A dip in the road bent the truck's frame, destroyed the suspension, and tweaked most of the body panels.
A YouTuber who goes by Mondi—real name Edmond Barseghian—published a video last week documenting the purchase and subsequent crash of his new GMC Hummer EV pickup after just nine miles of ownership. The video went viral, but viewers still had questions. How much damage did he cause? Was the Hummer salvageable? Will the truck be rebuilt? In an interview with Road & Track, Barseghian gave us the answers.
In case you haven’t seen it, the video shows the YouTuber driving along a dirt path when he comes upon a dip in the road he doesn’t see in time. He reacts too late, slamming the Hummer into the ground and causing a serious amount of damage.
“Yeah, the car was totaled,” Barseghian told Road & Track over the phone. “The front sub-frame was bent. The shocks were busted.”
Barseghian went on to tell us the skid plate up front was ripped off in the crash, while the A/C condenser, the radiator for the battery cooling, a rear tie-rod, and part of the engine harness were damaged. “The rear frame was two and a half inches higher on the right side than on the left side,” he added.
The impact was so severe, it also caused some of the body panels to buckle in places. Photos of the truck post-crash given to Road & Track show folded metal and mismatched gaps.
“It was such a minor bump, it really was nothing,” Barseghian said. “But because the truck weighs so much, the frame [was] just completely destroyed. Also, I had traction control off, because I wanted to go sliding, but that dumps the suspension, so the suspension had no travel at all.”
Once frame damage came into play, it was clear this was not going to be a cheap fix.
“The damage was $78,000 with parts and labor,” Barseghian said. “Getting the parts was the issue, because a lot of the parts weren’t available. I did not go through insurance. I just wrote it off as a loss. I sold it for much less to a third party. I lost a ton, but it is what it is.”
When asked whether all of the comments online were getting to him, Barseghian shrugged it off.
“I’m not worried,” he said. “I’m an IMSA race car driver. I actually race. I’ve done rally racing as well. I’m pretty familiar with sliding around in the dirt. It was all fun. I’ve taken a dip like that in my Subaru Impreza, a four-door sedan, and nothing happened. A pickup truck couldn’t handle it? That’s pretty pathetic.”
GMC declined to comment for this story.
In addition to his racing endeavors, Barseghian is also a businessman. He’s the co-founder of fast-food chain Houston’s Hot Chicken, according to his LinkedIn page, and told Road & Track he manages 14 businesses.
We’ve seen stunts like this on YouTube before, where channels purposefully damage or even wreck their cars for views. But that wasn’t the plan, Barseghian said.
“I didn’t do it for YouTube,” he said. “Do I regret it? No. It’s a life experience and a lesson. I’m okay with it. Obviously, the channel got some traction, so it’s cool. I did not recoup the dollar amount that I lost. All the views on the YouTube video made like $1000, but I lost like $80,000 off the car. Definitely not worth it, all things in life, I don’t regret anything I do.”
“I’m actually happy I totaled the car, because I total a car every five years,” Barseghian told us. “I’m glad I’ve met my quota on this car rather than one of my supercars. So basically all of my supercars are safe for the next five years.”
Brian Silvestro Road & Track staff writer with a taste for high-mileage, rusted-out projects and amateur endurance racing.
Keyword: YouTuber Says His Hummer EV Crash Cost Him $80,000