Buy Schwarzenegger’s autograph and they’ll throw in the SUV

It’s burly, boxy and yellow as a traffic sign. Even without seeing the plaque inside, signed by a certain Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Hummer H2 is hard to ignore.

As I inched it — oh, so carefully — into a space at Roy Robinson Chevrolet in Marysville, I was reminded by my passenger of a "Seinfeld" episode.

"Remember the one when George buys a car he thinks was owned by Jon Voight?" Herald photographer Meggan Booker asked as we climbed out of the massive SUV. "Then he finds out the owner was a different Jon Voight."

All of 22, she admitted she had no idea who actor Jon Voight was when she saw the show, but that’s another matter.

The matter at hand is the car, and the California gubernatorial candidate, and how we know we’re not being duped like George.

But sure enough, "The Terminator" star did drive the 2003 Hummer for sale in Marysville. And depending on the whims of Golden State voters, a buyer of the used H2 could end up owning an artifact of history — for a mere $49,999.

We know that the larger-than-life guy known simply as "Ahhhnold" has driven the very car I drove Friday morning, because Friday afternoon I spoke with Gidget Uda. She’s executive director of the After School All Stars in San Jose, Calif., part of the national Inner-City Games Foundation.

Schwarzenegger, it turns out, is chairman of the board of the foundation, which holds athletic competitions in 14 cities for kids ages 7 to 17.

"He drove it like a block," said Uda, who explained that the Hummer division of General Motors, in partnership with Schwarzenegger, donates new H2 vehicles to Inner-City Games Foundation groups nationwide.

The San Jose group raised funds by holding a golf tournament that included "Hummer for the summer" prizes, Uda said. Three winners used the car now in Marysville.

Uda said her brother-in-law, Mark Yoneyama of San Jose, had the H2 May through August. "He took it to Tahoe a couple of times, and he washed it all the time. Our first winner took it to the Grand Canyon," she said.

The foundation sold the car to LeGrande Affaire Limousine Service in Santa Clara, Calif., which is where Roy Robinson Chevrolet acquired it.

Steve Brown, used car manager at the dealership, flew to California and drove it back.

"I made it in very good time," Brown said of the nonstop trip that took three $45 fill-ups of the 32-gallon tank. Having made that trip in very good time myself, I didn’t ask, and he didn’t say just how fast he was going.

"It’s a great big almost military-looking vehicle, you can see it for 20 miles," Brown said. "A lot of people were giving me thumbs up."

Thumbs up, and they didn’t even know the driver had a plaque just over his left shoulder that reads "Made especially for Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Inner-City Games Foundation."

On the car lot in Maryville, salesman Mark King said the H2, built on a Chevy Tahoe chassis, gets attention from car browsers "of both genders."

"I’ve driven a lot of cars, but I can’t remember the last time I was that impressed with the way something handled," said Gordon Bjorg, owner of Roy Robinson Chevrolet.

It doesn’t take much experience to know this car is a kick. When King handed me the keys and suggested Booker and I take it for a ride, we didn’t argue.

I discovered what Brown and Uda did in the Arnoldmobile.

"Wherever you go, people are staring," Uda said.

Oh, yeah. We turned heads along Marine Drive on the Tulalip Reservation, where construction workers gave the H2 a wide berth.

The car is wider than I’m used to, but it’s a sporty drive, not a sluggish behemoth. It’s plush, with leather seats, too many bells and whistles to mention, and an OnStar navigation system.

The H2 is available new at Doug’s Lynnwood Mazda-Suzuki-Hummer-Hyundai, but even with its 17,000 miles this one has a cachet, a rare option.

Imagine going out for a quart of milk. Before you crank up that big V8, you tell your spouse, "Hasta la vista, baby."

"You can buy an old Duesenberg," said Brown, "but did you get Clark Gable’s?"

Uh-oh, I wonder if our young photographer knows about Clark Gable. No matter. When she climbed into our borrowed ride, Booker knew this:

"It does seem very Arnold, all that yellow and chrome."

Columnist Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460 or muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com.

The Hummer H2’s specifications:

Length: 189.8 inches

Width: 81.2 inches

Height: 77.8 inches

Ground clearance: 10 inches

Gross weight: 8,600 pounds