A Jeep by Any Other Name

Perhaps the only thing more faithful than the good old Army Jeep was its good old name, which seemed to capture the spunk of that sprightly warhorse. Now the Pentagon plans to change both with a sometimes klutzy replacement burdened by a certainly klutzy name: the High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV). The manufacturer, AM General Corp., calls it the Hummer. No way, says the Army: that rhymes with bummer. It prefers "the HummVee," hardly a name likely to catch on with the average grunt.

So far bummer might have the inside track. The vehicle, which comes with power steering and automatic transmission and can perform a wide variety of tasks, costs $27,000, nearly twice as much as a Jeep. But its radiator sometimes leaks, its tires are less sturdy than hoped, and it is too heavy (7,500 lbs.) to be transported by helicopter as easily as the Jeep. According to one study, "It achieved an average of only 367 mean miles between mission failures, vs. a requirement of 1,300." Translation: it breaks down too often. Company President Lawrence Hyde argues, "Everything cited by critics has been corrected and proved O.K. in current tests." But meanwhile the HMMWV acquired a bad name, which makes its nickname all the more important. Says Army Spokes man Colonel Craig McNab: "Chances are that troopers will come up with their own name anyway. And the troops always prove to be highly imaginative."