Amid news that the Hummer H2 4X4 SUV and SUT are now available in South Africa through Toits Motor Group, the SABS and GM South Africa have slammed the development. This has done little to detract eager buyers from snapping up the behemoths, though….
Amid news that the Hummer H2 4X4 SUV and SUT are now available in South Africa through Toits Motor Group, the SABS and GM South Africa have slammed the development. This has done little to detract eager buyers from snapping up the behemoths, though….
Toits Motor Group recently announced itself as the sole distributor of the Hummer H2 range in South Africa, with managing director of the group, Renier Swart saying, “The Hummer H2-range is fully imported and homologated for South African conditions, and has also already received the SABS stamp of approval.”
However, following the news of Toits distributing converted and homologated right-hand drive H2s in South Africa for R1,4 million, the SABS and GMSA have issued statements to the contrary.
But Swart contends that his company has an agreement with City Square Trading, which imports the H2s as left-hand drives before converting and homologating the vehicles, and then sending them on Toits.
“There is no relationship with GM,” Swart told CARtoday.com, “though we can understand their position. It’s obviously a GM product, but the H2s are not supported by GMSA and we comprehensively warranty the H2 range.”
GMSA spokesperson Denise van Huyssteen told that the manufacturer had no involvement with Toits Motor Group. GMSA does not support its H2 conversion and would be taking the necessary steps to protect the Hummer brand.
According to , the H2 double cab has indeed been homologated, though not as a passenger vehicle.
Alan Cohen, a spokesperson for the SABS, said the double cab had been homologated as a goods vehicle, not a “dedicated passenger vehicle”, and that the 4X4 version had not been homologated at all. Cohen, too, said the matter was under investigation and that the agency would be taking steps.
“It is illegal to offer for sale a vehicle model that has not been homologated,” Cohen added.
But Koot Bierman of City Square Trading, the company that imports, converts and homologates the Hummer H2s, told CARtoday.com that the SUT model was classified as a pick-up, just like regular double-cabs available on our market.
Bierman said: “We are busy with homologation for the SUV. We’ve passed all the tests – it’s now just a matter of getting the paperwork. We expect this to happen by Thursday.”
Despite the SUV’s paperwork slowly making its way through the cogs of the bureaucracy machine, Swart said that the recent media attention has been the best, and cheapest, publicity ever.
“All our stock for the next four to five months has already been ordered,” Swart said, before promising that there would be an official media launch by March 2006.
Earlier this year, GM announced that right-hand drive models of the smaller H3 would be produced and sold in South Africa from 2007.
