Derided Hummer owners soldier on

Michael King, regional ambassador for the Hummer Club, uses his Hummer H1 for off-road driving - and his daily commute between Charlton and Boston. (Adam Hunger for The Boston Globe)

They've been mocked by stand-up comedians, reviled by environmentalists, and ridiculed by cost-conscious drivers at the gas pumps. But owners of Hummers, the military-style vehicles that have become symbols of wretched excess, are unapologetic.

With gas prices down dramatically from last summer's peak, and a forbidding mix of snow and ice tormenting motorists this winter, Hummer buffs are riding high, rolling through snow banks with the greatest of ease, and having the last laugh.

"We're easy to recognize and easy to pick on," said Manny MacMillan, a Barrington, N.H., technology professional who is president of the New England Hummer Owners Group. "But what everybody else thinks about it is not why I bought my truck."

MacMillan and other Hummer owners in the region view their vehicles as a different kind of symbol: one that signifies freedom and mobility and, in some cases, independence from what they see as the sanctimoniousness and conformity of the hybrid-driving, eco-smart set.

Still, the economics of buying a Hummer aren't the most compelling. Prices on the most affordable 2009 model, the H3, range from $34,000 to $39,000. And it gets 14 to 16 miles per gallon, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Among the reasons owners cite for hanging onto their Hummers, even as many former owners have traded theirs in to downsize in leaner times, are the adventure of off-roading, the ability to offer disaster assistance in emergencies, and a camaraderie with other Hummer enthusiasts, who gather at off-road events across the country.

"It can pretty much go anywhere," said Michael King, a radiological technologist who commutes from his home in Charlton, west of Worcester, to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Brighton in his H1 truck, the model designed as a civilian version of the military Humvee. "You can drive through flooded streets, you can drive over a 22-inch tree that's down across the road. There's no other vehicle that can do that."

Fred Padovan, who moved to North Andover from New York last year, described his H3 model as a family vehicle. Padovan takes his 20-month-old daughter and his 70-year-old mother off-roading. "We do mud, we climb rocks, we go through just about everything," he said.

McMillan, who bought his H1 in 1998 and has put about 140,000 miles on it, said it has been "pretty dramatically altered" for off-road use.

"It's been lifted, it's got larger off-road tires on it," he said. "I have a reinforced roll cage welded into it, just so if I flip it over nobody will get seriously hurt. I've taken it up what looks like a sheer cliff."

Registered as a Red Cross volunteer, King said he is prepared to deploy his Hummer to help rescue victims, or transport supplies through inhospitable terrain, in the event of a Hurricane Katrina-type disaster. But even in more routine bad weather conditions, he has discovered that his truck can prove helpful in a pinch.

"I work in Boston, so I do get the frowns from some people," King conceded. "But the guy whose Prius was stuck on the side of the road recently wasn't too unhappy that I pulled him out of a snowbank. He was happy I was driving by. We all have to be ambassadors."

Owning a Hummer can make some things more difficult. Chris Britt, chief executive of accounting firm Priviley LLC, has to pay the "oversized vehicle" rate of $450 a month to park his truck in a downtown Boston garage. And at his condominium complex in Somerville, some fellow residents are proud hybrid drivers.

"Most people in my building think it's absurd that I drive a Hummer," said Britt. "They're very New Age-y. They have their Priuses in the garage. It's really a lifestyle choice. But in the last snowstorm, I saw people spending hours digging out their Priuses. With my truck, I can drive through anything. I can park it on a snowbank."

Some owners dispute the notion that their Hummers are gas-guzzlers or environmentally toxic. MacMillan said his H1 gets 16 miles per gallon, the same or more than many sport utility vehicles.

And because the H1 engine runs on diesel fuel, he can sometimes fill it up with soy-based biodiesel fuel that he purchases in bulk from a supplier in Maine and brings home in a dozen 5-gallon cans.

"Usually I'm talking about the environment with someone who owns an old Volvo, and he's spewing black smoke," MacMillan said.

Robert Weisman can be reached at weisman@globe.com.