Hummer bummer - big but not biggest

By DAVID USBORNE

It might not be long before drivers of the Hummer - the steroid-laden sports utility vehicle favoured by the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger - will get a fright when they look in their rearview mirrors. Trailing right behind them will be a set of wheels even bigger, greedier and more eye-catching than their own.

No one should go rushing to the showrooms just yet. But the United States Army and the International Truck and Engine Corporation - a private Chicago-based manufacturer - are jointly developing a replacement for the venerable Humvee troop transporter, from which the Hummer was originally derived.

Nothing is definitive, but the project is already sufficiently advanced that last week prototypes of the so-called Smart Truck 3 were displayed at an automotive trade show in Las Vegas. What they have in mind would be enough to send any self-respecting Mini diving for cover, its headlights squeezed shut.

Most importantly, the plans call specifically for a dual-use future for the vehicle. The Army is determined, in fact, that they can simultaneously be marketed to other customers. That might be government agencies, such as the US Border Patrol, but also people who feel it's only right that they need a stepladder to get behind their steering wheels.

The commercial version, of course, would not have quite the same features as the models delivered to the Army. Stripped away would be the electronics designed to detect Anthrax in the air outside, the Kevlar armouring on the underside, the night-vision cameras and the touch-screen computer monitors on the back of the front seats. But they would be just as big.

The "Smart Truck" - they are still working on its eventual name - would weigh in at no less than 3630kg compared to the nearly 2270kg for the second-generation Hummer, the H2, now on the market. Cars like that will need two spaces at the supermarket and warning signs on the back for anyone planning to overtake.

The folks at International Truck insist, however, that this monster will not be as thirsty as the Hummer, which has been vilified by environmentalists for its extravagant fuel consumption.

But the era of bigger-is-always-better may have passed.

A quick glance at the troubles afflicting the Hummer should be enough to make the developers of the Smart Truck pause. Sales of the Hummer in the first ten months of this year were off by a fifth compared to 2003, in part, one assumes, because of the ever-increasing shock at the pumps.

Indeed General Motors, which markets the Hummer brand, is just now preparing to launch a scaled-down version of the car, called the H3, in an effort to boost flagging sales.

- INDEPENDENT