KEY POINTS:
The latest in hip-hop must-haves, the Hummer H3, has launched in Australia, but may not get to New Zealand at all.
Holden New Zealand said no decision has been made on whether the first right-hand drive production version of the off-road giant will be released in New
Zealand.
Enough to send environmentalists scrambling for a soothing cup of chamomile, the utterly not-green Hummer is the third generation since GM calmed down the military-spec Hum-vee for the road.
The original - several examples of which can be seen on Kiwi roads - needed to be converted, at great expensee, to right hand drive, as did the ever-so-slightly more refined H2.
But GM is kindly providing the newbie with the steering wheel on the correct side, and as the smallest Hummer so far, it's probably the best suited to New Zealand.
Still 'smallest' is a purely subjective term, and it is 4782mm long, 1989mm wide and sports a mammoth 2841mm wheelbase.
H3 is a bit on the portly side as well, tipping the scales at 2178kg.
For a small model, it's still bigger than necessary, thirstier than necessary and quite anti-social
That didn't stop more than 400 Australians slapping down their money before this week's launch.
GM call it an 'economical and manoeuvrable' mid-size SUV, and offer it in three different specification levels for the Australian market, ranging in price between $A52,000 and $A60,000.
There's H3, then the Adventure and, of course, the Luxury.
It's being touted as a great all-round vehicle whether in the city or in the nastiest conditions nature can throw at it.
Powered by a Vortec 3.7 litre in-line five uses variable valve timing to make its 180kW@5600rpm. It pushes out 328Nm@4600rpm, but delivers 90 per cent of this across a healthy chunk of the rev range between 2000 and 6000rpm.
Factory fuel consumption figures are 13.8 litres and 14.5 litres per 100km for the manual and auto respectively this is based on a combination of city and highway driving, which supposedly reflects real world conditions.
Off road goodies, not surprisingly, are abundant there's a choice of two electronically controlled two-speed Borg Warner transfer cases, dependent on which model is chosen.
The base H3 and Luxury variants both deliver a 45.1:1 crawl ratio (manual), and the Adventure can get through the rough stuff with no problem at all with its 68.9:1 ratio.
Full time four wheel drive is engaged for round town duties, like picking up the kids from soccer practice, but when the going gets tougher than a steep judderbar, 4 LOW LOCK is engaged, offering a 2.64:1 transfer ratio in the Luxury and stock H3.
The gutsy 4.03:1 ratio in the Adventure is the most aggressive ever installed in a GM production vehicle.
