The H1 & H2’s never fit that bill, all they would ever be would be “status” symbols for some, and the H3 was just a pitiable and laughable thing.
The H1 was a great machine for what it was designed to be, but to take that and try to spin it into a retail brand, frankly was silly, cheap or expensive gas would not have changed this brands fate.
There are only so many tiny women with penis envy who are going to buy an overpriced and oversized machine, and only so many hard core offroaders, the status symbol set would never be happy with an H1, no matter how much they tried to refine it. Its a beast, built to do some serious things, but a beast none the less, and its never going to be a Land Rover.
I agree, but I wasn’t referring to the H1 as Land Rover competition. I was referring to the follow-on line of vehicles H1 and H2. The H1 had much more status thant the Land Rover, but mainly because the price ($100K) and the military heritage. But they sucked on the road and that became immediately apparent.
And Hummer sales dropped through the floor EXACTLY at the same time that the oil prices jumped. You couldn’t drive 200yds without passing a butt-ugly H2. They even built specialized Hummer dealerships in the shape of tin quonset huts. Those vehicles were selling HARD, but only for a short time frame. If gas was cheap, this brand would still be viable because there are always plenty of suckers out there.