- 1983 was a wild year.
IBM released the first PC.
The spatial challenger was launched on its maiden voyage.
Microsoft Word was invented
and even the first Mario Brothers game was released.
How neat is that?
- That's pretty neat.
- Best part about 1983, I was minus 10 years old.
- I don't care.
- But amongst all these awesome inventions
and history making space stuff,
there was another groundbreaking earth shattering contract
that changed the SUV game forever.
I'm Dustin with Custom Offsets,
and today we're strapping on the armor plating,
sprang on the operational camo
and finding out just what's the hype with the Hummer.
(energetic music)
Before we jump into that though,
I would like to tell you about
my Lord and savior customoffsets.com.
Okay, that was maybe a little aggressive.
But actually we have wheels, tires and suspension
for your Hummer or for your truck
'cause, you know, it's kind of what we do.
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Spoiler alert, we upload every single day.
On March 22nd, 1983, the Pentagon awarded a contract
worth over a billion dollars to the AM General Corporation
to develop 55,000 High-Mobility Multi-Wheeled Vehicles.
These HMWWV's or Humvees for short
were designed to transport troops and cargo around
and we're broadly used during the 1989 invasion of Panama
and the Persian Gulf war in the early 1990s.
Like all good things, these vehicles were only available
to the military to begin with,
but in 1992, this all changed.
'92 was a great year by the way,
I was still minus one year old at this point.
- I still don't care.
- Either way, the original Humvee
drew quite a bit of attention.
This monstrosity vehicle weighed
in at an astounding 10,000 pounds
and got a very practical fuel economy
of under 10 miles per gallon.
The original Hummer was a boxy, clunky
and not super practical vehicle
that honestly looked like it belonged on a battlefield.
However, despite the massive size
and terrible fuel efficiency,
the Hummer was an instant hit in Hollywood.
Celebrities flocked to the Hummer
with some of them even owning entire fleets of the vehicle,
just like Arnold Schwartzenegger.
In 1999, General Motors purchased the rights to the Hummer
from AM General and began to market
and distribute the Hummer through the GM dealership channel.
Jumping up to 2002, GM decided it was time for a revamp
on the ever successful Hummer lineup.
Thus, the H2 was born.
Let's go!
Debuted in 2002, the Hummer H2 was a smaller,
less expensive brother to the original Hummer.
It weighed in at a thin down 8,600 pounds
and featured a 6.0 liter LQ4 V8
that put out in astounding 316 horsepower.
This engine would later be replaced by the 6.2 liter V8.
The H2 also featured more creature comforts
than the original Hummer,
such as tri-zone climate controls,
leather wrapped steering wheel, power seats,
and even a Bose premium radio system
for when you wanna blare Metallica
on your way to pick the kids up from soccer practice.
Yikes.
For the first time, GM also offered an SUT
or Sport Utility Truck.
This meant that the H2 had an option
for a fully enclosed cabin
or for the rear cabin to be removed
and in its place a slightly functional cargo bed.
Yes, I said slightly functional is pretty small.
This Hummer was slightly smaller, a little thinner,
and still only got 10 miles per gallon.
Rough, fun fact about the H2,
although it was designed and sold by General Motors,
it was actually manufactured by AM General
via a contract with General Motors.
Yes, that's right.
It means that the original designer of the Hummer
was once again, manufacturing Hummer vehicles,
this time, it was a watered down diet version
of the original Hummer.
Talk about full circle.
In 2003, GM released the next rendition
of the ever popular SUV, the Hummer H3.
This Hummer was even more slim
and weighed in at 5,800 pounds,
which is quite a bit less than the original.
Along with the sizable slim down,
it also became significantly more fuel efficient.
Finally, posted fuel economy for a little brother H3
was somewhere between 16 to 20 miles per gallon,
depending on which source you asked.
This couldn't have come at a better time
as America was marching towards a growing economic slowdown
and rising fuel prices at the time.
Because of this in 2006,
GM decided to ax the original Hummer
as sales of the original behemoth
had fallen to all time low.
Over the next two years,
Hummer would go on to face massive sales downturns
with some reports claiming sales fell
over 50% year over year.
This ultimately led to an unfortunate circumstance.
On June 1st, 2009, GM declared chapter 11 bankruptcy.
- I declare
bankruptcy!
- The following day, General Motors
announced that as part of its reorganization plans,
it would be selling the Hummer brand
to a Chinese machinery company.
Sounds like a not so bad plan, right?
Sell the whole brand to a Chinese company.
They can pick up the pieces,
kind of keep it moving.
Yeah, I mean, it was,
until February of 2010.
Less than a year later, Time Magazine reported
that General Motors efforts to sell the Hummer brand
were unsuccessful.
This meant the end of the Hummer brand as we knew it.
Once one of the biggest status symbols in American history
had now fallen to the wayside and was gone forever.
I'm not crying.
You're crying.
It's okay if you're sad,
I'm a little sad too.
- Cite.
- The story does not end there.
For many years, the Hummer name was simply a bygone.
That all changed in 2020 however.
A quick Google search will tell you exactly
what I'm talking about here.
Seriously, GM is literally putting this page everywhere.
If you don't know what I'm talking about,
buckle up because the Cinderella story
is about to get rowdy.
Coming out of seemingly nowhere,
GMC drops an absolute bombshell on the SUV market in 2020,
by teasing a return of you guessed it.
The Hummer.
This new Hummer is quite different
than the previous models though.
This time, the Hummer returns under the GMC umbrella
and is branded the first ever GMC Hummer EV.
EV of course stands for electric vehicle, BT dubs.
Their website teases at the new model
by showing sleek and futuristic vehicle designs
with a few different cabin designs
and is branded boldly charged, fully electric
and ready to change the game forever,
bold statements cock.
But it's with good reason.
GMC also brands its new teaser as the quiet revolution
and goes on so far as to say
as this will be the first all electric super truck.
I mean, who even knew super trucks were a thing.
I guess.
We don't know much about them,
other than the fact that GM is advertising
up to 1000 horsepower, 11,500 pound feet of torque
and a zero to 60 ton of three seconds,
which is on par or better
than most factory performance cars of today.
Holly shit!
Well, there's not much information available yet.
There's a really nice teaser video
that features LeBron James,
which is a fantastic watch by the way.
Still we can't help, but wonder just how awesome
is the new GMC Hummer going to be?
What do you guys think of the Hummer lineup?
Are you excited for the new Hummer EV?
Sound off in the comments section below,
also if you're slacking and you still haven't subscribed,
go ahead and do that now.
And with that I'm Dustin with Custom Offsets
and we'll see you next time.
Peace.
(bass thumping beat)