This one took me by surprise. You learn something every day when you’re out hunting for CCs, but I wasn’t mentally prepared for this. I lived in several countries – including Thailand, where Isuzu are still very much in the SUV game – but I confess that this one really had me stumped. Well, it figures: Isuzu only ever inflicted the VehiCross upon two markets: Japan and the United States. Not Thailand, Isuzu’s last stronghold, and definitely nowhere near Europe.
So for many of you, rare though it may be, this may be a familiar sight. But let me assure you that for those of us who did not encounter them when new, it’s a bit of a shock. It looks like it was left out in the sun too long, and then dipped into a vat of black tar. Most unusual.
And there’s that Kardashianesque rear end, to boot. It looks like a Vasarely print. Or like those faraway stellar objects that are optically distorted by gravitational lensing. Apparently, the back window was so impossible to see out of that Isuzu had to equip it with a rear camera – then a very high-tech solution only found on a few very expensive cars. But this was just an Isuzu.
The concept had been shown at the 1993 Tokyo Motor Show and proved rather popular with the crowd, so Isuzu went ahead and put it into production. The 1993 concept sat on a jacked up third-gen Gemini platform, but the production model went for the SWB Bighorn/Trooper chassis instead. It also was (and has remained) known in Japanese as the “Vee-Cross” – not quite sure what went on with the name there. But the final product was very close to the concept, chassis aside, and domestic sales started in April 1997.
Unusually for an Isuzu, there was only one engine available and it was not a Diesel. JDM cars were fitted with an all-alloy 3.2 litre DOHC V6 producing 215hp and mated with a 4-speed auto – no manual was available. American versions were gifted with a 3.5 litre variant of the same engine, good for 230hp.
It’s fair to say that Isuzu never expected to sell too many of these, but the VehiCross still had trouble reaching its intended audience, who preferred the more explicitely luxurious Range Rovers or Jeeps, or a far more capable and less costly domestic SUV. Wrapping things in leather, Recaro seats and Momo steering wheels are all well and good, but in the end, it’s still and will always remain an Isuzu.
As a result, instead of shifting about 2-3000 per month, Isuzu found that they could hardly break the 200 mark. In early 1999, the VehiCross discreetly left the JDM range and took the next boat to America, where it also failed to make an impact, though it did a little better there than it did at home. Fewer than 1800 of these peculiar vehicles were registered in Japan, whereas over 4000 were sold on the other side of the Pacific.
Isuzu apparently had plans to develop a drop-top version dubbed VX-02 (ah, such an evocative alphanumeric… almost poetic… weren’t the ‘90s great?), as well as a LWB four-door logically named VX-4, but thought better of it and switched to the Axiom instead. Automotive history has its ups and downs, its odds and ends, its ugly sides. This vehicle definitely has some of the ugliest sides ever. And the front and back are even worse. All in all, being unaware of the VehiCross’s existence served me well for many years. Now I have to know such a thing exists. The completist in me appreciates that, but sometimes ignorance really is bliss.
Related posts:
In Motion Classic: 1999 – ’01 Isuzu VehiCROSS – What’s In A Name?, by Joseph Dennis
CC Outtake: Isuzu Vehicross – The Ultimate Anti-Corvair?, by PN
Cohort Outtake: Isuzu Vehicross – Has It Mellowed With Age?, by PN
CC For Sale: Isuzu Vehicross – Not Exactly Common, or Cheap, by Peter N
When I was in Thailand in the mid-90’s, isuzu trucks were everywhere.
Of course you knew I had to have one of these beasts!
Very nice!
For car enthusiasts, who regularly study design concepts and prototypes, the VehiCross styling wasn’t surprising. The fact it went to production was. I always appreciate it, when a car maker comes up with unique servings. It has aged better as time passes, as mainstream car styling has become more assertive/dramatic.
Definitely. There’s always a risk showing the public something that looks too far ahead, and then acting on the public’s reaction to it. That 1993 concept looks amazing, and the VehiCross stayed surprisingly true to the original, despite the change in platform to a truck chassis. I thought it was great, and it still looks good.
I actually thought these were pretty cool; but IIRC they were very impractical and also not cheap. Since I was a one-car guy at the time it wasn’t an option.
Familiar because it was in the Hongwell Cararama model range in both 1:72 and 1:43 scale. An awful eyesore though.
It occurred to me while reading this article, that the VehiCross is the only car I can think of where the Japanese fender-mounted mirror actually looks like it belongs. I’m not sure that’s a compliment.
I guess the main point with these was for people to say “Wow, Isuzu is so bold, they actually put their concept cars into production!” But ultimately, the VehiCross was probably both too weird and too expensive for either the American or Japanese markets.
Here’s a picture from the 1993 Tokyo Motor Show introduction. I’d love to know whether the feedback that Isuzu received from this show was “I hope you sell this to the public just as it is!”
Strangely enough, I always liked these! Somehow, the offbeat, rakish, acquired-taste styling just works for me. The interiors looked especially nice, with two-tone leather Recaros on US models. And underneath it all, it was a capable compact 4×4 with parts commonality with other Isuzus. I kinda want one…
When the VehiCross went into production, I remember that much hay was made of the fact that the sheetmetal was being stamped with low-cost ceramic dies. And it was always intended to be a low-volume vehicle: Once the dies wore out, production stopped and Isuzu moved on to its next halo vehicle, the Axiom.
I think Isuzu managed to nail a design that still looks futuristic, twenty years later. Not great, not pretty, but it stills harkens things yet to come, IMO.
There’s a yellow one in my neighborhood, it makes me feel happier whenever I see it.
I saw a real “live” one, once. It seemed somewhat better looking in 3D than pictures portrayed. Conversely, given many of today’s totally over wrought “designs this Isuzu isn’t that bad. I am particularly thinking of a hideous recently departed Toyota SUV/CUV (?), that made this Isuzu look smooth and flowing!! Unfortunately I do not remember the small Toyota’s name, as I only saw a very few on the street. DFO
I’ll echo the comments of a few others that sorta-kinda like these, and though they’re not common even here in California, I see enough that they have grown on me. When new, what really bothered me more than the shape and surface details, was the lack of outward visibility. Not the best for tight off-road trails. The Amigo by contrast was well styled AND a useful short wheelbase 4WD. Anyway, with a quarter century of hindsight, hats off to Isuzu for taking this into production. And if you don’t like it, buy a Suzuki X90 😀
Good comparison to the kartrashian butt .
That is makes the spare tire theft resistant is a bog plus but still too weird looking .
I too think the JDM far side mirror looks well integrated .
Did Isuzu loose money of these ? .
-Nate
The Vehicross was indeed expensive (~$28,000 when introduced) and very unusual looking but nowhere near as weird as a Pontiac Aztek. On the other hand, it had a very sophisticated 4-wheel drive system. Its 12 independent sensors to detect wheel spin and redirect power to the wheels with the most traction, gave it an advantage on wet and icy roads while its body-on-frame truck construction, suspension and gearing make it very capable in off-road travel.
I hate silver, I hate modern SUVs, and I hate black plastic cladding…
Yet I really genuinely like these and always have. I do admire Isuzu for putting the concept into production unchanged. Most of the time it gets muddled by production concessions and focus group boobs and you end up with the Pontiac Aztek, or the first generation chevy Volt
Finally a vehicle that makes the AMC Pacer look attractive. I can’t help but wonder if the public reaction to the VehiCross at the Tokyo auto show was instrumental in its going into production. The line between unique and weird is quite close and Isuzu really jumped the shark on this.
I ran across one in a parking lot back when it first came out. It was hideous (and I’m being nice). I thought how could somebody design something so fugly.
Then came the Aztek. Must have been the same guy.
Not the Aztek, but Shiro Nakamura, the lead designer of the VehiCross project, later went to work for Nissan and is credited with the Juke and Murano. I can see the resemblance.
The perfect vehicle if you were one of the Power Rangers!
The 3.2 DOHC V6 was used in the Trooper/Honda Horizon rebadge, the Honda version has a transfer on the back extolling Hondas technical knowhow claiming its their engine.
It’s not really to far from the 2024 Subaru Outback, sans 2 doors. Just 25 years ahead of it’s time
I’ve always wanted one. It’s actually on my short list of vehicles I’d like to have.
I actually remember two of these sitting at the dealership back in 2000 or 2001. One was yellow, and one white. I recall an MSRP of $32-35k, and that they didn’t grow roots into the showroom floor. I found the styling to be a bit quirky, but not as loathsome as some; maybe hold the ribbing on the doors. This was before black/grey plastic cladding burst onto the scene en masse, so it didn’t feel derivative at that point.
I saw the yellow one in traffic and about town for a number years to come, though I’ve not seen another VehiCross since I left Montana in the late 2000’s.
The convertible was shown in the film “Red Planet” (2000)..