Hummer Guy

Starting today, you will be able to purchase a HUMMER H2 or H3 and pay no interest for 6 years. It’s all part of GM’s 72 hour sale, which actually runs until the end of the month (yea, we know it’s fuzzy math…). For those uninterested in financing, HUMMER has come out with some incredible cash incentives as well — $6000 on a 2008 HUMMER H2 and $7000 on a 2008 HUMMER H3. We haven’t seen incentives this good since the employee pricing days of 06 — but then again, most HUMMER customers at that time weren’t dealing with 3 digit fill-ups. No matter what gas prices are, it’s hard to argue that $7000 off a brand new H3 isn’t extremely aggressive. Contact your local dealer or use our ‘buy a HUMMER‘ page for more details.

UPDATE: An H3T will be on display again 7/2/08 through 7/7/08 - come check it out!

This Friday, the crew at Sewell HUMMER of Dallas will have one of the very few pre-production HUMMER H3Ts on their showroom floor for the public to view. If you missed it at the Dallas Auto Show, this is your opportunity. The H3T can be seen from 3:30pm to 7pm on Friday, and between 8am and 10am Saturday. After this appearance, the H3T probably won’t be seen in Dallas until October – don’t miss it!

Earlier tonight, Robbie Knievel was forced to reduce the original field of 25 HUMMERs to 21 due to strong winds that have plagued Texas all week. Also, a protective ledge was placed over the last three trucks in the event Knievel came up short - after all, he would be jumping into a 30 mph headwind. President of Texas Motor Speedway Eddie Gossage said the jump was shortened “in the best interest of safety.” Fans in the grandstands still waited with anticipation for the son of Evel Knievel to fly over the SUVs at 90+ mph, and were eventually satisfied. After some ‘wheelies’ around the track, Knievel jumped over the 21 HUMMERs without incident.

More pictures and amateur video after the jump. (more…)

According to a racing blog, Robbie Knievel is worried about his HUMMER jump tonight at Texas Motor Speedway. Perhaps this is just a ploy to gather more attention, since someone who was truly worried probably wouldn’t have added 5 more HUMMERs to the 20 he was originally supposed to jump (we’ll have ours on hand, in case he decides to do 26!). Supposedly the wind has Knievel worried – which does makes sense – we’ve been having 40+ mph wind gusts in DFW all week.

Knievel says he hasn’t had much time to practice but has faith in his crew chief, Spanky. After all, who wouldn’t trust a guy named Spanky with their life? The daredevil also announced that this will be his last jump ever at Texas Motor Speedway. And so the tension begins…stay tuned…

We visited Texas Motor Speedway this evening during the running of the Sam’s Town 400 Nascar Truck race to get a feel for what to expect tomorrow night at the Bombardier/Learjet 550 IndyCar series race. Danica Patrick’s Go Daddy IndyCar was fueling up when we entered the pit area, and we also caught Ryan Briscoe speaking to some media types. We also sought out some good vantage points to view Robbie Knievel’s ‘Great American HUMMER Jump.’

As far as the jump goes – we didn’t see much being prepared for the big stunt to take place Saturday evening. All we could find was this rickety looking blue ramp. Surely they’ll have something more substantial for the jump…right? We’ll let you know tomorrow!

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HUMMER dealerships around the country host off-road events called HUMMER Happenings where their customers are invited to see just how capable H1s, H2s, and H3s can be. HUMMER customers in Dallas and Plano are gearing up for their next event to be held at Rough Creek Lodge in Glen Rose, TX. Last Sunday, crews from the two dealerships hit the course in preparation for the event expected to draw hundreds of HUMMER owners. Volunteers marked and groomed the trails ahead of the event to minimize the chance of damage to customers and their trucks – check out the slide show to see them hard at work:

In a little less than a month Robbie Knievel, son of the infamous Evel Knievel, will attempt to jump 20 HUMMER H2s at Texas Motor Speedway. The show is set to begin just prior to the Bombardier Learjet 550k IndyCar event on June 7th.

“To me, the jump is all about the show for the audience,” Knievel said. “Nobody puts on a show anymore. As an entertainer and growing up with my dad and being the son of Evel Knievel, it’s a great thing to get to do this for a living. Guys still come up to me now and say, ‘This is my dad that brought me to see your dad, and here’s my son that I brought to see you.’ That’s pretty cool to think that we span three generations.” (more…)

All new HUMMERs are equipped with OnStar, so when I heard about an announcement in Dallas about some new features and some entertainment – I signed up. Just like the event, this post is news first, entertainment second.

If you’ve ever tried to enter a destination into your GM navigation unit while driving down the road, you’ve no doubt encountered the built-in safety feature that doesn’t allow you to plug in an address unless the vehicle is stopped. Now, OnStar has introduced new technology that allows an advisor to enter in a destination for you while driving called Destination Download. After sensing your location, the navigation selects an appropriate route to your destination. But what if that route has long term construction or heavy traffic? OnStar has you covered there too. Teaming with XM’s NavTraffic service, OnStar will soon be able to find alternate routes around trouble spots and download that info to your navigation. For now, it’s only available in selected large cities, but more disappointing to some HUMMER owners is the fact it’s only going to be available on the H2. HUMMER H3 owners will still need to pull into the creepy gas station w/ paper-bag drinking bums to enter in a navigation destination.

OnStar has been running a pilot program with MapQuest that allows you to plan a route online, then access it from you vehicle later. The pilot must have gone well, since it will be available to all turn-by-turn navigation capable vehicles soon. OnStar is working to integrate this program with the previously mentioned Destination Download service.

XM Radio helped supply the entertainment for the event, which was up-and-coming artist Crystal Shawanda. A mix between rock, blues, and country, Shawanda delivered a soulful performance with both original songs and covers. More often than not it seems that artists who use covers use them because they don’t have great tunes of their own. Such is not the case with Shawanda – I found myself liking the covers, but loving her originals, especially the upbeat bluesy rock songs. There’s no album yet, but it sounds like one is on the way.

Between the E85/Ethanol HUMMER announcement last week and the Dallas Auto Show opening yesterday, we’ve gotten a few tidbits on where HUMMER is going with particular models. Let’s break it down:

2009 HUMMER H3T – HUMMER general manager Martin Walsh introduced the H3T to Texas which will be an important market for the newest HUMMER. Pickup trucks in general do well in the Lone Star State, but last year almost 12 percent of all HUMMER sales were in Texas – a good starting point for the H3T. We found out that the H3T will be the first to offer HUMMER’s new backup camera system (check out the current version here), in which the monitor is actually behind the glass of the rearview mirror. I’ve seen some systems that have tried that integration, but it leaves a large void in the mirror, or the mirror is very dark. I had to ask to clarify the H3T on display was equipped with it since it was impossible to tell – nice! Some of the suppliers that worked with HUMMER to create over 125 officially licensed accessories were also announced. They include SnugTop, Defenderworx, Truck Vault, MileMarker, Bushwaker, Boomerang, and DiamondBack Truck Covers. Also notable, the 2009 HUMMER H3T will be Bluetooth capable.

2009 HUMMER H2 – Speaking of Bluetooth, the 2009 H2 will also be ‘hands-free’ enabled with the addition of Bluetooth integration. Cold weather drivers will be happy with the addition of a heated steering wheel, and we also got confirmation that rear bucket seats will be available for the first time in the 2009 H2 model – no more folding the seats to get into the third row!

The Dallas Auto Show starts tomorrow, and our day is packed. First we’re off to a HUMMER H3T event, followed by a press conference where more details of the H3T will be announced. Later in the day it’s off to Gilley’s in Dallas for another announcement, this one from OnStar. More details to come – stay tuned!