A statement on wheels

OKEMOS, Mich.- The Hummer is a moving “Get Out of My Way” sign, a 16-foot-long behemoth that its critics — and there are plenty — call ostentatious and irresponsible. And who is behind that smoked glass, under the sloped, angular roof that appears to be frowning at peasants in lesser vehicles? Who commands this troglodyte on wheels?

The advertising copy announces: “In a world where SUVs have begun to look like their owners, complete with love handles and mushy seats, the H2 proves that there is still one out there that can drop and give you 20.”

Does that kind of message appeal to a Robert Conrad, knock-the-battery-off-my-shoulder kinda fellow? Or is it a road-rage prone, nut-case kind of fellow?

“Well, neither, really. It’s really just a beautiful machine, the best money can buy,” says 60-year-old Manohar Naga, a business owner in this Lansing suburb. A stout, cordial gentleman, Mr. Naga owns two Hummers with vanity license plates reading “MYTOYH1” and “MYTOYH2.” He beams over the massive machines which, he says, “come with an aura that impresses.”

“I have owned good cars for some time,” he says. “[Chevrolet] Corvettes, Suburbans … but there is nothing like this.”

No argument there. The Hummer that now rolls along civilian streets began as a military vehicle, the High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle — HMMWV, an acronym which GI slang immediately shortened to Humvee and then to Hummer.

In 1985, the Humvee replaced the Jeep as the way American troops traversed tough terrain. AM General, the Indiana company that manufactures the Pentagon’s Humvee, builds the civilian H1 and H2 versions, with the former designed for off-road driving and the latter an SUV-styled hunk of steel and fiberglass that drives well and looks cool. Both are marketed by General Motors.

The Hummer’s adherents are car people, for the most part, attracted by its tough looks.

“It was the next logical extension for me,” says Gary Fiore, a 55-year-old retiree who lives in Pittsburgh. Mr. Fiore bought his white H2 in 2002. A car collector who retired early when his landfill company was bought out in 1992, he was looking for something to stimulate him.

“I had a Suburban and a [GMC] Yukon,” Mr. Fiore says. “And I test drove an H2, and that was that. I mean, we are a nation of car nuts, and I think every kid dreams of driving a Corvette. Well, this is a Corvette-plus.”

At Hummer dealerships across the country, many “car nuts” show up to just take an H2 test drive and nothing else. Initially, anyway.

“Imagine how this would look pulling a horse trailer,” says Brenda Zlotek, hopping out of a yellow H2 after a test drive at Capital Hummer in Lansing. She and her husband run a small farm in rural St. Johns, Mich., and do fine financially, which makes the sticker price of $55,000 a reasonable buy.

“At that, it is conceivably in my price range,” she said.

That is the key to the clubby appeal of the Hummer — an upscale ride with an image of success and adventure.

“I’ve sold to retired couples who want to have fun, to guys in their 40s who are players, to soccer moms and to petite girls who feel like it is great to have all that testosterone around them,” says Tim Porter, a salesman and Hummer devotee at Weseloh Hummer in Carlsbad, Calif. “I have a plumber from Mexico coming up to pick one up, and I sold one to [Los Angeles Lakers owner] Jerry Buss’s ex-wife.”

GM says 70 percent of Hummer owners are male, with an average age of 43 and an annual income of about $200,000. Fifty-five percent have college degrees, and 35 percent are self-employed.

“Our target is what we call the rugged individualist,” says Mike DiGiovanni, general manager of GM’s Hummer division. “These are people who are either entrepreneurial, self-made, or they are successful achievers, who consider themselves daring, such as a high-income person whose idea of risk is a big stock-market deal. They tend to watch things like the Discovery Channel and the more upscale news channels, and they tend to like sports, things like NFL football and March Madness.”

Women who drive Hummers “tend to have the same profile as men in that regard,” he says.

Hummer drivers sometimes feel like they are enlisting in a movement when they plunk down their dough.

“They made a big deal out of it when I bought mine,” says Ben Goetter, who was a 28-year-old computer programmer when he became one of the first U.S. civilians to buy a boxy H1 Hummer in 1992. “I flew to Indiana to pick it up and drove the test track. There was a lot of ceremony. It was like being initiated.”

Mr. Goetter, now 39 and a real-estate developer in Mazama, Wash., paid $45,000 at the time “because the Hummer represented escape for me.”

“I was trapped in an office all day. It was also a delayed adolescent thing, coddling the escape fantasy,” he said.

The Hummer is a big hit with the rich and famous. Celebrities buy the Hummer because it’s there, says a dealer in the D.C. suburbs. Houston Astros pitcher Roger Clemens has one, compliments of his former team, the New York Yankees. NBA phenom LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers has one. Rasheed Wallace of the Detroit Pistons owns three.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a legend in Hummer culture, the man who asked AM General to begin building a version for commercial use.

By cultivating an image of exclusivity, GM has avoided the incentives that gutted its profits last year. There were 35,259 new Hummer H2s sold last year — 25 percent above projections. It was so successful that other car makers are emulating the Hummer, with Ford’s new brawny Bronco and Chrysler’s concept Rescue.

GM already has announced its H2 SUT, or sport utility truck, which will roll out next month.

H2 ads that proclaim “Valets should pay you” create both buzz and a bit of resentment. But Hummers owners welcome the attention.

“Everybody wants to talk to me when I drive it,” says Mr. Naga, the Lansing entrepreneur. “They want to know about gas mileage, comfort. This is the car that makes everyone curious. And when they complain about how it is a gas guzzler, I have to tell them that it is no worse than a three-quarter-ton pickup, which sell a lot more than Hummers.”