History Analysis / HummerDinger

Hummer Dingers are still around today, but the people in the market for them overwhelmingly favor pickup trucks, which are much more obviously not "family haulers". Luxury pickups emerged in the 2010s to cater to this market, packing enough features to rival a BMW or a Cadillac and with a price point to match. The modifications evolved in the direction of the [[http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/psa-bro-truck-vs-off-road-truck-1467061508 "bro truck",]] a pickup given mostly cosmetic modifications (especially lift kits and large wheels and tires) specifically to make them look like off-road vehicles, with little to no regard for ''actual'' off-road performance. Again, anti-environmentalism is a theme here, with these trucks embraced as ConspicuousConsumption to tell environmentalists that they can't tell these trucks' owners what to do. Some may even outfit them with "coal rollers", which force the exhaust to belch out thick smoke. Again, it was all to annoy the environmentalists. And even there, by the '20s electric pickup trucks, from both legacy automakers like Ford and GM and upstarts like Rivian and Tesla, were hitting the market to massive hype.

In the United States, the Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulation, or CAFE, was designed to encourage manufacturers to produce more fuel-efficient cars. However, CAFE had a loophole for "light trucks", which allowed manufacturers to continue making them. It made sense, as there were quite a few working professionals who ''needed'' the power and utility of a big vehicle, and back in TheSeventies they couldn't be made efficient enough to comply with the regulation, so they were made exempt. But "light truck" was defined quite broadly, and the carmakers [[LoopholeAbuse decided to market everyday cars as "light trucks"]]. As long as they were ''theoretically'' designed for off-road or heavy-duty use and could ''theoretically'' be employed in that capacity, that's what they were. Probably the most JustForFun/{{egregious}} instance of this gaming of regulations was the Chrysler PT Cruiser, a {{retraux}} station wagon built on the same platform as the Neon compact but engineered such that it was [[http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2013/1/17/Famously-Unsafe-Chrysler-PT-Cruiser-7712572/ technically a "light truck".]] It averaged 19 miles per gallon in city driving and 24 in highway driving, a gas-guzzler for something of its size and weight, but classifying it as a light truck not only improved the CAFE rankings of Chrysler's truck lineup, it also kept the car from dragging down the CAFE rankings of Chrysler's car lineup. This may be one of the reasons why it remained in production, virtually unchanged, from 2000 until 2010 despite seeing its sales collapse after 2006.

And people still wanted to buy big cars, because they were perceived as safer. Until the TurnOfTheMillennium, it was generally believed that the safest cars were the ones most likely to survive an accident, as opposed to the ones most likely to ''avoid'' one. The "land yacht" sedans and wagons gave way to minivans in TheEighties, which themselves gave way to [=SUVs=] in the '90s -- the Jeep Cherokee and the Ford Explorer were so successful that they effectively started an arms race to see who could make the biggest possible SUV that they could get away with. Chevrolet redesigned their Blazer from a workhorse to a family crawler to compete with the Explorer and introduced the Tahoe as a bigger version thereof (and redesigned the Suburban into a bigger version of ''that''), Jeep upped the ante on the Cherokee with the Grand Cherokee, Ford did the same on the Explorer with the Expedition and the Excursion, Lincoln debuted a luxury version of the Expedition called the Navigator, Cadillac responded in kind with the Suburban-based Escalade, and even Japanese automakers got into the game with the Nissan Pathfinder and the Toyota 4Runner and Sequoia. Of the major automakers selling cars in the US, only Honda and Volkswagen, both committed to smaller cars, sat the arms race out, their SUV offerings remaining steadfastly smaller, more fuel-efficient, and more car-like than the competition.

The Hummer itself was introduced [[OlderThanTheyThink in the early 1990s]] and based directly on the U.S. military's High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), or "Humvee". While it was a cult item in TheNineties that was associated with victory in UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar and {{Hollywood action hero}}es like Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, its high price and lack of creature comforts prevented widespread adoption outside a niche market. It didn't see widespread popularity until around 2002, when the less expensive H2 model was introduced right at the beginning of UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror, when there was an additional {{patriotic|Fervor}} reason to drive a pseudo-military vehicle at a time when U.S. military operations overseas were seeing some of their highest levels of support. There was a particular feeling that the Hummer and cars like it were [[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0305829818775817 connected to right-wing politics,]] feelings of [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday aggrieved masculinity]], and anti-environmentalism. It was seen as something of a "reactionary" purchase; while people were going on about how they wanted to save the environment, the people who pined for the good old days wanted to shove ''this'' in the faces of everyone who drove a Toyota Prius.

The Hummer itself was introduced [[OlderThanTheyThink in the early 1990s]] and based directly on the U.S. military's High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV), or "Humvee". While it was a cult item in TheNineties that was associated with victory in UsefulNotes/TheGulfWar and {{Hollywood action hero}}es like Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger, its high price and lack of creature comforts prevented widespread adoption outside a niche market. It didn't see widespread popularity until around 2002, when the less expensive H2 model was introduced right at the beginning of UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror, when there was an additional {{patriotic|Fervor}} reason to drive a pseudo-military vehicle at a time when U.S. military operations overseas were seeing some of their highest levels of support. There was a particular feeling that the Hummer and cars like it were [[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0305829818775817 connected to right-wing politics,]] feelings of [[HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday aggrieved]] [[RatedMForManly masculinity]], and anti-environmentalism. It was seen as something of a "reactionary" purchase; while people were going on about how they wanted to save the environment, the people who pined for the good old days wanted to shove ''this'' in the faces of everyone who drove a Toyota Prius.

In the United States, the Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulation, or CAFE, was designed to encourage manufacturers to produce more fuel-efficient cars. However, CAFE had a loophole for "light trucks", which allowed manufacturers to continue making them. It made sense, as there were quite a few working professionals who ''needed'' the power and utility of a big vehicle, and back in TheSeventies they couldn't be made efficient enough to comply with the regulation, so they were made exempt. But "light truck" was defined quite broadly, and the carmakers [[LoopholeAbuse decided to market everyday cars as "light trucks"]]. As long as they were designed for off-road or heavy-duty use and could in ''theory'' be employed in that capacity, that's what they were. Probably the most JustForFun/{{egregious}} instance of this gaming of regulations was the Chrysler PT Cruiser, a {{retraux}} station wagon built on the same platform as the Neon compact but engineered such that it was [[http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2013/1/17/Famously-Unsafe-Chrysler-PT-Cruiser-7712572/ technically a "light truck".]] It averaged 19 miles per gallon in city driving and 24 in highway driving, a gas-guzzler for something of its size and weight, but classifying it as a light truck not only improved the CAFE rankings of Chrysler's truck lineup, it also kept the car from dragging down the CAFE rankings of Chrysler's car lineup. This may be one of the reasons why it remained in production, virtually unchanged, from 2000 until 2010 despite seeing its sales collapse after 2006.

Outside American suburbia, however, there wasn't much point to a Hummer Dinger. In places like Asia and Europe, the streets are much narrower, fuel is more expensive, and parking spaces are more scarce even in the suburbs, so a big vehicle would be so frustrating to drive that it would defeat anyone's desire to show off. In other places with big rural areas, a big vehicle needs actual ''utility'', so you would have to get something that's actually up for the job -- and then it would be relatively unremarkable. The only places that really have the Hummer Dinger phenomenon are places like Britain and Australia that draw many cultural cues from America to begin with (whether they'd like to admit it or not), and the Mexican countryside where imported Suburbans turned out to be very useful for hauling eight [[TheCartel narco-goons and their "product"]] through rough desert terrain. The British "Chelsea Tractor" tends to be particularly hilariously impractical to drive on Britain's narrower and more sinuous country roads -- a suburban Range Rover driver is going to find out the hard way that he's going to struggle to drive it to the country pub.

The forerunner of the modern sport utility vehicle, or [=SUV=], existed as early as the late 1940s. For decades, they were impractical for ordinary everyday drivers -- their complex mechanical transmissions, rigid axles, poor balance, and slow highway speeds were just not attractive to consumers. It's often thought that the prominence of the big "land yacht" sedans of the 1960s and 1970s are what led to the modern SUV, and although those fell out of favor after the 1973 oil crisis, the crisis led to an interesting regulatory quirk.

In the United States, the Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulation, or CAFE, was designed to encourage manufacturers to produce more fuel-efficient cars. However, CAFE had a loophole for "light trucks", which allowed manufacturers to continue making them. It made sense -- there were quite a few working professionals who ''needed'' the power and utility of a big vehicle, and back in the 1970s they couldn't be made efficient enough to comply with the regulation, so they were made exempt. But "light truck" was defined quite broadly, and the carmakers [[LoopholeAbuse decided to market everyday cars as "light trucks"]]. As long as they were designed for off-road or heavy-duty use and could in ''theory'' be employed in that capacity, that's what they were. Probably the most JustForFun/{{egregious}} instance of this gaming of regulations was the Chrysler PT Cruiser, a {{retraux}} station wagon built on the same platform as the Neon compact but engineered such that it was [[http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2013/1/17/Famously-Unsafe-Chrysler-PT-Cruiser-7712572/ technically a "light truck"]]. It averaged 19 miles per gallon in city driving and 24 in highway driving, a gas-guzzler for something of its size and weight; but classifying it as a light truck not only improved the CAFE rankings of Chrysler's truck lineup, it also kept the car from dragging down the CAFE rankings of Chrysler's car lineup. This may be one of the reasons why it remained in production, virtually unchanged, from 2000 until 2010 despite seeing its sales collapse after 2006.

And people still wanted to buy big cars, because they were perceived as safer. Even up until the TurnOfTheMillennium, it was generally believed that the safest cars were the ones most likely to survive an accident, as opposed to the ones most likely to ''avoid'' one. The "land yacht" sedans started to give way to the minivan and SUV in the late 1980s -- the Jeep Cherokee and the Ford Explorer were so successful that they effectively started an arms race to see who could make the biggest possible SUV that they could get away with.

The Hummer itself was introduced [[OlderThanTheyThink in the early 1990s]] and based directly on the U.S. military's "Humvee" vehicle. But it didn't see widespread popularity until around 2002-03, which was when the H2 model was introduced. It was also right at the beginning of UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror, and there was an additional {{patriotic|Fervor}} reason to drive a pseudo-military vehicle at a time when U.S. military operations overseas were seeing some of its highest levels of support. There was a particular feeling that the Hummer and cars like it were [[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0305829818775817 connected to right-wing politics]], feelings of aggrieved masculinity, and anti-environmentalism. It was seen as something of a "reactionary" purchase; while people were going on about how they wanted to save the environment, the people who pined for the good old days wanted to shove ''this'' in their faces.

Of course, the self-styled patriots weren't the only ones getting in on the action. Others combined the Hummer Dinger with the RiceBurner to make a truly unholy and expensive combination. These were fitted with extensive cosmetic modifications, like scissor doors, hydraulics, earth-rattling stereo systems, and gigantic rims (or "dubs", after the DUB Wheels company that was famous for them). They're a variant of the so-called [[http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/psa-bro-truck-vs-off-road-truck-1467061508 "bro trucks"]], which are given cosmetic modifications specifically to make them look like off-road vehicles -- particularly lift kits and large wheels -- with little to no regard for ''actual'' off-road performance. These guys want to show off their ConspicuousConsumption in the most obnoxious way possible, essentially flouting their cars' environmental destruction. They may even outfit them with "coal rollers", which force the exhaust to belch out thick smoke. Again, it was all to annoy the environmentalists.

But in the end, the environmentalists kind of won out. The Hummer brand's popularity started to tank around 2006, and it was shut down entirely in 2010. It was around this time that the hybrid vehicle started to be a thing, and soon after came electric cars. When gas prices calmed down and the economy recovered somewhat, people still weren't in the mood for a genuine Hummer Dinger, not just because of its terrible fuel-efficiency and environmental impact, but also because of its stiff handling and tendency to roll over. Instead, they migrated to the "crossover utility vehicle", essentially a "land yacht" for the modern age. These were effectively station wagons and hatchbacks with lifted suspensions and optional all-wheel drive -- rather than an off-road vehicle configured for everyday use, these are everyday vehicles configured for offroad use. They were also easier to handle and ''much'' more fuel efficient than the dreadnought [=SUVs=] of the 1980s and 1990s -- almost within striking distance of the fuel economy of regular cars. Hummer Dingers were relegated to people who badly wanted to [[RatedMForManly prove their masculinity]] -- as of the 2020s, they favor the "luxury pickup", which is much more obviously not a "family hauler" vehicle and usually has enough features to rival a BMW or a Cadillac (with a price point to match).

Outside American suburbia, however, there wasn't much point to a Hummer Dinger. In places like Asia and Europe, the streets are much narrower, fuel is more expensive, and parking spaces are more scarce, even in the suburbs -- a big vehicle would be so frustrating to drive that it would defeat anyone's desire to show off. In other places with big rural areas, a big vehicle needs actual ''utility'', so you would have to get something that's actually up for the job -- and then it would be relatively unremarkable. The only places that really have the Hummer Dinger phenomenon are places like Britain and Australia that draw many cultural cues from America to begin with (whether they'd like to admit it or not). The British "Chelsea Tractor" tends to be particularly hilariously impractical to drive on British country roads, which tend to be narrower and more sinuous -- a suburban Range Rover driver is going to find out the hard way that he's going to struggle to drive it to the country pub.

The Hummer itself was introduced in the early 1990s and based directly on the U.S. military's "Humvee" vehicle. But it didn't see widespread popularity until around 2002-03, which was when the H2 model was introduced. It was also right at the beginning of UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror, and there was an additional {{patriotic|Fervor}} reason to drive a pseudo-military vehicle at a time when U.S. military operations overseas were seeing some of its highest levels of support. There was a particular feeling that the Hummer and cars like it were [[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0305829818775817 connected to right-wing politics]], feelings of aggrieved masculinity, and anti-environmentalism. It was seen as something of a "reactionary" purchase; while people were going on about how they wanted to save the environment, the people who pined for the good old days wanted to shove ''this'' in their faces.

[=SUVs=] first became popular in [[TheEighties the late '80s]] and [[TheNineties early '90s]], when the success of the Jeep Cherokee and the Ford Explorer started an arms race to see who could make the largest possible SUV that they could get away with. While the [=SUV=] by itself [[LongRunner dates back to the late 1940s]], and luxurious models were marketed as early [[TheSixties as the 1960s]], it took a few decades of technological evolution to "civilize" them -- few non-professional people would feel at home with the complex mechanical transmissions, rigid axles, poor balance, and slow highway speed of earlier samples. By around the TurnOfTheMillennium this became a self-fulfilling trope, with car buyers recommended to buy larger vehicles just so that they wouldn't get squashed if they got in a car accident.

It briefly became a DiscreditedTrope in the late '00s due to the rise in gas prices and concerns over safety (specifically rollovers), but made a comeback in the mid-'10s in the form of luxury pickup trucks, some of which can run more than $70,000 and are outfitted to compete with the likes of Lexus, Cadillac, and Mercedes-Benz. This wave of big trucks has been [[https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0305829818775817 connected]] to right-wing politics, feelings of aggrieved masculinity, and anti-environmentalism in the 2010s and '20s, with people buying them in order to stake out their status as "real men" with traditional values who reject newfangled changes to society. Elsewhere, however, smaller "crossover" utility vehicles have taken up most of the market for [=SUVs=], boasting the same interior room and ability to travel on dirt roads and grass but being built on car-like unibody structures with better handling and gas mileage.

Another big reason for the popularity of this kind of car is the quirks in the US' Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) regulation. After the OPEC oil embargo of 1973 caught domestic manufacturers completely flat-footed with [[CripplingOverspecialization nothing but big gas-guzzling cars to sell]] as fuel prices rose, the federal government saw the resulting economic damage and instituted CAFE standards to encourage the manufacture and sale of more fuel-efficient vehicles.

While well-meaning, this system had a major loophole. CAFE had exemptions for "light trucks", defined as such:
-->"Light-duty truck means any motor vehicle rated at 8,500 pounds GVWR or less which has a vehicle curb weight of 6,000 pounds or less and which has a basic vehicle frontal area of 45 square feet or less, which is: (1) Designed primarily for purposes of transportation of property or is a derivation of such a vehicle, or (2) Designed primarily for transportation of persons and has a capacity of more than 12 persons, or (3) Available with special features enabling off-street or off-highway operation and use."

In short, these vehicles were intended to allow working professionals who needed more heavily-built vehicles to still be able to purchase them. However, CAFE's definition of "utility" was very broad, allowing automakers to effectively build giant station wagons and [[LoopholeAbuse market them as light trucks]]. Probably the most JustForFun/{{egregious}} instance of this gaming of regulations was the Chrysler PT Cruiser, a {{retraux}} station wagon built on the same platform as the Neon compact that was engineered such that it was [[http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2013/1/17/Famously-Unsafe-Chrysler-PT-Cruiser-7712572/ technically classified]] as a light truck. The PT Cruiser averaged 19 miles per gallon in city driving and 24 in highway driving, a gas-guzzler for something of its size and weight; classifying it as a light truck not only improved the CAFE rankings of Chrysler's truck lineup, it also kept the car from dragging down the CAFE rankings of Chrysler's car lineup. This may be one of the reasons why it remained in production, virtually unchanged, from 2000 until 2010 despite seeing its sales collapse after 2006. Closing this loophole and tightening the definition of "utility" has, needless to say, been a major goal of American environmentalists.

[=SUVs=] first became popular in [[TheEighties the late '80s]] and [[TheNineties early '90s]], when the success of the Jeep Cherokee and the Ford Explorer started an arms race to see who could make the largest possible SUV that they could get away with. While the [=SUV=] by itself [[LongRunner dates back to the late 1940s]], and luxurious models were marketed as early [[TheSixties as the 1960s]], it took a few decades of technological evolution to "civilize" them -- few non-professional people would feel at home with the complex mechanical transmissions, rigid axles, poor balance, and slow highway speed of earlier samples. By around the TurnOfTheMillennium this became a self-fulfilling trope, with car buyers recommended to buy larger vehicles just so that they wouldn't get squashed if they got in a car accident. It briefly became a DiscreditedTrope in the late '00s due to the rise in gas prices and concerns over safety (specifically rollovers), but made a comeback in the mid-'10s in the form of luxury pickup trucks, some of which can run more than $70,000 and are outfitted to compete with the likes of Lexus and Mercedes-Benz. Elsewhere, however, smaller "crossover" utility vehicles have taken up most of the market for [=SUVs=], boasting the same interior room and ability to travel on dirt roads and grass but being built on car-like unibody structures with better handling and gas mileage.

[=SUVs=] first became popular in [[TheEighties the late '80s]] and [[TheNineties early '90s]], when the success of the Jeep Cherokee and the Ford Explorer started an arms race to see who could make the largest possible SUV that they could get away with. While the [=SUV=] by itself [[LongRunner dates back to the late 1940s]], and luxurious models were marketed as early [[TheSixties as the 1960s]], it took a few decades of technological evolution to "civilize" them -- few non-professional people would feel at home with the complex mechanical transmissions, rigid axles, poor balance, and slow highway speed of earlier samples. By around the TurnOfTheMillennium this became a self-fulfilling trope, with car buyers recommended to buy larger vehicles just so that they wouldn't get squashed if they got in a car accident. It rapidly became a DiscreditedTrope late in the Aughts due to the rise in gas prices and concerns over safety (specifically rollovers), though the 15-20 year lifespan of the typical motor vehicle means they're still not an uncommon sight on the road.

In short, these vehicles were intended to allow working professionals who needed more heavily-built vehicles to still be able to purchase them. However, CAFE's definition of "utility" was very broad, allowing automakers to effectively build giant station wagons and [[LoopholeAbuse market them as light trucks]]. Probably the most JustForFun/{{egregious}} instance of this gaming of regulations was the Chrysler PT Cruiser, a {{retraux}} station wagon built on the same platform as the Neon compact that was engineered such that it was [[http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2013/1/17/Famously-Unsafe-Chrysler-PT-Cruiser-7712572/ technically classified]] as a light truck. The PT Cruiser averaged 19 miles per gallon in city driving and 24 in highway driving, a gas-guzzler for something of its size and weight; classifying it as a light truck not only improved the CAFE rankings of Chrysler's truck lineup, it also kept the car from dragging down the CAFE rankings of Chrysler's car lineup. This may be one of the reasons why it remained in production, virtually unchanged, from 2000 until 2010 despite seeing its sales collapse after 2006. Closing this loophole and tightening the definition of "utility" has, needless to say, been a major goal of American environmentalists.

In short, these vehicles were intended to allow working professionals who needed more heavily-built vehicles to still be able to purchase them. However, CAFE's definition of "utility" was very broad, allowing automakers to effectively build giant station wagons and [[LoopholeAbuse market them as light trucks]]. Probably the most JustForFun/{{egregious}} instance of this gaming of regulations was the Chrysler PT Cruiser, a {{retraux}} station wagon built on the same platform as the Neon compact that was engineered such that it was [[http://www.carbuzz.com/news/2013/1/17/Famously-Unsafe-Chrysler-PT-Cruiser-7712572/ technically classified]] as a light truck. The PT Cruiser averaged 19 miles per gallon in city driving and 24 in highway driving, a gas-guzzler for something of its size and weight; classifying it as a light truck not only improved the CAFE rankings of Chrysler's truck lineup, it also kept the car from dragging down the CAFE rankings of Chrysler's car lineup. Closing this loophole and tightening the definition of "utility" has, needless to say, been a major goal of American environmentalists.

[=SUVs=] first became popular in [[TheEighties the late '80s]] and [[TheNineties early '90s]], when the success of the Jeep Cherokee and the Ford Explorer started an arms race to see who could make the largest possible SUV that they could get away with. While the [=SUV=] by itself [[LongRunner dates back to the late 1940s]] and luxurious models were marketed as early [[TheSixties as the 1960s]], it took a few decades of technological evolution to "civilize" them - few non-professional people would feel at home with complex mechanical transmissions, rigid axles, poor balance and slow highway speed of earlier samples. By around the TurnOfTheMillennium this became a self-fulfilling trope, with car buyers recommended to buy larger vehicles just so that they wouldn't get squashed if they got in a car accident. It rapidly became a DiscreditedTrope late in the Aughts due to the rise in gas prices and concerns over safety (specifically rollovers), though the 15-20 year lifespan of the typical motor vehicle means they're still not an uncommon sight on the road.

While well-meaning, this system had a major loophole. CAFE had exemptions for "light trucks" (The government's definition: "Light-duty truck means any motor vehicle rated at 8,500 pounds GVWR or less which has a vehicle curb weight of 6,000 pounds or less and which has a basic vehicle frontal area of 45 square feet or less, which is: (1) Designed primarily for purposes of transportation of property or is a derivation of such a vehicle, or (2) Designed primarily for transportation of persons and has a capacity of more than 12 persons, or (3) Available with special features enabling off-street or off-highway operation and use.") intended to allow working professionals who needed more heavily-built vehicles to still be able to purchase them. However, CAFE's definition of "utility" was very broad, allowing automakers to effectively build giant station wagons and [[LoopholeAbuse market them as light trucks]]. Closing this loophole and tightening the definition of "utility" has, needless to say, been a major goal of American environmentalists.

[=SUVs=] first became popular in [[TheEighties the late '80s]] and [[TheNineties early '90s]], when the success of the Jeep Cherokee and the Ford Explorer started an arms race to see who could make the largest possible SUV that they could get away with. By around the TurnOfTheMillennium this became a self-fulfilling trope, with car buyers recommended to buy larger vehicles just so that they wouldn't get squashed if they got in a car accident. It rapidly became a DiscreditedTrope late in the Aughts due to the rise in gas prices and concerns over safety (specifically rollovers), though the 15-20 year lifespan of the typical motor vehicle means they're still not an uncommon sight on the road.