Hummer H1

Hummer H1 at a glance

From military Humvee to showroom

The story starts with a 1979 Army requirement for a High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV); on 22 March 1983 AM General won a contract for 55,000 of them. The plant in Mishawaka opened in 1984. Arnold Schwarzenegger, an early private enthusiast, promoted the vehicle and pressed AM General to offer a road-registered version.

The civilian Hummer went on sale in 1992 with a 6.2-litre GM diesel V8. Wikipedia's Hummer timeline puts the price of the first civilian car at about US$100,000. Mechanically it was very close to the M998: the same frame, axles, brakes, bonnet, tailgate and rear quarter panels, built on the same assembly line. Civilian vehicles were painted in a separate building.

In December 1999 General Motors bought the rights to market the Hummer name. AM General kept building the vehicle, which GM rebadged as the H1; the H2 followed in 2002. For the brand as a whole, from AM General to GMC, read our Hummer history.

Built for terrain, not for roads

The H1's off-road hardware came straight from the military design. Portal gear hubs at each wheel lift the half-shafts and give 406 mm of ground clearance under the differentials. The brakes sit inboard, next to the differentials. The radiator and air intake are mounted high so that the H1 can wade through 762 mm of water, more with extra equipment.

With the central tyre inflation system, the driver can adjust tyre pressures from the cabin for sand or rock, and run-flat inserts allow about 48 km at 32 km/h with a punctured tyre, according to German Wikipedia. Early H1s had no locking differentials: Torsen units front and rear and brake-based traction control shared the torque. Electric Eaton lockers arrived for the rear axle in model year 2003 and for the front in 2004.

The figures come from English and German Wikipedia. By our calculation the H1 is about 240 mm wider than it is tall (2,197 mm against 1,956 mm), which explains its stability on side slopes.

Engines and gearboxes

English Wikipedia lists the engines but gives power only for the last one; the kW figures for the earlier units come from German Wikipedia.

Performance was never the point. According to Exotic Car Trader, the early diesels needed about 16 seconds to reach 60 mph and ran out of breath at 134 km/h (83 mph); the Duramax cut that to about 12 seconds and 155 km/h (96 mph). German Wikipedia gives fuel consumption of 16–20 l/100 km; the last 2006 models averaged about 24 l/100 km (10 mpg) according to English Wikipedia. A 95-litre main tank was joined by a 65-litre auxiliary tank from model year 1996. To turn that into annual costs, enter your mileage in the 1cars fuel cost calculator.

Body styles and cabin

At its peak the H1 came in five body styles. The soft top and the wagon were the last two sold to private buyers.

• Soft top: four doors and a canvas roof.
• Wagon: fully enclosed, four doors.
• Four-door hardtop: a pickup with a short bed, also called SUT.
• Two-door pickup: a longer load bed and a shortened cabin.
• Slantback: the sloping rear of the military Humvee, comparable to a hatchback.

Inside, the wide transmission tunnel separates the occupants, and leg room is tight despite the vehicle's size. The H1 seats only four. Options included leather seats, a winch kit, running boards and run-flat wheels of magnesium-aluminium alloy or rubber inserts. With a width of about 2.2 metres, it is worth checking whether an H1 suits your garage with the 1cars garage fit tool.

H1 Alpha: the last and best H1

GM and AM General began a final update programme in late 2002. The result, the H1 Alpha, replaced the 6.5-litre diesel with the 6.6-litre Duramax LLY turbodiesel and a five-speed Allison 1000 automatic. Output rose to 224 kW (300 hp) and 705 Nm. Wikipedia lists 23 engine-related changes, a body lift of 51 mm, cold starting at temperatures down to −34 °C and a crawl ratio of about 44.5:1 in low range.

AM General built 448 Alphas between January and May 2005 and another 281 from September 2005 to May 2006: 729 in total, all registered as 2006 models. The price was close to US$129,000. Today the Alpha is the most valued H1: GM Authority reported in 2022 that a 2006 Alpha wagon sold at Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach for US$236,500. Of the 729 Alphas, 417 were wagons.

Production by model year

The best year was 1995 with 1,432 vehicles. No 2005 model-year H1 was built, because all Alphas carried 2006 papers. GM cancelled the programme in May 2006, and civilian production ended in June 2006, ahead of stricter diesel emission rules that took effect in 2007.

The H1 against the H2 and H3

The H1 was the only true military-derived Hummer. The Hummer H3 of 2005–2010 was a mid-size SUV on a pickup frame, and the H2 used GM truck components with a petrol V8. Neither inherited the H1's portal hubs or central tyre inflation. Against civilian off-roaders the H1 is even more extreme: it is much wider than a Jeep Wrangler or a Toyota Land Cruiser, and far slower on the road. You can line up the dimensions in the 1cars comparison tool.

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