Hummer vs. Humvee
AM General began delivering Humvees to the military in 1985. The vehicles saw first combat in Panama.
"One of the vehicles dropped by helicopter landed upside down; the [Army] Rangers rolled it over and drove it away," Mac Nab said.
Humvees also went to the first Gulf War, Somalia, Kosovo, Liberia and Bosnia. They're in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today, the U.S. Army has the most Humvees, followed by the Marines, then the Air Force and Navy. Some of the original Humvees are still in use. "The military uses it for everything—ambulance, cargo troop carrier, communications equipment carrier, weapons carriers," Mac Nab said.
The vehicle also is sold to "more than 40 friendly countries," he added. Price is "about $60,000" for a basic Humvee, with prices rising to around $150,000 for some of the specialty versions, according to Mac Nab.
The Hummer H1—the first Hummer model to be offered for sale to consumers starting in the early 1990s when Schwarzenegger, Customer No. 1, got his—is made on the same assembly line as the Humvees. Total combined production is about 25 vehicles a day at the plant, which is in Mishawaka, adjacent to South Bend.
To the casual observer, the military-styled H1 might seem to be nearly identical to what soldiers drive in war zones. It is, to a surprising extent.
Certainly, the boxy outer styling—complete with vertical windshield and protruding tow hooks on the hood where a helicopter can hook onto a vehicle to lift it—are the same. All have bodies made of aircraft-quality aluminum with rivets that creak and groan as the vehicle traverses rough terrain. All use the same heavy-duty, box steel frame with five crossmembers, the same shock absorbers, springs and control arms.
The H1 interior, which had a major update for the 2004 model year, is downright plush compared with the austere interior of a Humvee. There's no commercial-station FM radio in the Humvee, no leather seats, no carpeting, no power windows or door locks, no cupholders, like the H1 has. Since soldiers don't want to be left stranded by lost keys in a combat zone, there's no key ignition on the Humvee. There's a switch that turns on the vehicle. The Humvee doesn't have a dome light, either.
To power military equipment, the military Humvee has a more robust electrical system—24 volts—than its commercial cousin, the Hummer. And the Humvee's body is coated with Chemical Agent Resistant Coating (CARC) paint that doesn't absorb harmful substances like nerve gas. Hummers get a lustrous coat of commercial auto paint.
Many military Humvee models don't have doors or roofs, and their passenger compartments have drain holes to allow water to drip out. In contrast, Hummers have waterproof interiors, according to AM General officials. Hummers are powered by a noisy 6.5-liter turbodiesel V8 that's readily heard inside the vehicle, while soldiers' Humvees use a naturally aspirated diesel, which also is noisy and likely to be heard more, because Humvees have negligible sound insulation.
There are similarities, too. The steering wheel inside both vehicles is unexpectedly small, because soldiers wearing ammunition belts need to be able to fit comfortably behind it. The dashboard doesn't protrude much into the vehicle, either. There's a huge hump that rises from the floor that separates passengers on each side of the vehicle. It's the drivetrain, tucked up unusually high so its mechanicals aren't scraped and damaged in an off-road maneuver.
Both vehicles have an exceptional amount of U.S. content. Indeed, the H1's 97 percent U.S. content is likely the highest of any vehicle an American consumer can buy today.
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