The Hummer is beyond any doubt the the world's most recognizable off-road vehicle and it is astounding to find that a vehicle produced for military use back in the 1980s now has an escalating world-wide following in its 3 civilian versions. Indeed, just this month, GM gave notice of a partnership with Avtotor for the production of the Hummer 3 in Russia, which GM sees as its greatest potential market right now.

Everybody will clearly recognize the original Hummer 1 together with the scaled-down Hummer 2, both of which maintained the trademark box shape of the original military vehicle. But is the Hummer 3, scaled-down even further and with a clear shape of its own, a True Hummer or is it quite simply joining the multitude of other SUVs being offered today?

Virtually all Hummer 1 and 2 owners aren't concerned about the fact that, despite the fact that the off-road performance of the Hummer are unrivalled, its on-road performance is nothing to brag about. It takes up more than its fair share of the road, visibility is appalling, parking is a nightmare and they simply refuse to think about its fuel consumption. The appeal of the Hummer lies simply in its sheer size and distinctive appearance.

Now the Hummer 3 obviously retains a large number of the trademark features of earlier models, not least the tiny military style windows that offered the occupants of the original military vehicle some protection but that give today's drivers such poor visibility. However its smaller size and more rounded appearance now put it up against such competitors as the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Chevrolet Trailblazer and it is possible that a lot of potential Hummer owners will begin paying a little more attention to the competition when thinking about their purchase.

So has GM made a mistake with its design for the Hummer 3? Well, only time will provide the answer to this question but as we depart from the distinctive shape and size of what many people would call the "real" Hummer, owners are going to look increasingly at the performance of the hummer 3 in comparison to its competitors and here the Hummer H3 is going to come up a little short I fear.

In spite of the fact that it will still win hands down as an off-road vehicle, the Hummer 3 is woefully underpowered for on-road driving. With a 3.5L 5-cylinder engine developing 220 hp, it would seem to be on a par with such vehicles as the Toyota 4Runner until you compare the weights of the vehicles and discover that the Hummer 3 is some 900 lbs heavier. Acceleration is extremely poor to say the least and you shouldn't even entertain trying to put your foot down if you're going uphill.

Of course there are ways to get around this problem such as the tune-up kit manufactured by Geiger in Germany. This kit includes a supercharger which will boost the H3 up to some 325 hp and vastly improve its acceleration, but should it be necessary to go to the time and expense of modifying your new vehicle? Perhaps this is one problem that GM ought to have addressed from the outset rather than leaving its potential customers to sort out the problem themselves and at their own expense.

SUV's are becoming increasingly popular around the globe and this is clearly an expanding and extremely lucrative market. The Hummer has carved out a very distinctive niche in this market and the success of the Hummer 1 and 2 is not disputed. The question at present is whether the Hummer 3 will allow GM to continue making inroads into the market or will start to yield ground to the competition.