Amusing H3 review.

From CNN today (edited down to remove all the fat): The new Hummer H3, which is smaller than the H2 has a gas mileage figure of 19mpg. It still has the trademark poor visibility and ultra-truck-like ride and handling. It still has the nasty hard plastic on the dash and door panels. The power-to-weight ratio is going to be hard to swallow, even for true Hummer fans. Its 3.5-liter 5-cylinder engine produces 220 horsepower and 225 foot-pounds of torque.

So basically, it's still a nauseous, boxy gas-guzzler.

I have to ask : how is it possible for GM to keep building 3.5l engines that only have 220hp ? It just doesn't seem possible to get so little power from such a large engine.
Our Subaru has 165hp stock from a 4 cylinder 2.5l engine. With a little tweaking, the same engine in the WRX can give 227hp and still return 24mpg. So 7hp more, 1 litre less capacity, and 5mpg more. Shit, the 2006 STi has 300hp stock from the same damned engine.
I just don't get it. You have to be trying really hard to build a 3.5l engine and get such bad mpg and low horsepower from it.
The pro-big-engine boys will read this and say "well its all about torque". Sure - if you ever actually used the H3 off road, maybe. But as its a fashion statement (and a bad one at that), the torque will basically be used for green-light starts. At which point I have to point out that any Subaru and just about any Japanese or European car could out-accelerate the H3.
Bringing a 19mpg SUV to the market when gas is now $3 a gallon does seem a bit ill-timed to me. Hell even the hideous new Subaru Tribeca can manage 24mpg.....

Comments

Anonymous said…
Hi Chris

During my holiday in the US in July (I come from Italy) I was extremely surprised by the cheap gas prices. In Hawaii I paid 3$ per gallon, which I think is a laugh compared with the Italian prices (1.25 Eur/liter or 5.72 $/gal). I just read that the US mainland is now faced with 3 $/gal and you see articles on CNN.com about cars that use less petrol and are still safe. Using less petrol they define as better than 27 mpg (to my metric standards that means 1 liter per 11.7 km). I think that is still a pretty high consumption. And what is it that they always want to have a "safe" car for the family? To my opinion almost every car produced nowadays is safe (Ok forget about the Lada's and the Dacia's). Besides that the roads in the US are safe and the only reason for needing these "supertrucks" is the fact that if you're hit by one of those, you'll likely not to survive the crash unless you have the same kind of truck. There you have it: the americans need to have the gas guzzeling trucks in order to protect their family from the neighbour who already drives one and because this man is a little short therefore he cannot clearly see the front (or the back) of his truck.

Keep up your blog, very enjoyable!
Patrick
09:46
Anonymous said…
i want to add that even a small engine can produce just as much torque as needed hell my almost 13 year old vw corrado with the vr6 makes is rated at 178 hp and 180lb of torque and thats only a 2 valves per cylinder 2.8 liter american car companies just think they are better than everyone else when they are the worst
15:08
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