| Hats off to Hummers |
|
General Motors is to spend some serious money on a new advertising campaign for its Hummer SUV range. Hummer Marketing Director, Megan Stooke, is reported in Automotive News as saying that the war in Iraq and growing environmental concerns has led the Hummer to be seen as “…an icon for all things evil.” The new campaign hopes to counteract the negative image by promoting ‘Hummer Heroes’ – people who have used their Hummers as ‘…a force for good’. As an example, Stooke cites the comment of an owner who used her Hummer to deliver water to victims of Hurricane Katrina: “Nobody asked me then what kind of fuel economy I was getting.” Mark LaNeve, General Motors’ vice president of North American sales, service and marketing, says Hummers “….are designed to do a very specific task. They are what they are because they can do what they can do.” I utterly concur with LaNeve’s sentiment. I drive the UK equivalent of a Hummer, namely a V8 Range Rover (that’s my car in the picture). In the past couple of years I have lifted a mountain-biker with a broken ankle from a remote area of a country park to a waiting ambulance; I have towed a broken-down motor-cycle from a mud-laden green lane to a waiting AA van; I have given a lift to a bewildered and frightened family who were lost after dark in heavily forested uplands; and I have towed another 4×4 containing a boorish and ungrateful man, his wife and toddler, out of an isolated gravel pit in which he was stranded through sheer incompetence. And there are thousands like me, using their large 4×4s for official, unofficial and voluntary rescue work, and it’s about time tree-huggers realised that not all off-roaders are mere status symbols, and that many of them are used to provide a service – often unpaid – for which no other vehicle is suitable. Hats off to Hummers, I say.
|
extra cool post
http://www.tengears.com
james | 15 Nov 07 - 4:16True enough, However, I find the image of driving a war vehicle in town to be disrespectful. I have no problom with Land Rover’s they are honest and useful machines that can do almost everything, despite poor mileage and emissons. The H2s windows (originally designed to hide soldiers from bullits in the field) make for poor visability. The Quality is also very poor, as is the interior and brakes.
James | 17 Nov 07 - 1:18I fully agree with you Graham…. A close Friend/Colleague of mine runs a Turbo Diesel Land Rover Defender, and he has rescued numerous vehicles, both on and off-road by towing them to safety, including a Fiat Bravo GT which I owned a few years ago after it suffered a massive engine overheat.
AlfaMartini | 24 Nov 07 - 6:02Hummers are dreadful and rightly maligned. They are far too large, which gives them the dominating air of bravura desired by the insecure and fragile. They are also too large too fit down most trails, they cant turn around in town let alone on a trail. They tend to bash their way through and over things. They are exceptionally ugly. Poorly equipped. Unsafe. Difficult of access. They have exceptionally poor visibility. They have surprisingly little inside space, and not enough carrying capacity for their size.
Peter Pan | 25 Jan 08 - 8:45Consider, if you will, the lily in the field (aka Range Rover)
Compare them side by side and realise they are apparently both vehicles.The Rangie is a piece of work, the Hummer is a piece of