REPORT
#1
01-10-2007, 11:51 AM
REPORT
First of all, sorry for being so late in producing this report, but after 3 weeks out of the house I had a few things to do
Anyway, here are the facts:
I drove a total of 3229 miles
-1366 highway ( France, Italy, swiss and Danmark)
-1125 autobahn ( Germany)
- 738 roads ( including abt. 300 in deep snow/snow storm/ice) (Norway and Danmark)
the poor H3 was loaded like a spanish mule, no kidding!
(4 suitcases, 2 bags, ski gears, ski, boots and about 1/2 ton of various christmas present).
My average speed was
85 mph on highways
95/99([:@]) on autobahn
from 2 to 70 mph on roads.
1/ MPG
My average was 13.4 MPG ( 266 miles with about 80 liters). this is much much worse than my average at home (315 miles).
2/ OIL
NOTHING! I mean zero liters, I controlled the oil level every two days and I did not add any oil from my departure til my return!!
3/ PROBLEMS:
Essentially NIL! on my way up through Germany, I had a very strong headwind when driving abt 90/95 I had then a kind of whistling noise coming from the lower left corner of the windshield.I could feel some cold air coming in. as soon as the headwind subside the whistle disappear. I never heard it since then.
Also in Germany, I had the ' TRACTION CONTROL FAIL' message on and off for abt 100 km. Since then nothing.In my opinion it was a 'bug' because in denmark and in norway on snow and ice the traction control WAS working.
Now my comments.
The Hummer H3 IS UNDER POWERED!!! driving more than 1000 miles on autobahn with the H3 was a MAJOR pain in the A..
to maintain 90/95mph was close to impossible and both the engine and the gearbox where giving their maximum.
one very good point is they ( engine and gearbox) are very strong I drove about 600 miles in a row without any stop (except petrol) never below 90, most of the time above 95 and nothing happened! same joke on my way back!!
another point is that the H3 is very sensitive to strong lateral wind, in Norway, we went through a snow storm with a kind of blizzard blowing sidewise at abt 60 knots, hell! the car was rolling like a boat and I had a whole lot of problem to maintain a straight heading.
on SNOW:
This was the best part, on snow the H3 is definitely the 'king of the mountain', I have tried thick soft snow, iced snow, snow storm and almost the worst cold I have ever experienced in Norway without the slighest problem.
concerning traction, after having tried almost all the possibilities I had, I am of the opinion that the best is 4high with traction control ON on flat roads and 4lock with traction control OFF on slopes.
the H3 has proven to be very comfortable on any type of roads and not that noisy at high speed. the heater is not good enough below -15 celsius.
the car is now 11000 miles+ and as good as new, no noise, no vibration.
the standard Good Year tyres had proven themselves excellent both on highway, where they are very quiet, as well as on heavy rain and snow where I found their grip good enough. The air pressure remain stable from the beginning to the end.
last point, these GM people are really cheap bastards to sell this car without heated mirrors and heated winshield and wipers!![:@]
All the paint and the chrome has been covered with I don't no what type of filthy chemical compound they put on the road upthere but after a good cleaning and some wax they look new.(that one is for Dennis)
all in all, this car is a bloody good car and if someone, someday has the good idea to add 3 cylinders and 100 hp to its engine it may very well become a real dream car.
that's all folks!!
Anyway, here are the facts:
I drove a total of 3229 miles
-1366 highway ( France, Italy, swiss and Danmark)
-1125 autobahn ( Germany)
- 738 roads ( including abt. 300 in deep snow/snow storm/ice) (Norway and Danmark)
the poor H3 was loaded like a spanish mule, no kidding!
(4 suitcases, 2 bags, ski gears, ski, boots and about 1/2 ton of various christmas present
).My average speed was
85 mph on highways
95/99([:@]) on autobahn
from 2 to 70 mph on roads.
1/ MPG
My average was 13.4 MPG ( 266 miles with about 80 liters). this is much much worse than my average at home (315 miles).
2/ OIL
NOTHING! I mean zero liters, I controlled the oil level every two days and I did not add any oil from my departure til my return!!
3/ PROBLEMS:
Essentially NIL! on my way up through Germany, I had a very strong headwind when driving abt 90/95 I had then a kind of whistling noise coming from the lower left corner of the windshield.I could feel some cold air coming in. as soon as the headwind subside the whistle disappear. I never heard it since then.
Also in Germany, I had the ' TRACTION CONTROL FAIL' message on and off for abt 100 km. Since then nothing.In my opinion it was a 'bug' because in denmark and in norway on snow and ice the traction control WAS working.
Now my comments.
The Hummer H3 IS UNDER POWERED!!! driving more than 1000 miles on autobahn with the H3 was a MAJOR pain in the A..
to maintain 90/95mph was close to impossible and both the engine and the gearbox where giving their maximum.
one very good point is they ( engine and gearbox) are very strong I drove about 600 miles in a row without any stop (except petrol) never below 90, most of the time above 95 and nothing happened! same joke on my way back!!
another point is that the H3 is very sensitive to strong lateral wind, in Norway, we went through a snow storm with a kind of blizzard blowing sidewise at abt 60 knots, hell! the car was rolling like a boat and I had a whole lot of problem to maintain a straight heading.
on SNOW:
This was the best part, on snow the H3 is definitely the 'king of the mountain', I have tried thick soft snow, iced snow, snow storm and almost the worst cold I have ever experienced in Norway without the slighest problem.
concerning traction, after having tried almost all the possibilities I had, I am of the opinion that the best is 4high with traction control ON on flat roads and 4lock with traction control OFF on slopes.
the H3 has proven to be very comfortable on any type of roads and not that noisy at high speed. the heater is not good enough below -15 celsius.
the car is now 11000 miles+ and as good as new, no noise, no vibration.
the standard Good Year tyres had proven themselves excellent both on highway, where they are very quiet, as well as on heavy rain and snow where I found their grip good enough. The air pressure remain stable from the beginning to the end.
last point, these GM people are really cheap bastards to sell this car without heated mirrors and heated winshield and wipers!![:@]
All the paint and the chrome has been covered with I don't no what type of filthy chemical compound they put on the road upthere but after a good cleaning and some wax they look new.(that one is for Dennis)
all in all, this car is a bloody good car and if someone, someday has the good idea to add 3 cylinders and 100 hp to its engine it may very well become a real dream car.
that's all folks!!
#2
01-11-2007, 12:46 AM
RE: REPORT
this is a great detailed report, i feel that a locking gas cap also should have been a standard feature...imho anyone thinking about buying the H3 would still want one after your summary, i know i LOVE my H3.
#3
01-11-2007, 12:53 AM
RE: REPORT
Thanks Jean for that...But remember one thing ..It's a Cement block with no aerodynamics at all andwas notdesigned to be a highspeed driving machine..so it will have it's downside if you look for that kind of performance..Glad you're home safe and sound..
#7
01-11-2007, 04:14 PM
RE: REPORT
one thing on your 4 wheel drive analysis....you cannot shut off traction control. The only way to shut off traction control is to use brake throttle managment when crawling, this will limit wheel spin thus stopping TC. The only thing you can shut off is the stabilitrac system...completly different than TC.
#8
01-11-2007, 04:50 PM
RE: REPORT
ORIGINAL: importkiller
one thing on your 4 wheel drive analysis....you cannot shut off traction control. The only way to shut off traction control is to use brake throttle managment when crawling, this will limit wheel spin thus stopping TC. The only thing you can shut off is the stabilitrac system...completly different than TC.
one thing on your 4 wheel drive analysis....you cannot shut off traction control. The only way to shut off traction control is to use brake throttle managment when crawling, this will limit wheel spin thus stopping TC. The only thing you can shut off is the stabilitrac system...completly different than TC.
The manual transmission does not have Stabilitrac and is not offered on it. It's only on the automatic transmissions.
I tested my H3 and after you hit 70, your mileage goes down the tubes. I can't believe you drove it that fast consistantly and it was able to keep up JM. I would love to drive my H3 on the autobahn. Sounds like fun.
JM - Also, I have received the Traction error message. I brought it to the dealer for it. You probably also got the Low Power message. This IS a bug. My dealer called one of the GM engineers that designed thevehicle, and they told him it is a bug in the software that is caused when you make an extreme left or right turn, and one of the front wheel slips. This situation caused it to happen to me twice. It hasn't happened since though, but probably because I have a different program running on the PCM now.
That sounds like an awsome trip. I have you beat though with my 5300 mile trip in 2005
and that was in 11 days!P.S. We are going to be taking another long road trip either the end of this year or next year, so I may be paying some of you a personal visit if you'll have us
#9
01-11-2007, 07:37 PM
RE: REPORT
I actually have a PM into a hummer engineer about this. I know that the manualdoes not have the stabilitrac, I also know that the auto does and that is what the buttonon the dash is,theone with the squiggly linesunderit. I don't see why GM would make the same button serve two different purposes for an auto or a manual. I am assuming that the button in a manaul is non functional. I know people have said they get a traction controloff message when they push the button in a manual, don't know if that is a glitch in the system or not. I know that According to Rod Hall, who himself owns a Manual, the ETC cannot be turned off. It is on all the time. BTM is the only way to disable it.