Hummer H2 test drive since 2002 SUV
Hammerican dream
Buy a similar car for urban use is absurd, if we proceed for reasons of rationality. This monster with a six-liter in American voracious V8 and a megalopolis with its car crowd, close alleys and parking problems, to put it mildly, are not created for each other. Another thing is if you live far from civilization, in conditions of crossed terrain and notorious directions instead of roads. Then the presence of H2 in the yard will be justified. But is such a situation possible in principle?You can come in from the other side. The class of true SUVs has recently been greatly played. Today, universal vehicles are in fashion, in the controllability and design of which focus on good behavior in conditions of smooth roads is placed. And here the new Hummer with his time -tested frame scheme, focused on the same directions, and not on the highway, is as well as possible. A six -liter charismatic giant will proudly carry an off -road banner on a leak.
However, all this is too far -fetched. Nobody will buy Hummer H2 for practical reasons (the US Army perhaps). He is not at all one of those laborers who are used, say, for the transport of mail and food on hard -to -reach settlements. And the trunk, by the way, is not enough for this. The owner of the H2 will put it on 26-inch wheels (the black fans of rap in the USA adoring Hummer put their H2 and at all on 28-inch) with highway rubber, underestimate the suspension, force the engine, install the bottom of the bottom and smoothly plunge into the night club. A huge, combat -looking machine, and everyone, by and large, likes it.
The aura has not only people, but all cars, and in H2 it has the property of in a strange way to influence the consciousness of the people who are inside or stand nearby, looking at. Acquaintance with the assembly enterprise in Kaliningrad, we can say that our native H2 occurred at the parking lot near the General Motors representative office on Gogolevsky Boulevard. There are many places there, but Hummer seemed to have filled the whole space. As a driver’s grinding to the car, a maneuver with a turn was made and, I must say, it was damn exciting. You sit in a large and strange truck, or a bus and slowly swim over the parking lot and all this bustle.
And the Hammer Aura, meanwhile, did its underlying mysterious work. The outside world, which remained behind the small windows, decreased incomprehensibly. The spacious parking has become very cramped; Representative sedans immediately lost the class, or even two of their representativeness, and looked ordinary cars; The BMW X5 was closed to the size of the RAV4, and Toyota Sequoia was without hesitation for Land Cruiser 100.
Good sound insulation, coupled with eight Bose speakers, seemed to be fenced off from everyday Moscow reality. The soft American chair obsessively proposed to take a more impressive pose, for this a thoughtful machine gun and a lulling suspension, rich in rolls and slander during acceleration and braking. I had to fall back. After which I slowly shifted into the left row, opened the window to catch the last rays of the still warm autumn sun, and, smiling thoughtfully, rolled forward, looking relaxed around, more precisely, down. I must say that in this hypostasis the car proved to be well. The left row is always free, and those who are trying to get there from the right prefer to sharply finish the maneuver, not yet begun. Aura in action! Others become somehow more friendly. People definitely like the appearance of H2, and the size cannot but cause respect. Simple charm mechanics.
A radically large car is somewhat disappointed with its internal space. Rather, it does not live up to expectations in this regard. No, in the front of the cabin is complete order. Spacious in all directions, between the driver and the passenger - a huge armrest, a width of a standard chessboard. Large chairs with electroregulations, handles-to make it convenient to enter-go, three cigarette lighters in a row and many, many cup holders. Everything is great. But behind! Her Majesty is dominated by a full -size reserve of H2. A 17-inch wheel hung up in a neat cover with a dimension of 315/70 dimension looks almost like the main highlight of the interior. And this, in fact, is sad. After all, the reserve not only forced the second row of seats to move forward, but also chopped off the idea of \u200b\u200bthe third row in the bud, leaving a place for only one chair. The trunk decreased accordingly.
The review through the salon mirror is not too good, but huge side burdocks help here, with the help of which you can easily move in reverse, without spinning your head.
Some embarrassment was caused by materials and technological techniques that are used in the interior decoration. Ideologically, the interior does not lag behind the exterior - it is rude, assertively, sweeping. But solid material went to all plastic panels, and some details in the center of the console are made of plastic with sparkles inside! The whole thing is fixed by visual stressing bolts. And, it seems, we know why. To make the masters from the tuning studio easier to disassemble the salon and tighten it with leather! Indeed, in this form, he will probably arrange an officer of the American army in the field, but does not meet the interior requirements for a car worth $ 100,000.
The steering wheel is large, but seemed small. In any case, it is convenient, but also some kind of too modest. Under the replacement? But the chairs of this machine just right. There are no side support rollers - they are not needed. Home comfort! He failed to soft depths and went freely. True, you will have to deal with the cunning steering wheel switch, on which the turn signals, wipers, cruise control, high beam and washer washers.
The length of the car is almost five meters, width and height in the region of two. Rubber, as already mentioned, is clearly an off -road format - 315/70. The suspension is very long -term, dry mass - three tons. How will this set of anti -Dracean qualities go in the city and along the highway? He went better than we imagined it! On the face is terrible, kind inside - this is about H2. It is enough to get comfortable with the dimensions of the car, and there will be no problems. The main thing is to go, as is appropriate to Hummer, without fuss. By the way, the Russian H2 enters the category of passenger vehicles (due to a reduced mass) - there are plenty of driver’s rights in the category.
In the turns, the barracks are treacherously empty, but to miss him, the behavior of the car at permissible speeds is quite predicted and understandable. H2 rolls, the suspension chooses the move, and the desired maneuver is successfully performed. On the waves of asphalt, Hummer is important, but this buildup cannot be called frightening. And on a broken highway, the car behaves well at high speed, easily swallowing all the troubles with its bottomless suspension.
On the highway, H2 quickly goes to the maximum 160 km/h, then the limiter does not allow. But it will not work so calmly - you have to constantly steel and catch the trajectory of movement. However, the dynamic corridor is not very wide, and the process does not tire much. In general, the threshold of comfortable speed H2 - 130V140 km/h.
It should be braided neatly. It is easier to tear off the off -road rubber into sliding than the highway, the car falls on the front wheels and can easily jump from the trajectory. Yes, no one has yet canceled the laws of physics. There were no complaints about the brakes in the standard modes.
H2 acceleration dynamics - a little more than 10 seconds to 100 km/h. And in these seconds in lower gears, the car goes quite dynamically. Still, 6 liters of volume and a moment of 488 Nm, which gives out aluminum-chigun Vortec, are able to vigorously disperse even three tons of weight. But then it is no longer interested. Yes, and the work of the automatic gearbox is far from the ideal - it fits the steps smoothly, but does it with amazing delays.
Summary: it is necessary to drive around the city not fast, with a sense of dignity, then it will be comfortable. You can occasionally scare the surrounding traffic lights from the start, when the engine fountaining the engine makes a sound that simultaneously resembles the cry of a wounded elephant and the roar of a soaring aircraft. Sitting inside will like it too. By the way, the tank is empty with an intensity of about 35 l/100 km.
But the most interesting begins when you move off the asphalt. Hummer H2 has amazing cross -country ability. Moreover, he does his off -road work with rare comfort for passengers and not forcing the driver to strain too much. Any obstacles, pits, ruts, large puddles seem to be squeezed, surrounding a calm chrome muzzle in front of them. Greatly shifting from the wheel to the wheel, Hummer playfully overcomes the most serious obstacles and easily climbs to the nightmarish slopes. Mighty traction, toothy tires, large clearance (25 cm), all -wheel drive with a possible blocking of the center and rear inter -coil differentials - all this works for H2 to drag his master into impassable wilds and then pull out. In general, the car did not disgrace the glorious name of Hummer - the off -road continuity of generations is evident.
And how much does this Kaliningrad miracle monster cost? The Hummer H2 has become cheaper, and now it can be bought for ninety with a small thousand dollars. Moreover, the engine in any case will be the most powerful - it is offered one. The price can rise to $ 93,000 due to additional equipment. These are normal numbers, since it came to a real SUV, which has a cult status during life.
Comments on photographic materials:
1. H2 - not for ordinary car soles, the car was able to climb into a standard box only after the mirrors were folded. The wider H1 would have no chance.
2. Humvee. In the modern model range, Hummer is better known not H2, but the legendary H1, aka Humvee, the same one that has been made practically from 1983 for the needs of the US armed forces. If H2 is very good for off -road, then for H1 there is hardly a worthy opponent. A unique car layout made it possible to achieve a clearance of half a meter (!), And all the wheels pendants are independent. The brakes are interestingly worked out. Their discs are not installed in wheels, but in the depths of the transmission - this allows you to better protect them in difficult conditions of off -road. Under the hood (with the transition to the salon), a 6.5 -liter turbodiesel with a capacity of 205 hp is installed, torque - 596 nm. This is enough to storm even the most crossed terrain.
3. H2 - pickup! H2 is available in two versions. The one that has visited the test is sold behind the ocean called H2 SUV. In our opinion - SUV. There is also H2 SUT - image pickup. In normal form, a five -seater salon, behind it is an open cargo compartment. The salon can be transformed by folding the rear sofa, and get a huge luggage platform. The technical specifications of the two versions are the same, but H2 SUT is not supplied to Russia and will not be produced in Kaliningrad.
Text: Leonty Tyutelev
Source: Motor magazine [No. 11/2004]