Hummer H3 news - Hummer hits the UK - 2007

Listen up y'all, because Hummer goes on sale in the UK today. Not the massive H1, sadly, but the slighty more palatable H3 - and, dubious environmental and cultural implications aside, it's a lot of metal for your money.

The first Hummer to be sold on these shores in right-hand drive, the H3 starts at £26,495. That gets you a five-cylinder, 3.7-litre petrol engine, which develops 244bhp and accelerates to, well, Hummer's staying strangely quiet on that one.

We do know the H3's economy, however, which isn't quite as appalling as you might think: 20.4mpg on the combined cycle with the manual 'box. Not exactly BlueMotion territory though, and neither are the CO2 emissions, which stand at 327g/km with the manual gearbox and 346g/km with the auto'.

But, on the plus side, the H3 can wade through up to 60cm of water and - according to Hummer at least - tackle a 60 per cent slope.

That's thanks in part to the H3's two-ratio transfer gearbox and something Hummer is calling 'StabiliTrack Stability Enhancement System' - an acronym as gratuitously oversized as the car itself.

So, as we say, plenty of metal for your money. However, just when we were warming to the H3 as, say, an agricultural alternative to a Defender or Hilux, Hummer goes and sends us over a list of famous Hummer owners - including David Beckham, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Paris Hilton and Hugh Heffner.

Want to join that party?