Beastly, but not really as big as you think...

Hummer came out with the Hummer H3 in 2006, to go along with its big brothers - the H1 and H2. The H1 is a civilian carry-over of the military Humvees, and is not really that usable in daily driving (too wide for most uses). The H2 is a BIG vehicle, based primarily on the GMC Yukon / Chevrolet Tahoe platform, with offroad suspension modifications. The H3 is smaller than the H1 or H2, but still maintains its offroad prowess (actually, it is known to be better at offroading than the H2, due to lighter weight and smaller body). It officially is based on the GMC Canyon / Chevrolet Colorado platform, but has substantial modifications from either of those trucks to make it a better offroad vehicle.

The H3 is a body-on-frame design truck, with independent front suspension and solid-axle rear. It comes stock with lots of suspension travel and either 32 or 33 inch tires, depending on which options are included. Either way, this is a pretty tough, tall offroading vehicle. It includes full-time 4 wheel drive, with three settings, including a very slow offroad setting. It can supposedly ford 24" of water, and has over 9" of ground clearance. All that said, I haven't taken it offroad yet, but plan to in the near future.

I got this vehicle for my wife's daily driving use, so I'll approach this review from that angle and focus on the features that make this livable on a day-to-day basis.

Interior:
We got leather seats. I know, not very rough & rugged, but that was one of the requirements my wife had for her new car - leather seats and a moon roof. So, we got both. The seats are very nice, and GM seems to use pretty high-grade leather in their vehicles. The power seats are nice, and include seat heaters and lumbar support. Will be very nice for those long trips in Ohio's winters. Back seats are a 60/40 folding bench, with nice padding. Many vehicles have poor padding the rear seats, but this isn't one of them. The back seat would be comfortable for me (6'1", 210) for long trips. There's also plenty of leg room. We even have a rear-facing child seat in ours, and it seems to fit fine.

The cargo space in back of the rear seat is adequate, though not huge. It seems to have slightly less cargo space than our escape had (the vehicle this replaced). The subwoofer is mounted on the driver's side of the cargo area, and seems to take a lot of space away from cargo. The cargo area itself is lined with plastic, and easy to clean. The H3 comes with a carpet cover for this area. For long trips, it may be necessary for us to use either a rooftop cargo carrier or a hitch-mounted cargo carrier. We'll cross that bridge when we get there. For every-day use, we can get by. It fits a stroller, pack n play and a couple small bags fine.

The sunroof is HUGE. It is easily the largest sunroof I've seen in a vehicle. Controls are easy to reach and understand.

The radio is extremely nice. The standard radio is a single-cd model, which reads MP3s and has XM radio (3 month free trial included). Ours has a 6-disc changer, integrated subwoofer, but for some reason doesn't read MP3s. Strange that GM would do this... but whatever. Sound quality is top notch, but some of the equalizer settings are a little much for my taste - LOTS of booming bass, rather than nice, tight bass as I have in my BMW 335i. Again, controls are easy to get the hang of.

Exterior:
This is a tough-looking truck. Hummer designed this to look bigger than it actually is. With right-angles everywhere, big mirrors and lots of chrome, it has the attitude of a big truck, but the maneuverability and usability of mid-sized SUV.

It can be a little tough to get into - Hummer has chrome steps as an option, and ours has this. I honestly don't know what people would do without these, as it's a pretty tall truck...

Front and rear doors are nice and wide, offering easy ingress and egress, while still not door-dinging other nearby cars. Rear windows are tinted fairly dark, a good feature in my mind. Speaking of windows - this truck overall has very small windows, which is good from a safety perspective (less glass) but bad from a visibility perspective. Hummer makes up for this with the use of BIG mirrors and an available backup camera, but there's no getting around the small size of the windows.

The spare tire is mounted on the back of the vehicle, on the rear door. The door is hinged on the driver's side and swings out 90 degrees. There is a gas shock to aid opening and holding the door open. It is heavy, but with this shock, it's usable.

Our vehicle includes the towing package, with a 2" socket, supposedly making it capable of towing 4500 lbs with our 3.7 liter 5-cylinder engine. With the Alpha's V8, 6,000 lbs is the towing capacity.

Speaking of engines, let's talk about that for a minute - the 2008 Hummer H3 comes with 2 available engines - a 240 HP 5-cylinder truck engine (think low-end torque) and a 300 HP 5.3 liter v-8 (called the H3 Alpha). I test drove both, and in normal driving, either will work well. We ended up with the 5-cylinder, mostly because of fuel mileage concerns (the sales manager said Alpha gets 13 MPG pretty much no matter what, and the 5-cylinder supposedly gets 20 MPG on the highway). The Alpha has faster acceleration and a nice v-8 growl, but it was honestly not that much of a difference in everyday driving to justify the extra cost + worse fuel mileage. As a side note, 2006 H3s have a smaller 5-cylinder which I understand to be a little underpowered.

The 4-speed auto w/overdrive transmission is very nice, shifts are smooth and it seems to keep the engine in the power band well.

Mileage: Ok - let's address this. First, understand that this truck will likely never drive more than 7,000 miles in a year - my wife just doesn't drive that much. So, mileage was not that much of a decision maker as it may be for others (especially with $3.50 gas as I write this). But, really this truck isn't that bad... I've averaged 16 MPG in mixed driving, including quite a bit of stop & go around town stuff. Hummers have a bad rap in this department, but the 5-cylinder H3 really isn't as bad as people think. I have family members with a v-8 Jeep Grand Cherokee and a v-6 Jeep Commander and they get the same mileage. The Hummer comes with a 23 gallon fuel tank, so it still gets close to 400+ miles per tank, depending on how you're driving (not bad, in my estimation).

Driving characteristics are good, but it is a big truck. Body sway and nose dive (upon heavy braking) are there. However, I have never felt out of control or unsafe. The big tires make for a rubbery ride, but that's not all bad either. Road imperfections and pot holes are never a problem. Steering is surprisingly good, and it has a smaller turning arc than most mid-size (and a lot of small) SUVs.

This has been a long-winded review, but I thought it would be useful to someone out there, who may be looking to take advantage of some of the dealer incentives on these mid-sized SUVs.