An American invasion force is heading for Europe, and the vehicles look familiar from CNN. The Hummer is coming to a dealer near you. But will it be viewed as a liberation to be able to own the biggest, meanest SUV on the planet, or will Brits regard the vehicles as over-weight, over-thirsty and over here?

The Hummer is an icon. Stars of sports, screen and rap have queued up to own one. Its fan websites include www. humvee.net, and it has appeared in films, TV series and music videos.

We can thank a certain Austrian bodybuilder for the civilian Hummer. Arnold Schwarzenegger helped the original manufacturer, AM General, to convince its parent company that it would be a good idea to offer civilians a version of its military vehicle, and he has been closely involved with the development of smaller derivatives, the H2 and H3.

'I was involved every step of the way,' he said at the launch of the H2 SUT in New York's Times Square. These days, as governor of California, he's had to garage his 11-13mpg fleet and drives a hydrogen-powered 'green' Hummer.

Britain won't be getting the Big Bad Hummer, at least as an official import. We're being offered Hummer Lite, the new H3, which at 74.7in wide (plus mirrors) won't go through a six-foot width restriction, but is large, not gargantuan.

Five vehicles could be called Hummers, and the stroke of brilliance has been to make them look the same.

AM General designed the original in response to the army's tender for a high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicle or HMMWV. This soon became known as a Humvee and the first production vehicle rolled out in January 1985. The beast became a household name during the first Gulf War.

Civilians began contacting AM General wanting to buy their own Humvee, or a version of it. Enter Arnie. He phoned the head of the company, Jim Armour, and attended a meeting to persuade company top brass that this was an investment worth making.

His reward was the first vehicle, which adopted another nickname, Hummer, when it rumbled out in 1992.