Road Test: 2006 Hummer H3 Video

Truck Trends Mark Williams gets up close and personal with Hummers midsized sport/utility vehicle....

Transcript

00:00 The 2006 Hummer H3 is finally here.

00:16 4-door, midsize SUV, the first midsize SUV from Hummer.

00:21 Five-cylinder engine, 220 horsepower, 225 foot-pounds of torque.

00:25 More affordable.

00:26 The price starts just underneath $30,000.

00:30 That completely opens it up.

00:31 There's a whole bunch of SUVs in that $30,000 segment.

00:39 Although the Hummer H3 looks a lot like the big brother H2, it is about 17 inches shorter

00:45 in overall length and about 6 1/2 inches shorter in height.

00:49 The H2 is about 6,400 pounds.

00:51 The H3 is about 4,700 pounds.

00:57 Both vehicles, obviously, very heavy-duty, very reinforced.

01:00 In fact, the H3 is based off of the Chevy Colorado and the GMC Canyon platform, but

01:06 there are very serious modifications involved.

01:08 It's got two extra cross members.

01:09 It's a fully boxed frame to make the H3 a very capable four-wheel-drive vehicle.

01:19 On-road high performance is not what this vehicle is about.

01:22 It doesn't feel like 220 horsepower.

01:25 We even proved that at the track, where 0 to 60 times were just under 12 seconds.

01:32 The adventure package that we have on the H3, big 33-inch tires, a 4 to 1 low-range

01:37 transfer case, and a manual transmission for this segment, which is relatively unusual,

01:42 allowing it to crawl at very slow speeds and allow the driver to maneuver through incredibly

01:49 difficult terrain with ease and comfort.

01:56 This vehicle is going to be very important to Hummer.

01:58 It not only allows them access to a much larger audience, hoping for a bigger sales volume,

02:05 but also allows them to address some of their critics.

02:08 Here it is.

02:09 The H3 is smaller.

02:10 The five-cylinder engine gets much better fuel economy than any other Hummer that's

02:13 out there, so that they can be on a little more solid ground as far as their environmental

02:19 friendliness as well.

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