The Hummer DNA still resides in the Humvee. ... It will always be the core from where we come."

DETROIT - Get ready to say goodbye to the Hummer H1, the hulking, gas-guzzling status symbol that has attracted celebrities and off-road enthusiasts but has drawn the ire of environmentalists.

General Motors Corp. said Friday that the 2006 model year will be the last for the H1, which has been the foundation for the automaker's Hummer brand. Based on the military's Humvee, the about 12,000 put on the road since 1992 defined the Hummer name.

"It's a reflection of where we're going with the Hummer brand," Hummer general manager Martin Walsh said of the decision. "The Hummer DNA still resides in the Humvee. ... It will always be the core from where we come."

GM expects the last H1s to be built next month.

Walsh said Hummer plans to focus on models with broader appeal instead of the niche-market H1. Since taking over the Hummer name in 2000, GM has introduced the still hefty H2 and a midsize H3 sport utility vehicle.

The H1 gets about 10 miles per gallon, but Walsh said rising gas prices didn't factor into GM's decision. He noted that H1 buyers typically have been less sensitive about gas prices than most other drivers.

Auto analyst Erich Merkle with the Grand Rapids consulting company IRN Inc. said the decision fits with steps GM has taken to bring the Hummer brand to more mainstream drivers with the H2 and H3.

"They're going to continue moving Hummer in that direction," Merkle said. "It's a great brand. There is a lot that can be done with that in terms of leveraging its ruggedness and toughness."

Merkle added that the kind of drivers who buy the H1 don't worry about things like gas prices.

"It's really one of those over-the-top vehicles," Merkle said. "It doesn't really have much of a place in everyday society. You can't put it in the parking ramps. Parking spaces can't accommodate it."

The H1 attracted well-heeled drivers looking for a military-style vehicle with an intimidating stance. For the 2006 model year, the H1 was offered as a high-performance H1 Alpha that costs about $130,000 to $140,000. The 2004 model year H1 sold at a base price of about $106,000.

The vehicle first was marketed to the public as the Hummer in 1992 by AM General, which also makes the military version. Under a 1999 deal, GM bought marketing rights to the Hummer name and called the vehicle the Hummer H1.

Hummers often have been associated with celebrities who owned them, such as actor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was AM General's first civilian customer, buying a custom-made conversion of the military model as well as civilian production models.

Schwarzenegger once owned a fleet of Hummers but now has just three. The California governor's aides say he rarely drives them anymore.

The Hummer's critics include the Sierra Club, which has faulted the vehicle for its bulk and poor gas mileage. Dan Becker, director of the Sierra Club's global warming program, welcomed the news, which comes as Congress tackles fuel economy standards and some drivers face $3 gas prices.

"The timing is pretty amazing," Becker said.

Last year, GM sold 374 H1s, down 16 percent from 447 in 2004.

GM is working to turn around its North American automotive operations and this week announced its first quarterly profit since 2004. Last year it announced plans to cut 30,000 jobs and close 12 facilities by 2008. It also has stockpiled parts in case workers at supplier Delphi Corp. go on strike.

AM General, which builds the H1, H2 and Humvee in Mishawaka, Ind., said it doesn't plan to cut any jobs as a result of the decision. It said workers there were expected to be shifted to military production.

With the war in Iraq, the end of H1 production comes at a time when military demand for Humvee has increased, said AM General spokesman Craig MacNab. Publicity surrounding the Humvee in the Persian Gulf War — and the drop in military demand afterward — helped lead to the civilian model.

"The military production is way up, the civilian production is way down," MacNab said. "You can't make a business case for making any investment in the civilian vehicle. ... It's a good time to stop."

'The Hummer H1 was complete, unadulterated, super-sized crap'

Oil companies of the world, weep into your panda-skin hankies because the Hummer H1 is dead. After 14 years as the most conspicuous symbol of Americans' foolish fixation with SUVs that can comfortably crush anything up to and including downtown Chicago, the world's dumbest 4x4 has been killed off.

When last year's sales total dropped below the 400 mark, even George W could have done the maths - America didn't want the H1 any more. Least of all Arnold Schwarzenegger, the man who first persuaded Am General that a hulking piece of military hardware might be turned into a splendid way for civilians to get to the mall.

Turns out that the Governator of California has become an unexpected greenie, kicking off his '06 re-election campaign by making pro-environment speeches and driving around in a battle bus covered in pictures of trees. With gas prices rising fast and Arnie suddenly pre-occupied by clean air and leaves, the H1 was sunk.

And unless you have shares in an XXL garage-door maker, that's an entirely good thing because the Hummer H1 was complete, unadulterated, super-sized crap.

Even the military version, which remains in production, was badly designed. Or at least, the ones that led the invasion of Iraq were, chiefly because the armour plating between the top of the door and the edge of the roof was made from a well-known bullet repellent called 'fresh air'.

The civvy version was more useless, being too huge even for vast American roads and yet inexplicably tiny on the inside. It was crass, arrogant, crude and blessed with the mechanical refinement of a cement mixer full of snooker balls.

It was the star of lousy movies and the preferred transport of lousy stars. Chris Eubank had one, for Christ's sake.

It was a lazy, lumpen, nasty waste of too much space that just gave Jonathan Porritt and his American equivalents a bloody great stick with which to beat the car in general.

But not any more because at last the Hummer H1 has gone. And good riddance.

Mil-Spec is one of the latest companies looking for success with restored and modified versions of iconic vehicles. Rather than Porsche 911s or '60s trucks and SUVs, its canvases are Hummer H1s. The customer vehicles are big, brash off-road machines, but that's not all the company is capable of. We recently learned that the crew over there built a Hummer H1 meant for race track use, and it is amazing.

The base vehicle is a four-door convertible pickup truck, and Mil-Spec thoroughly changed the suspension. It has custom coilovers with stiff springs, and the entire suspension geometry has been revised. Overall, it was lowered a stunning seven inches compared with a stock H1. The H1's in-board brakes now feature six-piston brake calipers, and the wheels are wrapped in low-profile Pirelli P-Zero tires. Also impressive is the fact that the truck still has a part-time four-wheel-drive system.

Under the hood is a 6.6-liter Duramax diesel V8 similar to that in the customer models. But this one has been tuned all the way up to 800 horsepower and 1,500 pound-feet of torque. This engine also plays a role in this truck's origins. Apparently the truck was used for final powertrain testing and development. But it was also built to highlight the company's capabilities.

If you want one of these, well, you can't have one. At least not yet. We asked a Mil-Spec representative, and he told us that there are no plans for offering track-oriented H1s. That's understandable, since the company is still working through building and selling its initial run of 12 off-road-ready vehicles. He did say the truck has generated a lot of interest, though. So, maybe when the company has time, and if a really wealthy buyer reallywanted one, maybe the Mil-Spec could work something out. But at least in the meantime, the company is sticking to tall, chunky-tired H1s.