HUMMER? I HARDLY KNOW HER
Feb. 26th, 2010 12:31 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogI guess I should say something about the demise of The Hummer, seeing as how I got to drive the pre-commercial version.
I was in the Army once, you see. And my primary job was driving and looking after the squad M151 Jeep. Shortly before Iwas kicked out left, the Army decided to start swapping out the Jeeps for the Humvee (or, as we never called it, the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV).
I forget the reasoning they gave us for the switch, but the general pitch was something like: “It’s bigger, it runs on diesel and it’s not 20 years old like that M151. Go play.”
Close enough, Jim.
I took it on one field maneuver, and we really put it through its off-road paces. (No one ever said it wasn’t fun to stress-test govt vehicles.) In the end I thought it was a fun new piece of equipment, but the only real advantages were that it was newer and you could fit more stuff in it. And it was less likely to flip over like the M151. The automatic transmission was not an improvement, for my money.
Anyway, that was my experience with it. So I was rather amused – though not surprised – when AM General released a civilian version (which, supposedly, was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s idea).
I never wanted one, myself. I thought it was way too big for the roads, a pain to park, and yes, the gas mileage sucked. I could see getting one if you worked on a ranch or otherwise did a lot of off-road driving. But not if you were a soccer mom. Or a rap artist.
So naturally they became hot items. Especially after 9/11, for reasons I still don’t quite understand.
“Fight al Qaeda by purchasing the biggest gas-guzzling American-made car possible! If yr not driving a Hummer, yr with the terrorists!”
Then the stupid liberals made up stupid global warming and ruined it for everyone and that’s how Hummers lost the War On Terrorz. The end. Stupid libtards.
Something like that.
Anyway, I’m not particularly sorry to see them go. But then cars stopped being cool since 1977, so I would say that, wouldn’t I?
Fill ‘er up,
This is dF
I was in the Army once, you see. And my primary job was driving and looking after the squad M151 Jeep. Shortly before I
I forget the reasoning they gave us for the switch, but the general pitch was something like: “It’s bigger, it runs on diesel and it’s not 20 years old like that M151. Go play.”
Close enough, Jim.
I took it on one field maneuver, and we really put it through its off-road paces. (No one ever said it wasn’t fun to stress-test govt vehicles.) In the end I thought it was a fun new piece of equipment, but the only real advantages were that it was newer and you could fit more stuff in it. And it was less likely to flip over like the M151. The automatic transmission was not an improvement, for my money.
Anyway, that was my experience with it. So I was rather amused – though not surprised – when AM General released a civilian version (which, supposedly, was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s idea).
I never wanted one, myself. I thought it was way too big for the roads, a pain to park, and yes, the gas mileage sucked. I could see getting one if you worked on a ranch or otherwise did a lot of off-road driving. But not if you were a soccer mom. Or a rap artist.
So naturally they became hot items. Especially after 9/11, for reasons I still don’t quite understand.
“Fight al Qaeda by purchasing the biggest gas-guzzling American-made car possible! If yr not driving a Hummer, yr with the terrorists!”
Then the stupid liberals made up stupid global warming and ruined it for everyone and that’s how Hummers lost the War On Terrorz. The end. Stupid libtards.
Something like that.
Anyway, I’m not particularly sorry to see them go. But then cars stopped being cool since 1977, so I would say that, wouldn’t I?
Fill ‘er up,
This is dF
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East, Bound and Down....
on 2010-02-26 05:30 am (UTC)no subject
on 2010-02-26 02:04 pm (UTC)