I remember a documentary on the civilianized H1, and this Asian business executive admitting he bought it for his wife, who classically had been in a major auto accident before because she didn’t turn her head and look before she merged or came to a T-intersection. So instead of making her take a driver safety course, he bought her a tank..
Arnold Schwarzenegger literally made a cameo in Cars movie as a 2004 Hummer Modified H1. My goodness the dots in my brain are finally connected. I didn’t realized that until this video. LOL 😂
He started the hummers being sold to civilians. He wanted one so bad he refused to take no for an answer. Thats how they know they had a market. Then being seen driving one, popularity soured. Arnold did that shit!
I live in major Yuppie Land and remember the mid '00s where Hummers were everywhere. And yeah, no one could park them. It's like how people drive these massive Yukons and it's not fun watching. Then all of a sudden, everyone was driving a Prius. So indeed, your observations are quite on the money. The same people can't park a Prius either.
I was an Army VIP driver, with over 180,000 miles logged in on the Hummer. The Army required attendance at a one week driving school, before granting authorization to drive one. It's seven feet, four inches wide, and that takes getting used to. It was plain irrisponsible to just hand one over to fools with the purchase price. They were made to go anywhere an M-1 Abrams tank could, and as fast, and most affluent silly-vilians would never use them for what they were intended for. People with more money than brains. I would never own one, the price of fuel and tires had me thanking God I wasn't paying for that! With an average of 9 to 11 miles per gallon, and a minimum of $500.00 each for Goodyear Wrangler tires, you can have it!
@@markcollins2666I was a 63B. Not sure what you had going on where you were stationed but a week driving school is excessive. It’s just a large(ish) truck. It’s not hard to drive at all except for the terrible highway handling. Tires are expensive because they are 36x16.5, not because they are Goodyear. People claiming it’s hard to drive are the same ones who couldn’t drive a F-350 (which often has a longer wheelbase. And HMMWVs aren’t nearly the off road hot rods people think. Open diffs and a heavy truck are not the recipe for “go anywhere off road and fast”. They were designed to maximize ground clearance and have redundancy. The 1097s were much better than the 998s due to the engine upgrade. Still, they didn’t go anywhere “fast”.
When I graduated high school I worked at Honda as a porter in the late 2000s the amount of Hummers we had as trade ins for crv, pilots and accords was insane. We had so many we had to auction off some of them. Our used car lot looked like a Hummer dealership.
@@aljaberhk it was related to Hummers being bad vehicles, overpriced and under performing. The H2 surged for the same reasons the Cybertruck has blown up, which is that the vehicle is seen as an exclusive status symbol, and it's visually very striking. Driving an H2 was a sign you were rich. You could afford a 100k hummer, you had so much money you didn't care about gas prices, and you were savvy enough to get the tax break on the vehicle by classifying it as farm equipment under the GWB tax code. But eventually, after a few years, other cars took the spotlight and became trendy. The brand was nothing, without the celebrity and prestige.
Military vet here. I honestly never got the fascination with the HUMV to begin with. I realize that they made some changes to make it more comfortable but you can only do so much and not completely change it. The vehicle was great for what its intended purpose was. I’ve driven these and they aren’t the easiest things to navigate on some city streets because of how narrow they can be. Because of the cost this was never going to be more than a niche vehicle because it wasn’t practical.
In the 1980s when the HUMV first came out, some of the feedback I heard (as a civilian) was that a Jeep would better serve the military in backwoods regions where vehicle width and weight would be critical, as the HUMV was just too massive and heavy to deal with those situations.
100% agreed. It's like people who want to own pet tigers as a show of power. Okay, sure, you have a tiger roaming around in your house. Cool. Impractical, but cool. Same goes for the humvee. Congrats, you have a great military vehicle with ground clearance and a wide wheel base but you can't park it in the average spot. Once those things were civilianized with plush interior, climate controls, it stopped being a humvee. I have no good memories of riding in a humvee from my time in the Army. ...or any vehicle.
My vet and NatGuard friends invariably agree that driving them at highway speeds is mildly terrifying, and none of them have ever expressed any desire to own one. I still want one, lol. Turning an ambulance or command Humvee into an overland camper is one of my dreams.
@jormungand72 I definitely get that, especially having put together ARs and having the opportunity to compare the parts directly to milspec, and collecting surplus gear ("Military Grade just means it was built by the lowest bidder" etc etc). I guess the reason I'd love a Humvee is the same reason I enjoy MREs, because it's a choice to use it, not a requirement, lol.
I wonder what it is now since Smart bit it in North America sadly enough. I know as a 2006 Smart Fortwo cdi driver. It's also a brand that needs to be revived in North America since it does small but respectable business in China and Europe though not with the obsession with a tiny peoples car like it was at the time... I purchased it for its fuel economy and quirkiness and because I didn't have Prius money at the time...
I got a Hummer h2 power wheel for my 7th birthday in 2005. I was so excited, I jumped in and took off down the street. Not knowing how to stop it, I ran over a mailbox.
1:09 - People had strong opinions about it? That's an understatement. _Consumer Reports_ , a magazine with a relentlessly "just the facts, Ma'am" attitude towards its test vehicles, tested a Hummer H2 and felt compelled to note that people on the street had a "strong reaction" to it. That was astounding. If _CR_ noticed it, you _know_ practically had to be running after them with pitchforks.
@@aaronfield7899 ...You...you DO remember what happened in 2008, yeah? We kinda went into a financial tailspin, to put it lightly 😂. Nobody had any money for a Hummer except the ultra wealthy.
All they had to do was put a modest 6 cylinder turbo diesel with available biofuel option in it and all of its critics would have nothing to b!tch about.
@@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley But do you remember that the Hummer people wanted was replaced by a reskinned and slight more off rroady Suberban? Like if the Hummer alpha was still on sale just modernized it would have been just fine just like the esclade was.... Also GM whent bankraupt do to bad magnment like what they did with the hummer... So to get the bail out they kinda needed to get brownie points with congress so they killed all their brands that were Chevy,GMC,Cadlac if they didn't make an abtrarry amount of money... So pretty much everything but Buick because it was and still is the best selling American braand in china... Which is an exclusive title for any americain company to have.... Also if the hummer brand was around during the Off roader boom that only Ford took advagtage off and what every GM had on sale was still the off raoder king as all 4 gens of hummer are... Then yeah it would have made an ungodsdly amount of money espacly with very few full size off roader options left after seemly every brand but ford and GM killed of their options... Notebly Toyota at the worse time possible just to split the land cruser model up after everyone got an off road suberban or a Bronco... So yeah the Hummer is just the best exemple of GM mismangagement...
In '92 I worked in law enforcement. I saw my first civilian owned Humvee approaching in the oncoming lane on a 2-lane road. It looked like the ones I saw when I was in the Army, but it was cleaner and in suspiciously perfect condition. Just for the fun of it, I threw up a salute from the patrol car as I drove by. The civilian driver surprised me by snapping to a quick return salute. I think we both had a good laugh about that and drove off. Once they stopped looking like the military versions the novelty wore off.
Congratulations on your 400th video, I've watching all your videos for years Regarding Hummer, they weren't available in my country, so my major exposure to the brand came from shows and movies that always portrayed them in a negative light, like in the movie Over the Hedge and adult comedy cartoons like Family Guy and Drawn Together. It seems the Hummer was truly an icon of 2000s excess, but I don't think people have a lot of nostalgia attached to them
I saw Hummers and thought of a prop vehicle from some post-apocalyptic science fiction film rather than a day to day road vehicle. They were so monstrously impractical but did certainly make an impression.
I mean if by monsterly un practical you me the most opratical at least the alpha and GM hummer then yes they are the most practical passage vechicals on the road dwarfing the surberban much less a car...
My dentist used them to pick up children of their clients from school, they had xbox's and playstations in them. They would also take me to McDonalds after my appointments. Good times.
@@ItzzzBeamo Yes it’s sad that Ford discontinued Mercury in 2011 because that was a great car brand too. Also Toyota discontinued the Scion car brand from Japan in 2016 because of declining sales that were similar to the Saturn car brand in the United States which GM discontinued in 2010.
When i was 13 my step mom said she was going to give me a hummer for my next birthday. Needless to say, i was quite disappointed when i woke up to no car in the driveway, but thrilled what i got after my dad left for work...
When I first saw the Humvee on the military base when I was a kid in the early 90s that's when i fell in love with them. Now I own a yellow 2004 H2 (used) and a 2006 H3 (first owner). Then the EV came out and I want that one too but they cost too much. But I have a plan on getting one by the end of 2025. The H3 is great for off roading and the H2 is a statement vehicle and great for long distance driving (yes, mileage sucks but you got to live with it) with its smooth comfy ride. Both vehicles are still head turners on the road and people still are in awe of them. People don't hate on them as much rather I get a lot of compliments on them.
Yes! I was 18 - 19 then, and people either loved it, or hated it. People would flip drivers off, write internet articles about owner buying it for attention, excessive fuel use etc... I worked at a used car dealer when they were still hot and the dealerships brother brought one in so I could fix a flat tire, and he put the lug nuts on backwards when he put the spare on and ruined the wheel... It was just a show piece for most people. Then the recession hit and they sat on lots. I remember driving by them, sitting, discounted, and suddenly uncool.
Absolutely disagree. The amount of recalls, the low quality of construction, and the amount of hate that Cybertrucks get makes that of the Hummer look like nothing. You won't catch any modern celebrities driving a Cybertruck.
Not really. The Humvee was a decent military vehicle, aside from its fuel consumption. And is highly practical in warfare and for outdoor activities. The cybertruck is just a piece of crud.
I believe it was built on the same platform as one of GM's other SUVs, which made it a rebodied Tahoe or Suburban. So, yeah, you could argue that it wasn't a "real" Hummer.
I remember I went to school with a kid who had a rich family. We were both freshman and you know what his parents got him as a first car back in 2005? A black hummer.. I’m still jealous lol
The complaints about EVs are old and tired. The fact is they are better for the environment overall than gas powered cars. That's indisputable. Are they perfect? No. But they ARE better. And they continue getting better.
Tax laws at the time made it possible for anyone with a home business to lease a vehicle and write off most or all of the cost. Once those laws changed, Hummer leases plummeted.
Well, technically you could still claim a deduction on your federal income taxes for any state property taxes you pay on your vehicle. Also, if you use the vehicle for business purposes like to go on a business trip then you could report the cost of gas as a business expense.
@@JL-sm6cg It was meant for farm equipment, not luxury vehicles which was pretty much what the 'businesses' were using it for. If it was still around, you'd have to be delivering in a Hummer or larger to qualify.
I remember Richard Hammond saying: "they're consistently terrible across their range of 1 car". Sums up Hummer pretty well, applies to Chrysler nowadays too.
South Park had an episode where they made fun Hummers as the car no one wanted to buy despite the car salesman trying to sell them. That alone tells you how much they fell out of public interest.
I saw Arnie driving an original Humvee in traffic near the 101/405 exchange in Los Angeles in 1991. He was chomping a cigar too! I thought this was super cool, especially having just relocated from Ohio. However, I had no idea he was involved in getting them commercially produced until I watched this video!😄 Great job as always and congratulations on 400!🎉
I wonder if there's also a bit of the post-9/11 militaristic patriotism at play. 2002-2006 saw a lot of pro-military stuff in pop culture (camo clothing in fashion, Support Our Troops ribbon bumper stickers, patriotic country songs, Disney Channel shows, etc.) and the Hummer would fit into that trend. Recall that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was initially quite popular, and the period of Hummer's decline also roughly corresponds to the timeline in which many Americans were coming to the realization that the Second Gulf War was a monumentally stupid idea: driving around in the street-legal version of a military vehicle suddenly wasn't as cool anymore.
Disney Channel shows? I'm not from the U.S. and I didn't have Disney Channel until 2003, was there some show or movie that dealt with the aftermath of 9/11?
I remember these being out when I was graduating high school and I would see them randomly at shows in LA. They were a huge novelty though. When I worked at Best Buy in Yorba Linda, I was just remember Vladimir Guerrero had a bright red one haha. Those are my main memories of them in the mid 2000’s.
6:40 - If you want an idea of how much tarnish was on the Hummer brand, consider this: Seth Meyers, who was on _Saturday Night Live_ at the time, got a laugh with this line: "GM announced it was discontinuing the Hummer brand. So now you'll have to go door to door and just tell people you're an A-hole."
Would the Hummer be an H1, H2 or H3? A businessman in the city where I used to live had both an H1 wagon type and an H2. He sold off the H2 a few years back but kept the H1 as it's the original Hummer and he has a small collection of classic cars.
I live in Vienna, Austria, and when I lived in the inner districts of the city (which is older, the streets are narrow and parking space is scarce) I saw a Hummer - always parked, never driving. I wondered what the hell someone would want with this monstrosity of a car in a city. And that was only a few years ago.
I was a salesman at the time of the H2 and H3. They were what the contractors or their wives drove. They were highly capable off-road vehicles that were at home on unfinished development properties.
10:17 Oldsmobile, too! GM did factory pricing the summer they phased out those old lines, and that was huge for them. Probably the last big success I’ve seen GM have.
The last Oldsmobile was built in 2004, which was four years before the Recession, which is probably why it wasn’t mentioned. He did forget to mention Saab though, which was sold off and then died a few years after the Recession.
The phrase goes that a Hummer's fuel expenses are measured in gallons per mile and not miles per gallon, so I guess that about sums it up. The fact that it's gargantuan even by American standards definitely didn't help. It was a novelty and it had its brief time in the sun. I always found it cool and I was excited in the rare moments I saw one in the wild, but I'd never ever buy one even if I could afford it. Also congratulations on 400 videos! Keep up the good work!
There was a comic strip, I think it was in Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, but not certain. Anyway, first frame has a guy in a locker room, and everybody is pointing at him and snickering. Second frame, he’s in bed with a woman, and she is pointing and snickering. Third frame, he’s driving a Hummer and everybody on the street is pointing and snickering. Caption under the third frame “now everybody knows”
Holy Cow! 400th video.. Congrats Company Man! You are by far one of the best informative RUclips channels out there. It's always a great day when another video drops from ya.
I'd say that the decline probably happened around the time trophy wives and soccer moms started driving them. Trust me, you don't ever want to assault your eyes with the sight of a pink Hummer.
whenever something gets a big boost of popularity very quickly the success doesn't usually last long, it was a trend that had its time and everyone moved on.
Modern automobiles are far too small, which greatly affects the mortality rate during collisions. Larger vehicles are safer and more powerful, thus justifying their increased cost. Critics of such simple logic are generally not equipped to engage in sophisticated reasoning.
the Hummer was the ultimate Douchebag-mobile. the guys in the cast of Entourage owned an H2 for the first couple of seasons edit to add: when the Entourage guys got a Rottweiler, they named him Arnold. wouldn't be surprised if that was a nod to Schwarzenegger's connection to the Hummer brand happy 400, Company Man!
the only memory i have of hummer was my next door neighbors growing up, they were like second grandparents to me. they would pick me up in their tan hummer h3 and i freaking loved riding in that car because nobody else had it.
Another point worth mentioning was that due to the weight (6000+lbs) many states had laws that classified them as commercial vehicles. This meant it was easy to lease or buy them if you were a business owner and write them off on your taxes as a business expense. But when the recession and prohibitive gas prices hit, even the tax write offs didn't make them worth it.
What I find crazy is that Hummer brand became popular after 9/11 and the War on Terror era. It's a truck based on an Army vehicle sold during times of War. But what I did find interesting is its usage in Transformers. It's the vehicle that Ratchet transformed into, specifically the Hummer H2 Ambulance, which is kinda hard to find information on that isn't Transformers. He was in the first to 4th movie where he was controversy killed off. What was interesting was he was the same vehicle after the shut down of Hummer, which was mostly because filming had already started for T3 DOTM. But I wonder if he was killed for being an Outdated car from a dead company in T4?
Was born 2004, grew up Germany in the „HummerHype“ era where it was in every movie. I absolutely fell in love with that car as a kid. Now i finally have my own 2008 H2 and i absolutely love it. Its hella inpracticall, especielly in europe but fuck it, for drives on the weekend its so cool and my inner child is just as happy as it can be with that dream😂
I got a 2003 model H2 when they were released in the fall of 2002 when gas prices were $1.30 in my area of SC. I LOVED that thing! I joined the Hummer Club, which was a childhood dream of mine. Went on my first Hummer Club excursion in May of 2003 in the mountains of Tennessee and had a blast. People thought i was crazy for taking it off-road like that, asking my, "Why would you take such an expensive vehicle like that off-road?" I said, "That's what it was built for, and that's why i bought it." It got a whopping 11.7 mpg, 12 mpg at best. Then gas prices doubled a few years later, and the cost to fill it up went from "$32, to $120 and i had to sell it. 😢 I still miss it from time to time, but i dont miss filling it up.
I think it's an oversight to not mention the fact that the reason Hummers are so fat is because they were designed to be able to follow in the tracks behind m1 Abram's tanks. So the reason they're so large is there literally as wide as a modern tank. The first ones had so many safety issues because they were never designed to be street vehicles. You never want an airbag in a military vehicle because that's just something else that could blow up if it gets too hot
I also want to add that America's patriotism was at its peak in the early 2000s. After the 9/11 attack, a lot of people saw the Hummer as a patriotic vehicle, but as the year went by, a lot of anti-war protests started to show, and the Hummer started to be seen as one of the "bad" aspects of America. Of course, the rising gas price and the late 2000 crisis became the final nail in the coffin.
You should do a vid on Dillards and why there successful while the other mall dept stores are failing, they dont seem to ever close stores or have nearly as many issues despite malls failing
Reminds me of some lines of dialogue in the movie, "Be Cool." in which the fictional rap group "WMDs" drive around in several Hummers throughout the film. At one point, the primary character, Chili Palmer (played by John Travolta) asks the group, "What do you get on those Hummers? About 12 miles to the gallon?" to which one of the group members replies, "Nine."
@AnotherPointOfView944 because Dodge is basically filling the void Pontiac left and it's doing a poor job. Thers always going to be a market for cheap American muscle sedans and coupes.
The Reno 911 episode where they get a Hummer and cant park it/drive it anywhere is one of the funniest bits on the show
“Can you back it out?”
“…..it’s out of gas”
Look at that exhaust system
Still revelant in 2024 truck owners refuse to park correctly
That show is everything 😂😂😂
The h2 took two parking spots.Lol.Reno 911 was a great show btw
The way you talk about how the public viewed these at the time (ie intriguing, absurd, etc) reminds me a lot of how people view the Cybertruck today.
Hummers were more universally loved.
@@deleqtronica8733i rather have a “pimped out” hummer h1 & spend plenty on ev conversion than a cybertruck.
they're not even one of the same, at least hummer seems more practical.
Hummers were outfitted for use as party busses, and I saw at least one Hummer limo in LA.
@@visceratrocaronly one? 😅
This video makes me want to merge without looking
Yeah! RUMSFELD!!!
😂 lol what?
@@kamilahdouglas1609 family guy reference
@pappaslivery ohhhh i was like damn why he gotta do that to my man making the videos...he does a good job 😂
I remember a documentary on the civilianized H1, and this Asian business executive admitting he bought it for his wife, who classically had been in a major auto accident before because she didn’t turn her head and look before she merged or came to a T-intersection.
So instead of making her take a driver safety course, he bought her a tank..
Arnold Schwarzenegger literally made a cameo in Cars movie as a 2004 Hummer Modified H1. My goodness the dots in my brain are finally connected. I didn’t realized that until this video. LOL 😂
He owned a proper Hummer and made them famous waaaaaay before cars 😂
@@A.D.D.O.C.D.TI'm sure that's his realization
He started the hummers being sold to civilians. He wanted one so bad he refused to take no for an answer. Thats how they know they had a market. Then being seen driving one, popularity soured. Arnold did that shit!
"GET TO THE HUMMA!"
Holy s… it’s CZW
@czsworld fancy seeing you here
Get out of here CZ! Nobody invited you in the first place! Don’t you have a timeline to write or something?
😂😂😂😂
I'm watching one of your videos right now
I live in major Yuppie Land and remember the mid '00s where Hummers were everywhere. And yeah, no one could park them. It's like how people drive these massive Yukons and it's not fun watching. Then all of a sudden, everyone was driving a Prius. So indeed, your observations are quite on the money. The same people can't park a Prius either.
Most Americans can't park a car in a football stadium.
I was an Army VIP driver, with over 180,000 miles logged in on the Hummer. The Army required attendance at a one week driving school, before granting authorization to drive one. It's seven feet, four inches wide, and that takes getting used to. It was plain irrisponsible to just hand one over to fools with the purchase price. They were made to go anywhere an M-1 Abrams tank could, and as fast, and most affluent silly-vilians would never use them for what they were intended for. People with more money than brains. I would never own one, the price of fuel and tires had me thanking God I wasn't paying for that! With an average of 9 to 11 miles per gallon, and a minimum of $500.00 each for Goodyear Wrangler tires, you can have it!
conclusion: people can't park lol
Same as anyone who drives a 2500 without commercial plates
@@markcollins2666I was a 63B. Not sure what you had going on where you were stationed but a week driving school is excessive. It’s just a large(ish) truck. It’s not hard to drive at all except for the terrible highway handling.
Tires are expensive because they are 36x16.5, not because they are Goodyear.
People claiming it’s hard to drive are the same ones who couldn’t drive a F-350 (which often has a longer wheelbase.
And HMMWVs aren’t nearly the off road hot rods people think. Open diffs and a heavy truck are not the recipe for “go anywhere off road and fast”. They were designed to maximize ground clearance and have redundancy. The 1097s were much better than the 998s due to the engine upgrade. Still, they didn’t go anywhere “fast”.
Hummer: (declines in popularity)
Arnold: “I won’t be back.”
Nice.
Hahaha
When I graduated high school I worked at Honda as a porter in the late 2000s the amount of Hummers we had as trade ins for crv, pilots and accords was insane. We had so many we had to auction off some of them. Our used car lot looked like a Hummer dealership.
was it related to the great recession?
@aljaberhk gas prices went up really high too.
@@aljaberhkWhat you call the "Great Recession" was a minor downturn. Things are much worse in 1975.
@@aljaberhk it was related to Hummers being bad vehicles, overpriced and under performing. The H2 surged for the same reasons the Cybertruck has blown up, which is that the vehicle is seen as an exclusive status symbol, and it's visually very striking.
Driving an H2 was a sign you were rich. You could afford a 100k hummer, you had so much money you didn't care about gas prices, and you were savvy enough to get the tax break on the vehicle by classifying it as farm equipment under the GWB tax code.
But eventually, after a few years, other cars took the spotlight and became trendy. The brand was nothing, without the celebrity and prestige.
@@red32303that’s literally what it’s called
I remember seeing a Hummer stretch limo years ago . That thing was an absolute MONSTER!
I saw one of those too. It was massive!
I'd love to ride in that
they were quite common where I live, like if you rented a limo, half were hummers
I rode in one with friends to an event and we thought we were celebrities lol
Stretch Hummers are uncommon but not unheard of as stag, hen, first communion, wedding vehicles in Ireland.
Military vet here. I honestly never got the fascination with the HUMV to begin with. I realize that they made some changes to make it more comfortable but you can only do so much and not completely change it. The vehicle was great for what its intended purpose was. I’ve driven these and they aren’t the easiest things to navigate on some city streets because of how narrow they can be. Because of the cost this was never going to be more than a niche vehicle because it wasn’t practical.
In the 1980s when the HUMV first came out, some of the feedback I heard (as a civilian) was that a Jeep would better serve the military in backwoods regions where vehicle width and weight would be critical, as the HUMV was just too massive and heavy to deal with those situations.
100% agreed. It's like people who want to own pet tigers as a show of power. Okay, sure, you have a tiger roaming around in your house. Cool. Impractical, but cool. Same goes for the humvee. Congrats, you have a great military vehicle with ground clearance and a wide wheel base but you can't park it in the average spot. Once those things were civilianized with plush interior, climate controls, it stopped being a humvee. I have no good memories of riding in a humvee from my time in the Army. ...or any vehicle.
My vet and NatGuard friends invariably agree that driving them at highway speeds is mildly terrifying, and none of them have ever expressed any desire to own one.
I still want one, lol. Turning an ambulance or command Humvee into an overland camper is one of my dreams.
@jormungand72 I definitely get that, especially having put together ARs and having the opportunity to compare the parts directly to milspec, and collecting surplus gear ("Military Grade just means it was built by the lowest bidder" etc etc).
I guess the reason I'd love a Humvee is the same reason I enjoy MREs, because it's a choice to use it, not a requirement, lol.
I was impressed with them until I joined the Army and had to work on them. They were undoubtedly the least reliable vehicles in my unit!
Congrats on 400, company man!
@@mrperezident76 wait it’s his 400th video congratulations to company man
This. Company man birthday!!!!!!!
Thank you so much. Been a long journey, but it's a really cool milestone.
Congratulations 🎉 ❤ watching your content
You earned it! I love your channel. Thank you for all your hard work @@companyman114
The Hummer dealership in Vegas became a Smart dealership after 2008. Was very exemplary of the time.
I wonder what it is now since Smart bit it in North America sadly enough. I know as a 2006 Smart Fortwo cdi driver. It's also a brand that needs to be revived in North America since it does small but respectable business in China and Europe though not with the obsession with a tiny peoples car like it was at the time... I purchased it for its fuel economy and quirkiness and because I didn't have Prius money at the time...
I really liked the Hummer H2 in 2005, when I was 9, probably because it looked like a Hot Wheels toy in real life
I got a Hummer h2 power wheel for my 7th birthday in 2005. I was so excited, I jumped in and took off down the street. Not knowing how to stop it, I ran over a mailbox.
1:09 - People had strong opinions about it? That's an understatement. _Consumer Reports_ , a magazine with a relentlessly "just the facts, Ma'am" attitude towards its test vehicles, tested a Hummer H2 and felt compelled to note that people on the street had a "strong reaction" to it. That was astounding. If _CR_ noticed it, you _know_ practically had to be running after them with pitchforks.
Gas prices spiking towards the end of 2000s and the Great Recession put the nail in Hummer’s coffin.
But gas prices fell during 2008
@@aaronfield7899 ...You...you DO remember what happened in 2008, yeah? We kinda went into a financial tailspin, to put it lightly 😂. Nobody had any money for a Hummer except the ultra wealthy.
@@aaronfield7899 They also fell in 2020... as did the entire economy.
All they had to do was put a modest 6 cylinder turbo diesel with available biofuel option in it and all of its critics would have nothing to b!tch about.
@@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley But do you remember that the Hummer people wanted was replaced by a reskinned and slight more off rroady Suberban? Like if the Hummer alpha was still on sale just modernized it would have been just fine just like the esclade was.... Also GM whent bankraupt do to bad magnment like what they did with the hummer... So to get the bail out they kinda needed to get brownie points with congress so they killed all their brands that were Chevy,GMC,Cadlac if they didn't make an abtrarry amount of money... So pretty much everything but Buick because it was and still is the best selling American braand in china... Which is an exclusive title for any americain company to have.... Also if the hummer brand was around during the Off roader boom that only Ford took advagtage off and what every GM had on sale was still the off raoder king as all 4 gens of hummer are... Then yeah it would have made an ungodsdly amount of money espacly with very few full size off roader options left after seemly every brand but ford and GM killed of their options... Notebly Toyota at the worse time possible just to split the land cruser model up after everyone got an off road suberban or a Bronco... So yeah the Hummer is just the best exemple of GM mismangagement...
In '92 I worked in law enforcement. I saw my first civilian owned Humvee approaching in the oncoming lane on a 2-lane road. It looked like the ones I saw when I was in the Army, but it was cleaner and in suspiciously perfect condition. Just for the fun of it, I threw up a salute from the patrol car as I drove by. The civilian driver surprised me by snapping to a quick return salute. I think we both had a good laugh about that and drove off. Once they stopped looking like the military versions the novelty wore off.
I remember using Hummers in the video game Midnight Club 3 hub edition. Had fun flipping street cars over with them.
NFSU2 had a Hummer as well from what I remember.
Meanwhile.. while you betas played your little video games.. we where busy getting Hummers, while driving the actual real Hummers
@@IceTTomyea sorry we were 12 years old mr alpha mindset grindset man
@@venicec3310 So was I 😉
@@uselessDM yeah I remember using a Hummer in that game
Congratulations on your 400th video, I've watching all your videos for years
Regarding Hummer, they weren't available in my country, so my major exposure to the brand came from shows and movies that always portrayed them in a negative light, like in the movie Over the Hedge and adult comedy cartoons like Family Guy and Drawn Together. It seems the Hummer was truly an icon of 2000s excess, but I don't think people have a lot of nostalgia attached to them
I saw Hummers and thought of a prop vehicle from some post-apocalyptic science fiction film rather than a day to day road vehicle. They were so monstrously impractical but did certainly make an impression.
I mean if by monsterly un practical you me the most opratical at least the alpha and GM hummer then yes they are the most practical passage vechicals on the road dwarfing the surberban much less a car...
@@GreenBlueWalkthrough what the heck does that even mean?
Best visual gag in Better Call Saul was when Price shows up to the next drug buy with a brand new H2 with flame decals and Mike is just disappointed.
but, my pokemon cards!
"You think I would be caught dead in this thing? It looks like a school bus for six-year-old pimps".
My dentist used them to pick up children of their clients from school, they had xbox's and playstations in them. They would also take me to McDonalds after my appointments. Good times.
seems hella weird 😳
@@ElleBrOwit was a different time
@@nagit0.apologist Whatever that means
@@nagit0.apologist whatever that means 🙄
Better times bud
The Discontinued GM brands were Hummer, Pontiac, Saturn, Saab, and although earlier, people include Oldsmobile in that list as well.
it's so weird to see a Olds running around the place.
Also Ford Motor Company discontinued the Mercury brand in 2011
@@mattycooldude6462 Ford wanting to feel included too awww
@@ItzzzBeamo Yes it’s sad that Ford discontinued Mercury in 2011 because that was a great car brand too. Also Toyota discontinued the Scion car brand from Japan in 2016 because of declining sales that were similar to the Saturn car brand in the United States which GM discontinued in 2010.
When i was 13 my step mom said she was going to give me a hummer for my next birthday. Needless to say, i was quite disappointed when i woke up to no car in the driveway, but thrilled what i got after my dad left for work...
Next can you please make a video on Saturn. It was a very special company and it needs to be remembered.
Also required very special tools to fix from what I was told
I'm from down south. I thought it was pronounced 'Satun'. I have to walk my dowg plus ann the wrinkles out of my clothes. Will check back...
Saturn is nasty
He should also make a video about Pontiac
Pontiac and Mercury too
When I first saw the Humvee on the military base when I was a kid in the early 90s that's when i fell in love with them. Now I own a yellow 2004 H2 (used) and a 2006 H3 (first owner). Then the EV came out and I want that one too but they cost too much. But I have a plan on getting one by the end of 2025. The H3 is great for off roading and the H2 is a statement vehicle and great for long distance driving (yes, mileage sucks but you got to live with it) with its smooth comfy ride. Both vehicles are still head turners on the road and people still are in awe of them. People don't hate on them as much rather I get a lot of compliments on them.
Sure dude
It was the Cybertruck of its day is probably a fair way to put it.
Yes!
I was 18 - 19 then, and people either loved it, or hated it.
People would flip drivers off, write internet articles about owner buying it for attention, excessive fuel use etc...
I worked at a used car dealer when they were still hot and the dealerships brother brought one in so I could fix a flat tire, and he put the lug nuts on backwards when he put the spare on and ruined the wheel... It was just a show piece for most people.
Then the recession hit and they sat on lots. I remember driving by them, sitting, discounted, and suddenly uncool.
Absolutely disagree. The amount of recalls, the low quality of construction, and the amount of hate that Cybertrucks get makes that of the Hummer look like nothing. You won't catch any modern celebrities driving a Cybertruck.
That's unfair to the Hummer, at least the Hummer was built by a competent manufacturer, decently engineered, and can stand up to things like water.
I just saw a cybertruck with a jagged camo wrap!😂
Not really. The Humvee was a decent military vehicle, aside from its fuel consumption. And is highly practical in warfare and for outdoor activities.
The cybertruck is just a piece of crud.
Congratulations on the 400th video. You make great, high quality content.
Wow, thank you!
One memory I have of the Hummer from being a kid is that when the H2 came out, never considered that a real Hummer. It was so much smaller
Ironically the H2 is longer and taller than the H1
I believe it was built on the same platform as one of GM's other SUVs, which made it a rebodied Tahoe or Suburban. So, yeah, you could argue that it wasn't a "real" Hummer.
I remember I went to school with a kid who had a rich family. We were both freshman and you know what his parents got him as a first car back in 2005? A black hummer.. I’m still jealous lol
It takes a hummer level of patriotism to make unsustainable environmentally-not-friendly electric car
You realize that most of not all electric vehicles are bad for the environment, we can’t mine for diamonds but cobalt mining is fine??
Electric cars are trash anyway
Haha. Where does the electricity come from? A lot of EV's get their power from coal power plants.
MERICA! EFF YEAH!
The complaints about EVs are old and tired. The fact is they are better for the environment overall than gas powered cars. That's indisputable. Are they perfect? No. But they ARE better. And they continue getting better.
Congrats on the 400th video man! I love your channel!
Thank you so much! Means a lot to me.
Tax laws at the time made it possible for anyone with a home business to lease a vehicle and write off most or all of the cost. Once those laws changed, Hummer leases plummeted.
What do the laws about that say now?
That sucks. Would be nice for me who drives for Uber and Lyft and uses his own vehicle.
Well, technically you could still claim a deduction on your federal income taxes for any state property taxes you pay on your vehicle. Also, if you use the vehicle for business purposes like to go on a business trip then you could report the cost of gas as a business expense.
@@JL-sm6cg It was meant for farm equipment, not luxury vehicles which was pretty much what the 'businesses' were using it for. If it was still around, you'd have to be delivering in a Hummer or larger to qualify.
@ryokaix would be the only reason I would've gotten one. Lol
Dude these cars kick ass! And you can watch Madagascar while you're driving!
Quality reference, that
YEAAAHHHHHHH!!!!
HIPPO-HOP! WHOOHOO!
Only an American would say that.
Good luck, everyone else
I remember Richard Hammond saying: "they're consistently terrible across their range of 1 car". Sums up Hummer pretty well, applies to Chrysler nowadays too.
Yeah Chrysler is among the worst. Total trash.
@@handsomeXhonestly most mopar brands are really bad nowadays
Which is hilarious because my $85k H1 purchase has turned into a $140k asset. Weird how that happened.
South Park had an episode where they made fun Hummers as the car no one wanted to buy despite the car salesman trying to sell them.
That alone tells you how much they fell out of public interest.
In the movie Cars, it was featured twice. Right at the same year when it was at it's most popular.
One was even a parody of Arnold Schwarzenegger
I'm a truck driver and I was just thinking a few days ago "when was the last time I saw a hummer?" And I genuinely have no idea... lol
Your videos are always such a joy to watch. They have such a cozy vibe, and I absolutely love your editing style!
Thank you so much!!
@@companyman114Also, I can't believe that this is a 400th video you made. Congratulations!
@@companyman114No problem, keep up the fantastic work!
@@companyman114No problem, keep up the fantastic work!
I saw Arnie driving an original Humvee in traffic near the 101/405 exchange in Los Angeles in 1991. He was chomping a cigar too!
I thought this was super cool, especially having just relocated from Ohio.
However, I had no idea he was involved in getting them commercially produced until I watched this video!😄
Great job as always and congratulations on 400!🎉
I wonder if there's also a bit of the post-9/11 militaristic patriotism at play. 2002-2006 saw a lot of pro-military stuff in pop culture (camo clothing in fashion, Support Our Troops ribbon bumper stickers, patriotic country songs, Disney Channel shows, etc.) and the Hummer would fit into that trend. Recall that the 2003 invasion of Iraq was initially quite popular, and the period of Hummer's decline also roughly corresponds to the timeline in which many Americans were coming to the realization that the Second Gulf War was a monumentally stupid idea: driving around in the street-legal version of a military vehicle suddenly wasn't as cool anymore.
I was wondering the same thing and if I had to bet I'd say for sure they're related
Disney Channel shows? I'm not from the U.S. and I didn't have Disney Channel until 2003, was there some show or movie that dealt with the aftermath of 9/11?
I absolutely agree this was behind the popularity
I could tell that was the case back then. It was obvious.
@@pablocasas5906 Have you not dissected Ratatouille frame by frame??
I remember these being out when I was graduating high school and I would see them randomly at shows in LA. They were a huge novelty though. When I worked at Best Buy in Yorba Linda, I was just remember Vladimir Guerrero had a bright red one haha. Those are my main memories of them in the mid 2000’s.
Congrats on 400 videos! Here's to many more! 🥂
Thanks so much!! Let's hope.
6:40 - If you want an idea of how much tarnish was on the Hummer brand, consider this: Seth Meyers, who was on _Saturday Night Live_ at the time, got a laugh with this line: "GM announced it was discontinuing the Hummer brand. So now you'll have to go door to door and just tell people you're an A-hole."
In my neighbourhood, there is both a HMMWV and Hummer in my neighborhood owned by different people. Insane
Would the Hummer be an H1, H2 or H3? A businessman in the city where I used to live had both an H1 wagon type and an H2. He sold off the H2 a few years back but kept the H1 as it's the original Hummer and he has a small collection of classic cars.
I live in Vienna, Austria, and when I lived in the inner districts of the city (which is older, the streets are narrow and parking space is scarce) I saw a Hummer - always parked, never driving. I wondered what the hell someone would want with this monstrosity of a car in a city. And that was only a few years ago.
I don’t think the Hummer driver ever truly disappeared, they just bought cybertrucks instead
I was a salesman at the time of the H2 and H3. They were what the contractors or their wives drove. They were highly capable off-road vehicles that were at home on unfinished development properties.
10:17 Oldsmobile, too! GM did factory pricing the summer they phased out those old lines, and that was huge for them. Probably the last big success I’ve seen GM have.
The last Oldsmobile was built in 2004, which was four years before the Recession, which is probably why it wasn’t mentioned. He did forget to mention Saab though, which was sold off and then died a few years after the Recession.
Oldsmobiles were very nice. I had one as my first car years ago. I miss that thing.
What happened? People woke up to the fact that getting eight miles per gallon was a really bad idea. That'd be my guess. 😮
The phrase goes that a Hummer's fuel expenses are measured in gallons per mile and not miles per gallon, so I guess that about sums it up. The fact that it's gargantuan even by American standards definitely didn't help. It was a novelty and it had its brief time in the sun. I always found it cool and I was excited in the rare moments I saw one in the wild, but I'd never ever buy one even if I could afford it.
Also congratulations on 400 videos! Keep up the good work!
Hummer used to offer gas vehicles but now Hummer transitioned from gas to fully electric vehicles with a 2,500 gas guzzler tax.
“DUDE THIS CAR KICKS ASS! AND I CAN WATCH MADAGASCAR WHILE I’M DRIVING!”
These animals are so fucking funny it makes me want to merge without looking!
There was a comic strip, I think it was in Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal, but not certain. Anyway, first frame has a guy in a locker room, and everybody is pointing at him and snickering. Second frame, he’s in bed with a woman, and she is pointing and snickering. Third frame, he’s driving a Hummer and everybody on the street is pointing and snickering. Caption under the third frame “now everybody knows”
They all got Cybertrucks now.
Holy Cow! 400th video.. Congrats Company Man! You are by far one of the best informative RUclips channels out there. It's always a great day when another video drops from ya.
I'd say that the decline probably happened around the time trophy wives and soccer moms started driving them. Trust me, you don't ever want to assault your eyes with the sight of a pink Hummer.
That's why guys started putting trucks nuts on their vehicles so everyone knows this is a boy truck lol
Wrong, pink Hummer is the only cool Hummer
@@catdogmousecheese Wouldn't that make it a trans-truck?
Or around the time when people realized that a Hummer is basically useless? It's got less space than a minivan and can't tow shit
It was a fad. The trophy wife/school teacher in my time drove a Suburban. Perhaps a Tahoe. And nothing else.
whenever something gets a big boost of popularity very quickly the success doesn't usually last long, it was a trend that had its time and everyone moved on.
But they crab crawl now!!! Crab crawl people! Gimme money!
Modern automobiles are far too small, which greatly affects the mortality rate during collisions.
Larger vehicles are safer and more powerful, thus justifying their increased cost.
Critics of such simple logic are generally not equipped to engage in sophisticated reasoning.
the Hummer was the ultimate Douchebag-mobile. the guys in the cast of Entourage owned an H2 for the first couple of seasons
edit to add: when the Entourage guys got a Rottweiler, they named him Arnold. wouldn't be surprised if that was a nod to Schwarzenegger's connection to the Hummer brand
happy 400, Company Man!
If you're not a douching when you're driving a Hummer. You're not a real Patriot (joke)
the only memory i have of hummer was my next door neighbors growing up, they were like second grandparents to me. they would pick me up in their tan hummer h3 and i freaking loved riding in that car because nobody else had it.
1:31 Does anyone remember when people were keying hummers for the environment? 😂😂😂
My favorite channel to watch at a fast forwarded speed!!! Bro talks so slow but the videos are so awesome
I work at GM, and one of my projects was the Hummer EV. Some of the most fun I've ever had at work!
EVs are trash. They don't work at -47°C.
@@GrizzAxxemannnot yet! Innovations will improve
@@mchjsosde You will never change my mind.
@@GrizzAxxemann -47C? Even a regular car would struggle at those temperatures.
@@Ramblin_DMC My old truck didn't. 15 years of service. Never plugged in. GM's 4.3L Vortec V6 was the best 6 cylinder gas engine ever made.
It’s still quite annoying when someone is driving a vehicle that is completely too large and cumbersome to be practical.
Video 400!!! Congrats Company Man! We’ll see Hummers in rap music videos again soon!
Congrats on 400th video!!
Hola from Ecuador. Our new, high-end shopping mall has a Hummer store. They sell clothing and luggage with the Hummer branding.
Congratulations on your 400th video!
Every time I see a Hummer I think of the 'Bling Bling' video.
I remember they got so big. They turned heads. Now they turn heads because they are so rare.
The iconic yellow Hummer in Bad Boys II
Another point worth mentioning was that due to the weight (6000+lbs) many states had laws that classified them as commercial vehicles. This meant it was easy to lease or buy them if you were a business owner and write them off on your taxes as a business expense. But when the recession and prohibitive gas prices hit, even the tax write offs didn't make them worth it.
The cyber truck is today's hummer
Hip Hop made Hummer popular, like it does everything else
1:09 …until the Cybertruck
Except it was never cool lol
What I find crazy is that Hummer brand became popular after 9/11 and the War on Terror era. It's a truck based on an Army vehicle sold during times of War. But what I did find interesting is its usage in Transformers. It's the vehicle that Ratchet transformed into, specifically the Hummer H2 Ambulance, which is kinda hard to find information on that isn't Transformers. He was in the first to 4th movie where he was controversy killed off. What was interesting was he was the same vehicle after the shut down of Hummer, which was mostly because filming had already started for T3 DOTM. But I wonder if he was killed for being an Outdated car from a dead company in T4?
Do cybertuck next
Congrats on 400 videos. Love your stuff man
Please do a video on Andy’s Frozen Custard!
Was born 2004, grew up Germany in the „HummerHype“ era where it was in every movie. I absolutely fell in love with that car as a kid.
Now i finally have my own 2008 H2 and i absolutely love it. Its hella inpracticall, especielly in europe but fuck it, for drives on the weekend its so cool and my inner child is just as happy as it can be with that dream😂
Happy 400th video
Thank you so much!!
I got a 2003 model H2 when they were released in the fall of 2002 when gas prices were $1.30 in my area of SC. I LOVED that thing! I joined the Hummer Club, which was a childhood dream of mine. Went on my first Hummer Club excursion in May of 2003 in the mountains of Tennessee and had a blast. People thought i was crazy for taking it off-road like that, asking my, "Why would you take such an expensive vehicle like that off-road?" I said, "That's what it was built for, and that's why i bought it."
It got a whopping 11.7 mpg, 12 mpg at best. Then gas prices doubled a few years later, and the cost to fill it up went from "$32, to $120 and i had to sell it. 😢
I still miss it from time to time, but i dont miss filling it up.
I'VE WANTED THIS EPISODE FOR SO LONG, THANK YOU SO MUCH!
*reads username*
Oh, hey now, don't be so down on yourself, there's at least 923 people below you.
🙄 People like you are the reason the internet is dead.
I think it's an oversight to not mention the fact that the reason Hummers are so fat is because they were designed to be able to follow in the tracks behind m1 Abram's tanks. So the reason they're so large is there literally as wide as a modern tank. The first ones had so many safety issues because they were never designed to be street vehicles. You never want an airbag in a military vehicle because that's just something else that could blow up if it gets too hot
I also want to add that America's patriotism was at its peak in the early 2000s. After the 9/11 attack, a lot of people saw the Hummer as a patriotic vehicle, but as the year went by, a lot of anti-war protests started to show, and the Hummer started to be seen as one of the "bad" aspects of America. Of course, the rising gas price and the late 2000 crisis became the final nail in the coffin.
Congrats on your 400th video, love your channel
Most new SUV's and trucks on the road today aren't too far off in size or features of an H2. Hummer was too far ahead of its time.
*Congratulations on 400!!*
400 episodes!? What a milestone! 👍🏾👍🏾
You should do a vid on Dillards and why there successful while the other mall dept stores are failing, they dont seem to ever close stores or have nearly as many issues despite malls failing
Reminds me of some lines of dialogue in the movie, "Be Cool." in which the fictional rap group "WMDs" drive around in several Hummers throughout the film. At one point, the primary character, Chili Palmer (played by John Travolta) asks the group, "What do you get on those Hummers? About 12 miles to the gallon?" to which one of the group members replies, "Nine."
Good movie?
Oh yes! I had completely forgotten about that scene until you mentioned it just now. That would have been a great one to include in this video.
@@AJayZy I liked it ("Be Cool") better than its predecessor, "Get Shorty."
@@skyden24195 I’ll watch it man. Thanks!
Cringe then = Humvie/Hummer limo.
Cringe now = Cybertruck.
Hummers were the Cybertruck of the '00s
A watermelon vs a grape. So no.
Awesome video congratulations on 400 videos!
GM should had kept Pontiac.
why?
@AnotherPointOfView944 because Dodge is basically filling the void Pontiac left and it's doing a poor job. Thers always going to be a market for cheap American muscle sedans and coupes.
HAPPY 400TH MY GUY ❤❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉
You missed an opportunity to discuss its "reemergence" as the Hummer EV that is out or about to come out. Congrats on 400 episodes!
The Hummer EV has been out since 2022. Doesn't seem like it's selling well, I've only seen a single one on the road since it released.
I missed the opportunity?!
@@companyman114eh it's not realistic to buy so maybe not lol
I had no idea that they stopped producing the Hummer until now.
"An Inconvenient Truth" 😂