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>Okay, here is something to think about. The reason this peon responded
>this way is that the company will take any tack which keeps it's hold on the
>market firm. If you start dumping military HMMWV's on the civilian market,
>you hurt their income- and that's what drives them, income, stockholders,
>the works, nothing else.
AM General is/was a privately held company (it is/was owned by a holding
company which was owned by a single individual) but the rights to the Hummer
has been bought out by General Motors. I'm not sure if this includes the
military HMMWV production. You want such a company to consider your personal
enjoyment when they set their corporate policies?
Do you find fault with someone protecting their livelihood? I suppose you
wouldn't mind if someone took away your source(s) of income. The guy that
politely states the policies of the company is suddenly a peon for doing what
they pay him to do? I can think of several words that come to mind when I
read your whimpering . . .
> The military HMMWV was not designed in accordance with safety standards as
>published by DOT. Therefore, to reduce their corporate liability, they
>lobby the government to remove those un-safe, non-DOT approved military
>HMMWV's from the civilian market, or at least refuse to share the liability
>for sales by DOD, which it has no control over.
Why don't you and your like minded friends offer to pay AM General's
liability insurance for each HMMWV? That way they aren't exposed to a
liability risk without due compensation. I'm sure this would go a LONG way
to further the cause and probably make it possible for AMG to reconsider it's
position on civilian ownership.
Unless you AT LEAST solve their liability exposure problem, you will get
nowhere with them. Don't even bother mentioning "liability release" forms
because the are worth even less than the paper they are written on. Driving
courses are also absurd because they don't address the liability problem
either, plus more government regulation is almost never a good answer. With
today's litigious society, in the US, you CANNOT protect yourself with
anything except liability insurance and for that you'll pay handsomely!
>Those words "civilians or other entities," and "outside of the context"
>are loaded with poison pen. They will do whatever they have in their
corporate
>arsenal to keep a captive audience (civilian and military), and won't think
>twice about publicly bashing private civilian ownership of military vehicles
>to keep their fixed market for the HMMWV.
The only bashing has been from you and like minded individuals, AMG's
spokesperson was being polite and completely civil.
>I'd say this is the most ominous thing I have heard here on the list, and
>I'm not joking.
They built the vehicle and have a signed contract with the US Government. Is
that contract now void because YOU think it deprives you of a toy you want?
If you want a HMMWV, buy one. If you want parts, purchase surplus ones or go
to someone that will sell directly to you. Most of the wear items are quite
similar to the civilian models so buy civilian parts. I know the civilian
versions had heavier duty suspension and upgraded hubs, which didn't come out
in military versions until they made the "heavy" variant in the mid 90's.
Hummer = 2 ton payload HMMWV = 1 ton payload prior to the 'heavy" variant
which used the extra payload capacity to carry it's armor.
With the prices of older used civilian ones (92-95) at or near the price
($25-35,000) of the lighter duty military version, why don't you just get a
civilian model and paint the darn thing? Rip out the interior, tear off the
doors, remove the sound deadening, then put in some of those torture chair
military seats and away you go. The military's spartan interior is under
there you know. Hell, you could even look for one of the 20 or so civilian
models in the first year that were sold with CARC 383 Green paint. They
stopped selling the color because they apparently got too many complaints
from people who tried to get it to shine by waxing it . . .
In addition to the higher payload, the civilian model has had the hub upgrade
that prevent some initial problems with hubs, tire/wheel and driven gear in
the hub assembly from leaving the vehicle when driven at high(er) speeds than
the military versions were normally exposed to.
Stuart Robinson
93' Hummer CARC 383 Green
2-FV622 Alvis Stalwart 6x6 amphibious truck
2-FV623 Alvis Stalwart (crane variant)
M-42A1 Duster (Dual 40 mm anti aircraft self propelled gun)
Daimler Ferret
Alvis Scorpion (CVRT)
Fox (CVRW)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Apr 04 2000 - 21:57:09 PDT