2006 Hummer H3 Test Drive

Big Baby

The smallest Hummer yet handles better than its brethren, but don't expect fuel efficiency despite its small engine.

Like any hybrid-hugging Eastern liberal, I pre-hated the H3 — too porky, too obscene, too arrogant, too much.

Then our perky triathlete friend arrived for lunch and raved, "I love that cute little Hummer in the driveway!"

Hmmmm … let's take another look.

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It's really tall, but so what? The H3 is, in fact, shorter and narrower than an Acura MDX and the length and width of a Jeep Grand Cherokee. It's square, as Hummers are meant to be, and looks hewn from an ingot. General Motors, which owns Hummer, boasts of its "cube-like metal billet form," though a bunch of the H3's blocky accents are plastic.

It has tall 16-inch tires — the size of a fire engine's (taller ones are optional) and substantially larger than those on any other midsize SUV. Those meaty tires in their open-air wheel wells go a long way toward making the H3 look far larger than it actually is. The rough-cast, locomotive-size towing shackles front and rear exacerbate that impression.  

2006 SUV BUYER'S GUIDE The H3 made our SUV Buyer's Guide hot list. Check out more hot 2006 introductions.

Maybe in some eyes the H3 is cute, but Hummer's aiming more for butch, buff or slap-leather mean. After all, its big brother, the H1, is a civilianized version of a diesel-powered military machine. Next in line is the H2, an H1 look-alike on a big Chevy Suburban frame. But the H3 is a toy Hummer, the newest and littlest built atop a General-Motors pickup truck chassis that fits midsize-SUV weights and measures. With the H3, you're opting for a look and an attitude, not a logical, all-purpose vehicle.

If it matters — and it does both to active off-roaders and to poseurs who imagine they could tackle California's High Sierra Rubicon Trail if they ever took the chance — you're also buying some serious off-road capability. With its steep approach and departure clearances, which determine how big an obstruction you might surmount without hitting it, substantial ground clearance and hog-wallowing tires, an H3 will do pretty much anything a Jeep can.