

Every SUV manufacturer makes you the same vague promise of creating your own road. Everyone delivers, sort of, because our ideas of 'off-road' usually involve a dirt track at the minimum. So while we were impressed with its imposing size and rather fantastic looks, we still expected a regular 4WD course when the dealer told us they'd marked one through the fringes of Ghubrah. But there was none, and we stopped where the road ended, unsure of what to do. The problem was, we were still thinking like regular people, with a regular 4WD.

But nothing about the Hummer has ever been regular. First developed for the American military, the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV) quickly earned the nickname 'Humvee.' Like the Jeep made legendary in WWII, the Humvee drew so much admiration in service it eventually trickled down to the civilian market as the Hummer. Now manufactured by General Motors, it is at its most accessible with the latest model, the H3. This third generation vehicle addresses all the drawbacks you could think of with a Hummer, and irons out any excuses you would have for not
buying one now.

Consider the H2 that you could can walk in to the showroom and take for a spin. It is so big and so expensive you'll first have to think of its urban practicality before you even begin to comprehend its off-road capability. It might be the real thing – with tyres that can be inflated or deflated from the cockpit – but can you handle it?

But the H3 – fondly called the 'baby Hummer' – is the size of a large SUV, and its base price is astonishingly low for a vehicle with such history and reputation. For RO12,000 you might have to settle for manual gearing, a lack of trimming and no frills, but
honestly, would you want a Hummer any other way? One of the most capable 4WD vehicles in the world shouldn't be fiddled around with too much. At the end of our drive, we couldn't remember what the inside looked like – we were just so amazed at where it had taken us.

And that's how we found ourselves at the base of the hill, staring up at a slope of loose stone, over which you'd find it difficult to walk let alone drive. Unless instructed to try it out by the Hummer representative we would never have dreamt of going there – but we double-checked and he was blasé enough. The baby Hummer didn't miss a heartbeat. And we didn't feel a thing. This little monster just goes and does whatever you demand of it – we guarantee that you'll run out of guts before it does. Rocks crumbled underneath as we drove up a sheer hillside, down a wadi and around and about the dirt and rock.

Don't get carried away by emotion – just look at the numbers. The H3 can climb a 16-inch vertical wall, scale a 60 per cent grade, traverse a 40 per cent side slope and plough through 24 inches of water. And do all this while loaded up to capacity. Behind it all is its powertrain-integrated, two-speed electronically-controlled full time 4WD. With its traction control system activated, an H3 with three spinning wheels can even move up a ten per cent incline. But what Hummer is really roaring about as its trump card is its crawl ratio. With its optional off-road suspension package, this ratio is 68.9:1 with manual transmission. That means that for every 68.9 revolutions of the engine the tyres rotate only once. Such mind-boggling control is at the core of such otherworldly capability.

In the end, your choice is a simple one. The only reason you would not buy it is if you want to parallel park in city parking lots, or will never get much off the beaten track. Buy the Hummer for what it is meant for – anything less is a waste. Its capability shamed us into submission, and you will become an instant convert too.