Last weekend I took the Hummer Off-Road test drive. It was Priya's dream to own a Hummer. She would always say 'Can we buy a Hummer instead of a house?'. Anyways, had seen advertisement and clippings of the Hummer and was interested, but was not sure. The thought that would come to my mind was: 'When we are never going to buy this why should I test drive?' After I saw the invitation, I called the dealer to schedule an appointment for the test drive. I was still not sure if I would go for the event. In the invitation they had mentioned that there would be no sales pitch or pressure, which was one more reason for me going for the event. The most important reason for going was Priya. I wanted to take the drive and tell her how it was. I then scheduled the test drive for 2pm Saturday.
I showed up late and the Customer service was more than happy to fit me into the next slot which was at 4pm. I had over 1 hour to browse through the show room. I first started looking at the H1. Those are the ones that the Military folks use, I guess. They were huge and ugly. There was not enough room at the driver's seat. The door was too close to the seats. I had to move to my side before I closed the door. The controls inside were nicely arranged, all of them facing the driver. The seats were not so comfortable. It was the same with the passenger side seat too, not so comfortable and too close to the door. Looked like they had too much stuff fit between the two seats. Next was H2. That too was huge but looked better than H1. The seats were comfortable and bucket shaped. The door was not as close. I did not have to bang the door to close it too. Nice leg space etc. Then, I looked at the H3. H3 falls into the category of SUV's. This is smaller than the other two, still big, but was too good. Everything inside was nice and hard. H3 was different from other SUV's like the 4runner and other cars. Those were more of luxury and this looked like a performance car. It had the ‘Rough and Tough’ look.
There were around 20 Hummers (H2 and H3's) lined up for the test drive. We were grouped so that one vehicle would have two couples. The vehicle I got was numbered as V-15 and was accompanied by another heavy-weight couple. The man (Bob) would have weighed 400 pounds easily and I suspected that the vehicle would get grounded. Anyways, I was too excited and quickly found the vehicle and took on to the driver's seat, Buckled-up, started and waited. When Bob got into the vehicle, it did not even move. Wow! I was impressed; I was expecting it would flip-over. It was time for the test drive and each vehicle had a two-way radio and the instructors were instructing.... 'Go slow and steady'. They were worried because in a whole around $600K were at stake, any damage would be expensive for all. I was getting excited and wanted the vehicles ahead of me to move quickly so that I could start. All were taking their sweet time. The vehicles ahead of me started to move slowly and my turn came. The Instructor, Sean, pointed me to take a left and wait. I slowly moved front, took a left turn and .......... could not see a damn thing after that. It was a steep fall from there and I could not see where I was going to. I wanted to ask Sean if I could get down and see where I was heading too. Man! it was like a free fall for me... not knowing where you are going. He waved his hand prompting me to come forward.... and I took little baby steps... one at a time, at the brake and acceleration. As we were slowly and smoothly going down, I could see the grass and gravel in the ground. Next was uphill. The uphill was equally steep... I pushed the gas pedal and we were now looking at the sky. (We had our sun-roof open). I could hear things fall from the lady's hand bag, who was sitting tight lipped at the back. As I reached the top ... it was the same thing... do not know where I was heading to as I could not see anything beyond me other than the clear blue sky. After those two difficult slopes, it was the rocks. I would have never driven over the rocks if it were my own vehicle. The rocks looked dangerous. Then, there was this sharp and tilted curve. As I took the turn, I felt like I was driving a bike in the 'death well', remember 'Gemini Circus' where the guy goes round and round inside the well, it was more or less like that, except that I had to do it just once and I was not in a bike. Here, too, I was worried that the Vehicle would flip-over. I was more worried thinking what would have happened if Bob fell over me- Yes the seat belt worked and he remained there and the car did not flip-over. The next track was mud-track. There was a swamp and we had to go downhill and then uphill. I was sure, it would slide all the way down and then we would then not able to go up after that. Sean instructed us to change the gear setting to 4Up. We were driving 4down till then. Man! the car just took us all the way down and then up as if there was not mud or swamp there. It was now time to switch drivers and I did not want to give it away. Bob drove the second half of the track and I got to sit at the passenger seat. It was as exciting to just sit and watch. Bob was more experienced than me. He was like a pro. He would intentionally go over logs; he would drive in-between the swamp and laugh when the car slid. The whole trip was like a trip to Six-flags.
Yes! Now, I too want to buy this Hummer. It is expensive but affordable. They say it 'drinks' fuel, but, it is as bad as Toyota 4runner or Nissan Xtra. I guess, I should start saving some money for my next HumV - H3. (And Priya is going to say ‘Yes’ to me atleast this time, for a change!!!)
