1984 Humvee VIN 00046
Extremely Rare 1984 M-998 AM General HMMWV Humvee (H1, Hummer)
In 1984 AM General won the contract to build the HMMWV Humvees. The first batch of 75 trucks manufactured in 1984 were tested at the Marine base in San Diego CA. The official launch was in January 1985.
From experience in ex-military Jeeps, AM General prohibited selling ex-millitary Humvee to civilians, because the new owners of ex-military Jeeps often get in bad accidents and sue the manufacturer (AM General) for faulty design. AM General had to defend against many lawsuits even though they sold the vehicles to the Government only for off-road use (not public roads). In 1998 the US Marine Corps entered into a barter agreement with United Defense to trade Ex-Marine Humvees for United Defense. Fortunately, United Defense hired Bishop Brothers Auto Auction to sell the vehicles. In a light attempt to satisfy AM General, the Bill of Sale for many trucks stated "for off road use only". Bishop Brothers quickly began selling trucks to civilians. The original number of trucks was expected to be around 900 but rose to about 1500 due to some of the trucks not being in running condition and thus they were sold for a lower dollar amount.
Jim, the previous (one and only) owner of this Humvee had known one of the Bishop Brothers director. As part of the United Defense USMC barter agreement Jim purchased over 50 Humvees and learned a lot about them. He made goal to select the best truck for a collectible vehicle. There were a total of 3 trucks in the inventory of Bishop Brothers that were 1984 model year trucks. Most of pre-production Humvees were destroyed in testing or due to age and wear. Jim bought the truck that was built in late 1984. The history of other two trucks is unknown. They had a lot of body damages and were not complete - probably they were dismounted for spares. Our humvee is in perfect condition for collectors. He has original tyres, paintwork, body without damages and holes. He has done only 37,000 miles and is in great mechanical condition. We have most of the new old stock parts to rebuild this track. We bought this truck two years at Florida in USA - it had clear Certificate Of Title State Of Florida. Truck was legaly imported to European Union and actually is in Poland.
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