When you think about a truly bad ass vehicle, you think of an M4 Sherman tank. The only problem with a Sherman tank is that you can’t take your kids to Food Lion to get groceries in an M4 Sherman tank. Well you could….but its not really going to be a comfortable ride for any of you. For military applications, AM General created a a four-wheel drive, High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle which took the place of the Vietnam era M151 Jeeps and other light truck. The HMMWV commonly known as the Humvee, saw a lot of use in the deserts of the Gulf War.
The Humvee first felt the cruel hand of war back in 1989 during the US invasion of Panama but the military seemed to try to pry the Humvee away from its personnel and light cargo 
transport purpose. The Humvee was never intended to be on the front lines and therefore costs 67 lives to be lost in 2006 alone due to IED blasts. The US military equipped the Humvee with a turret, replaced the doors, and added bulletproof windows to make them safer but the increased weight put such a straight on the chassis that by 2012 the now unreliable Humvee was not feasible for combat. Luckily for the general population, AM General began producing a civilian off-road vehicle based on the M998 Humvee in 1992. You know what I’m talking about. You know where I’m going with this. I’m talking about the Hummer. The big, bad gas-guzzling behemoth that crushes Prius’s and takes up their own lane…plus some. The original release of the Hummer can owe its popularity to two huge things:
Operation Desert Storm and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Photos of the Humvees from
Operation Desert Storm were pouring in and we were salivating at how bad ass they looked. “The Austrian Oak” himself was the recipient of the first civilian owned Hummer and he made us all want one. In fact Arnold owns a lot of Hummers and even used his ‘alternative fuel’ Hummer as a selling point for his California gubernatorial campaign.
The Hummer and its sister vehicle (the more soccer-mom friendly) H2 is poked fun at by being such an economically inefficient vehicle but that hasn’t stopped thousands of these vehicles to have been sold. From 1992 to 2006, there were 11,818 Hummer H1’s sold around the world. This limited run makes the vehicle even more desirable. So if you’re wanting to pretend to be a muscular bad ass super soldier driving around in your plow thru anything assault vehicle, a guy wanting to flaunt his over powered ego, or just a guy wanting an awesome ride…go ahead and try to hunt down your own Hummer. Just don’t be too shocked when you see the equally awesome price tag.
The Pop Culture Kings present The Archives of Wisdom 