Ok just a quickie here.

Over here, Isuzu actually had quite a presence in passenger cars; certainly more than I thought. And they are confusing.

I've seen a stack of 5-door wagon Isuzu Rodeos, the earlier model of which was not sold in Australia, however the later model I've seen was sold here (there, whatever) as the 2nd generation Holden Frontera and were built in the USA (the first Holden Frontera, a 3-door-style wagon similar in shape to the Isuzu MU grey import was built in the UK and fitted with a Vauxhall motor!)

Just to confuse you, the 5-door wagon Rodeo was also sold in the USA as the Honda Passport.

The Isuzu Axiom was an interesting looking machine and I've seen a couple of them, however I've Wiki'd them and it appears they were not that popular and were built on the chassis of the previous model Isuzu Rodeo wagon, so the dynamics did not match the sharp looks. Interestingly, they were built in a plant that was jointly operated by Isuzu and Subaru and when they were discontinued in 2004, the plant switched to building the Subaru Tribeca exclusively, which is a shame as it is quite obviously the most hideous machine to be built by anyone and is an affront to all things good and proper. If you see one, please set it on fire before it burns your eyes.

The Isuzu light medium-commercial range is actually a lot more confusing and was the primary reason I was going to write. So far, I've seen Isuzu 3-tonne (or 5-tonne... or something) trucks with Isuzu badges. Oh, and Chevrolet badges. Oh and GMC badges.

Confused, would we?

Anyway here's a pic of a Chevy version in Las Vegas. This will also be handy if you need some hot babes direct to you.

Cheers,

Dave

isuzu... confusing... never!
a quick flick tho the combined mountain of bellett brochures we have, and the way everything is sooooooo easy to follow, with changes made for perfectly obvious reasons, should prove that beyond doubt................
so, it's good to see that the corporate policies and ideals have continued!

and yes, i kid....

I seem to remember that after about 1992, the US automakers managed some kind of tariff that all but eliminated two door SUVs, because Ford and GM did not want the competition from Toyota and Nissan. So there were very few Amigos (two door Rodeos) and no two door Troopers.

The Axiom was built and sold under the same limited production concept as the Vehicross. The Axiom also received the most powerful of the 6VE1 engines. Your average crap-pedia writer is going to confuse limited production and customer waiting lists with "unpopular", but when you read crap-pedia, you should expect the information to be crap anyway.

You will probably notice the resemblance of the Chevy Colorado to the Isuzu D-Max. This is because Isuzu licensed the design to Chevy. In addition, Chevy put Isuzu in charge of cosmetic updates to the entire line of Chevy/GM pickup trucks to bring them into a family resemblance to the D-Max design.

And the GM commercial trucks have been Isuzu design and manufacture for quite some time now. GM's T and W series should be easily recognizable as Isuzu N and F Series or Isuzu Elf and Forward.

over here, we had:
the Holden Rodeo, which began as entirely Isuzu built in diesel and petrol engined forms. great in both types.
first off, diesel and petrol were both 4 cylinder. later went 4 cyl diesel and Isuzu V6 petrol.
they then became Isuzu diesel or Holden Commodore V6 petrol engined. V6 engine is a modernised version of the old 215ci/3.8l buick unit. the diesel was still good, but the petrol went crapola.... no go and chewed fuel faster than u could replace it!

we now have:
the Isuzu D-Max diesel, which is entirely Isuzu built. good ole Isuzu tough-ness still.
the Holden Colorado petrol, which looks like an Isuzu D-Max, but still uses the V6 engine from the Commodore. runied a great ute IMHO.
and the Great Wall 220 (i think its called), which is the last model Rodeo, built in China under consignment, with a differently styled front end that is butt ugly. they say u only get what u pay for, and these things are $24k drive away.... need i say more....

from what they say, Isuzu trucks account for 1 in every 3 total truck sales in Aus, so they are easily the most popular trucks here.
that's what makes then money in the oz market.

Don't forget the wonderful 1.8 & 2lt Holden / isuzu Jerkaroo it was nearly a 1/2 way decent 4wd if it kept going long enough

oh yeah!
but at least every jerkaroo we got was Isuzu built, be it 4 cyl or V6.
Holden never got the chance to ruin it even more with a Common-bore engine....

The Rodeo and Colorado were/are fitted with the 3.6 litre Alloytec V6, not the 3.8 litre ex-Buick Ecotec V6.

The 3.6 was better tech, but the rough-as-guts Ecotec at least had some poke, great torque and exceptional fuel economy, even if it sounded like a combine harvester at full revs falling off a cliff.

I haven't researched this, but I think the Great Wall versions are unauthorised copies, rather than legitimate as China do not 'acknowledge' the Western ideals of copyright law.

I could be wrong though!

i thought the great walls were on a triton style chassis, with a knock off mitsubishi engine (similar to what hyundai did with there engines), and body that looks like the rodeo, except for that horrible frontal treatment?
feel free to correct me if im wrong, which suprisingly can happen!

It seems there are some differences in the current pickup names and specs around the world.
The US Colorado pickups, all have GM inline four and inline five cylinder engines. Isuzu was selling these same trucks also. In the ultimate irony, the Isuzu design ended up being built by GM and rebadged back as an Isuzu. Of course, they ceased new vehicle sales in the US a little over a year ago.
The Rodeo and Trooper left this market five or so years ago, and the Ascender/Suburban was discontinued a few years after it was introduced.

The Trooper and Rodeos that were made at the Indiana plant switched back and forth between the Isuzu engines and the GM engines. The 4Z engines actually require the oil and water to be checked once in a while, which is too much to ask of an American motorist. So they switched to the GM motors, which were total garbage, but made the people who neglect their vehicles happy. The people who actually wanted some get-up-and-go wouldn't buy anything with the GM engine, so they switched back. I think they finally ended up with some really lackluster 2.2 liter DOHC cam, variable cam timing, and direct injection GM engine, with all the the right ingredients, but it makes less horsepower than you can count on your fingers and toes.

Oddly enough, as soon as Isuzu started making smooth running diesel engines, they stopped offering any diesels in the US. None in the cars after 1985 and none in the trucks or SUVs at all. We might get the 4JJ1 in the NPR EcoMax commercial truck.

Is the Great Wall a reference to the JiangLing LandWind? JiangLing is an Isuzu subsidiary/affiliate. Isuzu owns half of JiangLing. (More irony, when a company that was owned by GM is now independent and owns parts of other companies from Poland to China.) GM made a big stink about the LandWind looking too much like an Opel Frontera, but the conspicuous part was that Isuzu never got involved in the argument, and the Opel Frontera was an Isuzu made product. The issue was that the Chinese SUV picked up the front and rear treatment of the European badged SUV that Isuzu sold to Opel. But Isuzu sold the dies to make the body panels to JaingLing and wanted no part of the argument between GM and their Chinese subsidiary. You might notice that a lot of the OEM body panels purchased from the Isuzu dealership are marked "Made in China". The last windshield I bought was air freighted to the dealership from China and I think it had JaingLing stickers on the crate it arrived in.
The one major problem with the LandWind is that once you get past the tooling for the body panels, the Chinese were left to sort out the details themselves. And in the land of lead, cadmium, and arsenic, the motto is "We're willing to sacrifice the health and well being of the customer for the sake of a quick profit". The LandWind compares to the Rodeo pretty much the same way that the Ebbro Bellett GT-R scale model compares to the NoRev Chinese made Bellett GT-R scale model. If you stand far enough away from them, they look the same. But as soon as you get close enough to see the how well things fit together, the Chinese made version reveals itself to be atheistic (because God is in the details).