Get Up, Get Out, or Get Gone

A long standing point of frustration in my life: The Hummer. Formerly known as Hummer, Hum V and currently known as the the H2 and H3 vehicle.

I do not apologize if I offend any Hummer owners by saying that I am absolutely disgusted at your vehicle. It's gratuitous, irresponsible and well, just plain ugly. If you're curious as to exactly why I hate these vehicles here is a few reasons:

The H2 is the ultimate poseur vehicle. It has the chassis of a Chevy Tahoe and a body that looks like the original Hummer; i.e. it's a Chevy Tahoe in disguise.

The H2 is a gas guzzler. Because it has a gross vehicle weight rating over 8500 lbs, the US government does not require it to meet federal fuel efficiency regulations. Hummer isn't even required to publish its fuel economy (owners indicate that they get around 10 mpg for normal use). So while our brothers and sisters are off in the Middle East risking their lives to secure America's fossil fuel future, H2 drivers are pissing away our "spoils of victory" during each trip to the grocery store.

The H2 is a polluter. Based on G.M.'s optimistic claim that it gets13 mpg, an H2 will produce 3.4 metric tons of carbon emissions in a typical year, nearly double that of G.M.'s Chevrolet Malibu sedan.

The H2 is a tax loophole. Under the current tax laws, business owners can deduct nearly half the cost of their H2s. If you are in the highest tax bracket, that's a tax savings of nearly $10,000! The government rewards you more savings for buying an H2 than you'd get for buying an electric car.

**MY source for this was FUH2 and a source for GM vehicles.


If I have a vote my vote is to get all vehicles with less than 30mpg off the road and if you must create SUVs and the like, make them highly more fuel efficient. We have the technology to do it. And it would be nice to see the congressional vote to have all vehicles have a 35mpg by the year 2015. That'd be nice.