Business Notes Transportation

^ Looking for a rugged all-terrain vehicle? Then a Humvee might be just the buggy for you. It doesn't come with air conditioning or stereo, but it's been tested in real battlefield conditions. Humvee, which is short for High- Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle, is the new U.S. Army jeep. Deployed first in combat in Panama, some 20,000 Humvees were used in the Persian Gulf war. Starting last week, the Humvee was being offered for sale to the public by defense contractor LTV, which is trying to diversify its way out of bankruptcy.

The consumer models won't exactly ride like the grunt versions. Seats will be more heavily padded, and the doors will be made of steel rather than fiber glass, for safety's sake. LTV hopes to sell 1,000 of the Humvees this year at a price from $40,500 to $44,000, which is about twice as much as a Jeep Cherokee costs but about the same as a Range Rover. The first customer to enlist was the Terminator, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Good thing the manufacturers removed the missile launcher and cannon.