GM: Downsizing the Hummer

A Little Military History

Quickly. What is a "High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle"? Well, if you've kept up with Arnold Schwarzenegger films or studied the 1991 Gulf War, you may have recognized the formal military description of what soldiers describe using the acronym "Humvee." If you don't really know what a Humvee is, just stand by ? General Motors is going to tell you.
This story starts in 1979, when AM General, a specialty vehicle manufacturer, earned a contract from the U.S. Army to design the Humvee. The Army wanted a new vehicle to replace the Jeep, the ever-present multipurpose vehicle that had transported generations of soldiers. The Army believed it needed a more modern, up-to-date vehicle to meet needs of the modern soldier. AM General produced the big, boxy Humvee, which labored in relative obscurity until the Gulf War in 1991. In that war, the United States and its allies mounted a military operation against Iraq, which had just invaded Kuwait. Television coverage of the military buildup in advance of the short war and live broadcasts of the war itself introduced the public to the workhorse Humvee.
In 1992, AM General, responding to the Humvee's notoriety, decided to introduce the first civilian version of the Humvee ? the Hummer. Weighing in at 7,100 pounds, the Hummer featured a huge, 6.5 liter V-8, turbo-diesel engine that produced 195 horsepower and propelled the Hummer from 0 to 60 miles per hour in a snail-like 18 seconds. But the Hummer's purpose was not speed. AM General designed it, like its military parent, to take people off the beaten path ? way off. The Hummer could plow through water to a depth of 30 inches and climb almost vertical, rocky surfaces. It even had a central tire i ...