Hmmmm. My recolletion is that by 1990, some folks were already driving surplus Humvees around Portland, and soon after, a pizza joint over by SW Pine & Burnside were among the first to commercialize them with a hip paint job on their company's hummer. Name escapes me at the moment.

The H1 was not a bad vehicle for its purpose. It was a serious offroader with awesome capability. With the H2, GMC gelded it and turned it into a brand for posers with way more money than sense.

If the new owners want to really blow people's minds, they should build a new version of the H1 with an all-electric drivetrain behind a diesel-driven generator. :-)

So we can blame Arnie for the demise of both GM and Cal-ee-for-nee-ah?

You've got to love the bozo from the Heritage Foundation who's worried that the Chinese might get national security secrets by buying Hummer -- like Hummers haven't been available overseas for the past fifteen years.

It was Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California who persuaded the longtime maker of Humvees, A. M. General in Mishawaka, Ind., to build a civilian version. As he recounted at a Hummer news conference in 2001, Mr. Schwarzenegger was filming the movie “Kindergarten Cop” in Oregon in 1990 when he saw a convoy of 50 Humvees drive by and decided that he had to have a civilian model of the same vehicle, which became the Hummer H1."

er, no.

the Hummer (yes, they called it that before Arnold's version) got made because it got lots of positive press in the first Gulf War. plans were in the works in the late 80s--after some business shuffling, it got produced. they were already tooling up by the time the "Kindergarten Cop" saw some Hummers tolling down the road.

but it makes a good fantasy hero story for Arnold, doesn't it?

I believe that was Rocco's Pizza that had a Hummer for delivery.

So are these going to be the vehicles we get from China that our Gov went and begged for?

Sadly, the last hummer I enjoyed was in California. Mrs. T doesn't like them.