Hummer H2 SUT

Hummer H2 SUT - For the extra dough, you get a plastic cargo bed that measures 47.3 inches between the wheel wells, 34.7 inches from front to back, and 20 inches deep. By full-size-pickup standards, it's puny, and it isn't big enough to carry any of the messy, wet items like dirt bikes or Jet Skis.

There is, however, the folding rear bulkhead, which Hummer calls the Midgate. As on Chevy's Avalanche, the Midgate works like an old-style tailgate, with a power-operated rear window. Once the window is retracted and the rear seats folded, the Midgate can then be folded into the cab.

Another item unique to the SUT is the spare tire mounted on the exterior. At first this seems like a great idea since the huge spare intrudes into the cargo area of the wagon H2. For the SUT, the spare is mounted on a beefy arm at the rear that swings clear when you want to lower the tailgate.

The problem is that the spare is now located directly above the hitch receiver, leaving a tight gap between the bottom of the tire and the hitch ball. Even when you manage to get the trailer hooked up, you can't lower the tailgate because now the spare's carrier arm is blocked by the trailer jack. It's too bad it's such a pain to hook up a trailer, because the SUT can tow 6700 pounds.

Clearly, buyers are getting a certain "look" with the SUT, and certainly, the vehicle attracts attention, although it's not always the positive kind. In August 2003, an apparently angry individual torched 20 H2s at a dealership in West Covina, California. There's also a Web site where the less fanatical display their disapproval by posting pictures of themselves standing next to H2s, giving them the finger (www.fuh2.com). Oh, no, not that! Perhaps these individuals are upset with the H2's EPA fuel-economy ratings: 10 city and 13 highway. We averaged 12 mpg over 1600 miles.

Both H2 Hummers use GM's 6.0-liter V-8 engine. For 2005, there are nine more horsepower and five more pound-feet of torque. That puts the total at 325 horses and 365 pound-feet. With 6780 pounds to haul, acceleration is not brisk, but it is quicker than in a wagon we tested in August 2002. The jog to 60 mph takes 9.6 seconds, a whopping 1.1-second improvement that suggests our original test vehicle didn't have all its beans. Likewise, the braking performance was markedly better, requiring 214 feet to stop from 70 mph—30 feet better than that '02 wagon. Plus, there was noticeably less brake fade with the SUT. Since the SUT and the wagon are mechanical twins, we can only surmise that the '02 test vehicle—an early-build example—wasn't completely up to snuff.

And also like the wagon, there's that in-your-face quality about the H2 SUT that is joyously un-PC.