(first posted 3/18/2015) The Trooper II has earned some serious respect and admiration, the hard way. It was among the very first, perhaps the very first of the “compact” SUVs that took the US market by storm in the eighties. It was eminently practical, durable, rugged, and good looking. And it’s on the list of cars that I wish I had bought. Did it have any faults? Probably, but as far as I’m concerned, someone should still be making this Trooper.
Let’s do the history first. I don’t have the proof to back me up, but I seem to remember the Trooper being available in California before the 1983 Chevy S-10 Blazer. I gave the baby Blazer GM Deadly Sin status (not without some controversy), so maybe my memory is skewed by the fact that I instantly elevated the Trooper well above the Blazer in my ranking. I readily admit that they were very different animals, and the Blazer’s claim to fame was that it offered the amenities (V6, automatic, etc.) that made SUVs acceptable to the mainstream and sparked the whole boom. That may be precisely why I dislike it too. The Trooper was the real thing; the Blazer a popular pretender.
The Trooper was a totally different animal than the Blazer. Like the little Chevy, it was based on compact pick-up underpinnings. But that’s where the differences start: the Isuzu P’up (Chevy LUV) (above) was a notoriously tough little goat, reflecting fully Isuzu’s light-truck expertise and the best of (mostly) typical Japanese quality standards of the time.
The Trooper first saw the light of day somewhere in 1981, and wiki says that it was first sold in the US as a 1983 model. I was smitten right off for another reason: the fact that it looked so much like an early Range Rover.
Let’s be honest and call it a blatant rip-off, right down to the single round headlights in the slotted black plastic grille as on these two early models. The huge greenhouse, the high seating position, the fantastic visibility, the dash; they even copied the fact that the RR started out as a two door and added the four door later.
Ironically, the Range Rover’s iconic design was an accident; it was an engineering mule, but when some Rover execs saw it, they loved it, and the rest is history.
Tellingly, RR added its four door in 1981, the year the two door Trooper came out. Oops; too late; but a couple of years later, there it was!
Obviously, the RR and the Trooper shared little under their similar skin. The RR was a brilliant and sophisticated vehicle, way ahead of anything then conceived of at its birth in 1970. A long travel all-coil suspension, full time AWD and four-wheel disc brakes made similar SUVs like the Jeep Wagoneer look like dinosaurs, even in their relative youth. The fact that the RR had a detuned and relatively torquey 3.5 liter aluminum V8 (ex Buick) added to its exotic appeal at the time. I’m getting off track here; I’ll save it for a RR CC.
The point is that the Trooper may have been devoid of the Rover’s sophistication, but its tried and proven hardware was bulletproof. Its appeal was limited to those with a certain austerity of expectations in terms of power and other comforts. The Trooper came with a 1.9 liter four that may have had something like 88 hp. Frankly, it was probably a good thing that an automatic wasn’t available until the latter years when its four grew to 2.6 liters and the Chevy 2.8 V6 was optional.
But the little four was a trooper, as long as one didn’t mind rowing the gears with the gusto of an oarsman. I had a bad case of SUV-itis in the very early eighties, and seriously contemplated a Scout Traveler with the turbo-diesel. Once the Trooper arrived, the Scout instantly fell off the radar. Well, the lack of an automatic was the rub; Stephanie refused to take up crew. We ended up buying a Cherokee when that came out; don’t ask about its reliability.
A former neighbor of mine drove one of these early two doors for almost twenty years, finally replacing it with a Toyota 4Runner (what else?). He was a hard-core kayaker, and it took him to the remotest corners of the west, without ever letting him down. He loved the roomy body, with enough space to sleep in the back in a pinch. Frankly, I don’t think there’s been another SUV that’s ever approached the Trooper’s interior space, except a Suburban and the like. It’s a giant box in there, that made the rest of the competition like the Cherokee feel like a sub-compact.
And the visibility from that front throne is like nothing else, except the Range Rover, of course. It’s not a coincidence that I drive a gen1 xB; it’s the non-offroad compact version of the Trooper. And I like rowing gears. I suspect if I had bought a Trooper, it would still be sitting in the back lot, ready to roll for those times when the urge to really get away from it all strikes. All these years later, and the Trooper is still an unfulfilled desire. I guess it’s hardly the only one on that list.
Related reading:
CC: 1985 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer – GM’s Deadly Sin #5 – Sloth
CC: 1979 Chevy LUV 4×4 (Isuzu Faster) – Tough Love
Nice article, but I can’t wait for the Range Rover CC you promised.
+1. I’ve got thorough pictorial coverage of a pristine 2 owner 2 door if you need Paul.
I both admire and HATE these Troopers. I admire the clean, simple design and the toughness these exhibit…like they are made of iron. But I really hate them because they are so o o o o underpowered. The first few times I got stuck behind one at a traffic light I nearly rear-ended it as it moved away from the light like it was being pulled by small children.
I can’t even imagine how much slower a diesel-powered Trooper would be. While these would eventually offer the 2.8 Chevy V6 as an option, the smallest Chevy engine I would want in a Trooper is a 5 liter V8.
Howard Kerr:
The Trooper may seem like a Turd to you in Terms of displacement/ hp/torque…. (I had a friend in 86 that bought a red/brown 2-door)….it blew everything away in terms of price and availability………and retail Price-Point…..(even with dealer markup then). Finding a 4Runner/Trooper then in Base/Fully Loaded Trim was a question “if you don’t buy it now,I’ve got other people in-line that will buy it……with Reagan Voluntary Import Restrictions ‘” in full bloom.
A couple years later, my boss (a multimillionaire) purchased a fully-loaded blue V6 2.8 5-Speed 4door Trooper……yep,it was slow as hell(like the 4-pot)….yet there was nothing approaching it’s features,gimmicks, and build quality for the low price he paid then………what….like 37+ years later his baby son (now a grown man) drives it…..and that turd-slow Trooper looks and drives like a 2-3 year old Rental Return.
I remember these, they remind me of the Mitsubishi Pajero from the same era. Square and clean. The second gen was sold as Opel Monterey. It sold pretty well, especially among the trailer towing diesel crowd.
Years ago I learned what a huge company Isuzu was, with their full line-up of trucks and own diesel engines. Does Isuzu build pickup trucks nowadays for the US market, with a Chevrolet badge ?
In the early eighties I read an article in a Dutch truck magazine (I still must have it somewhere) about the possible “invasion” of heavy Japanese diesel trucks. Brands like Hino, Nissan Diesel, Mitsubishi and Isuzu.
Never happened though, not even close. In the seventies and eighties the Euro brands made big leaps forward when it came to power, comfort, cab interior room and ergonomics. In the early eighties the contemporary Japanese big trucks already looked like relics. Furthermore there was no dealer network; selling and maintaining big diesel trucks is not quite the same as selling and maintaining cars.
Mitsubishi Pajero.
The Pajero (and the Land Cruiser) is often the vehicle of choice for elites in developing countries.
Interesting observations, Johannes. I’m a bit closer to things here in oz; we got the Trooper as the Holden Jackaroo and the Mitsubishi got a lot of push here because of the local manufacture of the Magna. So these two models feel a bit evergreen over here, but in truth both have fallen by the wayside. I think in our market the Discovery opened up the euro option to the less-than-wealthy.
Oh yes ! The 1989 Land Rover Discovery. Fitted right between the Land Rover Defender-boneshaker and the luxury (and expensive) Range Rover.
A successful SUV, he or she who had horses to haul (in a trailer, of course) loved it ! Japanese off-roaders~SUVs were way too common for that, those were for the blue collar plebs….to haul cattle, equipment, or machinery.
Old Money just loves their Old Land- & Range Rovers.
Isuzu had a badge-engineered version of the Chevy S10 (the Hombre) up until the end of S10 manufacture, and perhaps for a year or three after. However I don’t remember them selling a version of the Colorado. As far as I know they’ve since departed the US light truck market, having nothing to sell after their badge-engineered Chevy models (Hombre and Ascender) were discontinued.
We do still have them in the medium/heavy truck market, as well as Hino and Mitsubishi. We don’t get the truly big class 8 semis (if they even make those) but they’re very common cabovers for small to medium box trucks and the like.
This is an Isuzu Truck its a 03 so not actually current but these Giga cab models are still in production I drove a brand new one recently 530hp 18 speed box it went well, this one is only 400hp a bit gutless fully laden but I’m on hourly rate so who cares.
Bryce, that looks a bit like a DAF CF-series. The former CF, not the latest model. DAF’s midsizer that you also drove; the XF-series is their fullsizer (also sold in your regions).
The I-Series was a rebadged Colorado/Canyon
Isuzu i270 and i350/i370, collectively the Isuzu i-Series. The one year only upsized engine 2008 i370 might be even more rare than the badge engineered Suzuki Equator.
If anyone finds these is 15 years ad photographs them for CC, they deserve some kind of award.
Love the Trooper! During early SUV boom I couldn’t afford one – but I did buy a Spacecab Isuzu P’up. That truck was a little beast! I ended up donating what was left of it to the local vocational high school autoshop. Only ran on three cylinders, the rear springs were shot, and one braking circuit had failed but it maded to the school under its own power! Interior of the Spacecab was identical to the Trooper. So was the power – engaging the a/c on the highway dropped your speed by about 5mph.
Interesting comparison to the Range Rover, I’ve guess I’ve never thought about the Trooper long enough to make any connection, but there are certainly many parallels between the two. At least appearance-wise, I always thought the Trooper (at least the 2nd generation) looked most like the Land Rover Discovery.
I had one of these for many years. It was a 1988, which was late in the run for this body style. Mine was an EFI 2.6 four with an automatic. When used for what it was intended for it worked pretty well. It would have been a better car with a stick trans, but the overdrive auto did an OK job around town — you just got used to using much of the engines rpm range in order to keep up with any kind of normal traffic. Being a large 4 it didn’t sound great revving that high, but it did it a lot and for a long time without any evident issues. I drove one with a GM 2.8 and a stick and it was more balanced–just a time bomb given the 2.8’s miserable durability. Off road it was pretty remarkable–it looked ungainly being so tall, but it had good ground clearance and articulation, didn’t weigh too much and didn’t have much overhang on either end.
I have very fond memories of camping and traveling in the Trooper. It was austere but sturdy. You aren’t kidding about useable interior space–it was like a minivan in size and totally rectangular. I kept it for about 8 years and it had about 175k miles when I sold it. Engine was still going strong, body and paint still presentable—probably ready for another 100k miles with some reasonable care. My next vehicle was a third generation (1997) 4Runner, which had none of the rough edges of the Trooper, but also much less character.
Another vehicle added to my list of things I should have appreciated more when they were more common. I recall these being quite reasonably priced as used cars after Explorokee-mania took hold.
I sold my ’88 Trooper just a year ago, and reading this article makes me remember all that good things, like its toughness and huge interior space. Of course it was slow, but you don’t want to go really fast in one of these things. Just a simple, serious off road vehicle, in certain aspects just like a Suzuki Samurai, but comfortable enough to make long trips even with four adults, as long as you are not in a hurry. The only sort of vehicle that still follows this combination of size, economy and off road ruggedness are, IMHO, double cab japanese pickups + canopy. Now I drive a ’04 Mitsubishi L200 (triton) and I love it. If it only had the same visibility as the Trooper…
Well said. In the eighties this Isuzu Trooper and its Japanese competitors (from Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi) were tough, durable, capable when off-road and well-built. Yet they had enough comfort and a decent handling to use them as daily drivers on-road.
What also struck me back then is how easy they were to drive and to operate (shifting gears for example), it was just like a Toyota Corolla with a manual, only bigger. I must add that this breed of vehicles always had diesel engines here, non-turbo and turbo.
I’ve once read that Japanese manuals shift so easy and light because generally the Japanese can’t drive manuals very well…hence their automakers had to make the gear shifting-process as easy as possible. To make the best out of it. Don’t know if that is true, but it sure makes sense.
Not only that, but with a small motor, being able to shift quickly means you lose less speed in the process of shifting.
European cars also had small engines. Not much differences now anymore, but in the past French and Italian manuals often shifted rather vaguely. Is the damn thing in gear or what ?? With some grinding sounds now and then….
Other cars, I remember our 1979 Ford Fiesta 1300S, had a clutch pedal with some sort of on/off-switch feeling. A bit of concentration was needed to drive that kind of manuals flawlessly.
This was never the case with Japanese manuals though. You could drive them flawlessly while asleep behind the wheel. Small cars but also these bigger off-roaders. It always worked perfectly.
Another very interesting CC. These were popular here in Chile, sold as Chevrolet. And we even later got the Korean version, the Ssangyong Korando Family. But that one wasn’t so successful and they are hard to find today.
don’t think that’s quite right. the ssangyong korando started off as a jeep cj7 and then morphed into it’s own thing. i’m pretty sure it doesn’t have any isuzu dna.
Great write up! I’m curious as to what the Trooper I looked like….
When I decided to “upgrade” to a utility vehicle for both home remodeling and biking purposes, I test drove the Trooper II in 1989 – very comfortable and excellent sightlines. Coming from a low slung Toyota Corolla coupe, the change in driving dynamics scared the crap out of me (tall and tippy), and I settled on a Nissan pickup. Fast forward 12 years, and with a new baby in the house I needed airbags and four doors; this time I test drove the newer Trooper (III??) and loved it. I bought the midrange (sunroof, heated seats). I’ve never driven a car so comfortable, and it could haul a ton of stuff and still maintain a small footprint.
It has served me well; the only ridiculous repairs have been to the glass transmission ($3k + for a rebuild; it’s on the third…but one was covered by warranty). It is retired now, reduced to serving vacation duty twice a year up the Northeast.
I was perhaps foolish this past year – I dumped $4k into body repairs after hitting a deer on vacation…but after weighing the options of what I could buy for that money, including knowing the exact history and repairs I’ve made, it was worth it to me. I even put the rare but classy Acura SLX grille on it….
The Acura grille’s a nice touch! It looks pretty classy with the BBS-style wheels!
Thanks! They were OEM; I liked the base wheels better but these came standard. I grew to like them.
I too, have always liked these rigs. But the sad part is Isuzu’s build quality started to decline before even the first gen Chevy LUV was replaced by the P’UP. I had a ’75 and ’78 LUV (the ’78 was bought new by my brother in law, I bought it from him). The ’75 was ten times the truck the ’78 was. Wish I still had it, what a machine.
Had a friend who had one of these, an ’85 or ’86. Seemed a bit crude, but it had great visibility and was a great winter vehicle. In the early ’90’s he wanted something he thought was cooler, so he traded it for a new Grand Cherokee, a decision he came to regret.
I recall the great Trooper ad campaign at the time featuring “Joe Isuzu” – really funny.
I always liked the offset double barn doors on the Troopers. You could load practically anything back there. The Isuzu pickups from the late 80’s, early 90’s were a deal. They usually undercut Toyota and Nissan in price at the dealer. There’s still a lot of them around (particularly, the rather odd Space-cabs), so they must have been pretty tough.
Well the the original Trooper and the the first generation baby Blazer might have been on the opposite ends of the spectrum but they share one thing. They were both crippled by the GM 2.8l engine that could be had in these trucks
J. Dutch:
Chevy stopped selling re-badged Isuzu pickup trucks in the early 80s. They were replaced at Chevy and GMC by the S-10 and S-15 trucks respectively. These trucks were engineered using parts from various different GM products. To drive, at least unloaded, they are very much like mid-sized sedans.
As far as the “invasion” of Japanese heavy diesel trucks, at least in the U.S. market, Hino, Isuzu (and Isuzus re-badged as Chevys and GMCs), Nissan Diesel, UD, and Mitsubishi….these trucks have taken over the “medium-duty” market abandoned by Ford, GM, and Dodge. The “Big 3” pulled out of this segment saying it was no longer profitable. Ford sold the design it had been using to the Sterling company, and adapted it’s medium-duty design from it’s overseas arm.
Even the number of truck builders in the real “heavy duty” diesel segment is shrinking….I’m guessing because of problems meeting stiffening emissions standards. As I understand it (and I may be wrong) the truck companies left in the U.S. are using engines built by a small number of engine companies. The situation with transmissions is about the same: a few designs used by all the truck companies.
Howard, thanks. I was just wondering because to me the current Chevrolet Colorado has a kind of
Far-East-Look, say like a Toyota HiLux.
Big changes in the truck industry in the eighties. In that era Renault bought Mack, Mercedes bought Freightliner and Volvo took over GM’s heavy truck division. Meanwhile Volvo has taken over Renault Trucks too. In Europe, Iveco (Fiat) bought Ford’s entire big truck division.
I think that Cummins is the only independent diesel engine make for heavy trucks in the US. Caterpillar has left the on-road truck market and Mercedes owns Detroit Diesel.
Paccar (Kenworth-Peterbilt-DAF) has its own line of diesels, these are basically DAF engines.
I miss Caterpillar their engines were awesome they will still pull with only 3 figures of rpm showing we have some old CAT 630 tractor units excellent to drive compared to the Freightliner Argosys we also have,
Paccar engines are a little like Caterpillar in that they will lug down and hold on when climbing steep grades,
Cummins like to rev and dont like to lug our freightshakers have red engines 550 & 600 hp and 18 speed manuals so I have tried lugging them,
But now our replacement trucks are coming from Mercedes and so far thats not as good as expected or promised by the dealer.
“Chevy stopped selling re-badged Isuzu pickup trucks in the early 80s. They were replaced at Chevy and GMC by the S-10 and S-15 trucks respectively.”
In the ’90s and ’00s, Isuzu would ultimately end up selling re-badged GM pickups in the U.S. market, the Hombre (based on the later S-10) and the I-Series (based on the early Colorado). We had a CC on the Hombre back in 2013:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1999-isuzu-hombre-when-is-an-s-10-not-an-s-10/
Ford never abanoded the MD truck market and they show no signs of doing so in the near future since they have a new offering, with more models than in previous versions, scheduled to be available soon. http://www.ford.com/commercial-trucks/f650-f750/2016/
Ford did sell their HD line to Mercedes who renamed it Sterling part of the agreement called for Ford to stop selling the F-850 and Tractors for a period of time. The new F750 however starts getting back into that market being available in a tractor version.
Ford also expanded their relationship with Navistar following that sale. They entered into a joint venture agreement where both companies MD trucks were built on the same basic chassis on the same production line in Mexico. Ford continued to offer the Cummins engine along side the Navistar engines until the companies the 6.0 fiasco soured their engine sharing. Navistar stopped offering the Cummins in the same time period. Interestingly Navistar has recently started offering the Cummins once again while Ford is moving to only using their own in house engines and transmissions. For a long period of time it was the norm to offer engines and transmissions from different manufactures. At one point you could get a Cat or a Cummins and often an engine made by the truck mfg. You also often had a choice of transmission and axle brands too.
Other than Ford with essentially look like over-sized pickups (F550 and up), though I suspect the bigger ones are unique platforms, the US medium duty cab-over market is now almost exclusively Japanese. I’ve spent some time in an Isuzu NPR, mostly in the shotgun seat but brief stints driving. With a small-block Chevy it’s not a bad vehicle.
When my wife and I got married, we each had a compact pickup, so we decided to sell one and get a better travel vehicle that would also be suitable for future kids. We test-drove the Trooper (by then it was 4 door only, I think, and definitely with the 2.6 & 5 speed) but ended up buying a used Vanagon Westfalia. I suspect if we had bought the Isuzu we might have kept it a lot longer.
Yes the cab over is all Japanese now. For awhile the Isuzu was sold in a Chevy and GMC version and the gas engine for all of them was the Chevy small block.
As an offshoot of the Blue Diamond joint venture that produced the F650, F750 and NGV Ford and Navistar jointly developed a cab over that was also sold outside of the US under the Mazda badge. It used the PowerStroke 6.0/VT365 with 2 cyls lopped off to create the PS 4.5/VT275 backed by the Ford TorqueShift 6sp. It was sold as the International CityStar and the Ford LCF or Low Cab Forward. They didn’t sell very well and were quickly discontinued.
Daimler sold the Fuso (Mitsubishi) cab over under their North American only Sterling brand for a few years before discontinuing the brand all together. The Sterling 360 basically didn’t sell at all, the local dealer still had 2 new ones for 2+ years after they were discontinued.
So yeah Isuzu pretty much owns the shrinking cabover market with Fuso and Hino distant also rans that I’m surprised sell enough to keep them in business in the US.
The F450/F550 and F650/F750 each have their own dedicated chassis.
Not quite. The Kenworth K270 and Peterbilt 220 cabovers use a DAF cab.
Kenny and Pete don’t offer MD trucks in the US anymore, those ones with the DAF cabs were short lived.
Eric, that’s strange, I still see them on Kenworth’s and Peterbilt’s official websites. Kenworth K270 and K370, Peterbilt 220.
Must be for other markets then.
Looks like they are bringing those to the US now, haven’t seen one and Paccar’s headquarters is local so KW trucks are popular in this area. It is interesting since cabovers are rare nowadays in class 6 and 7 trucks. Far and away the most popular cabovers are the Isuzu which are class 4 and 5.
I almost forgot it, but Ford still builds HD cabover diesel trucks. In Turkey and Brazil; the top model is this Ford Cargo 1846T. Under its cab a 460 hp 10.3 liter FPT (Fiat) 6 cylinder diesel.
I don’t like its Transformer-Looks, but it is a big Ford cabover diesel truck / tractor for sure.
Source of the picture and a complete overview of all current Ford Cargo models:
http://www.fordoner.com/index.php/home/showroom/
We have an old Sterling in our fleet a twin steer tractor unit that spent its life pulling the tanker quad semi, Detroit powered with AMT Eaton trans it was back in action over xmas and I was driving it, Not too bad considering the 1.2million kms its covered (tanker runs 24/7/365) its noisy with a cracked exhaust manifold but it drives ok lights are junk typical American truck in that regard, the tall bonnet limits forward vision in traffic and the trans still doesnt know how to shift gears efficiently uphill, but thats a RR programming issue common to all of them.
Eaton make most of the truck transmissions in use today in both American and Japanese heavy trucks they have an automated shifting 18 speed because as evidenced by the iceroad trucker show Americans cannot shift manual truck transmissions, the Isuzu I currently drive has a manual 18RR.
Fuller Road Rangers were once widespread in Europe too. That is, among the truckmakers that didn’t build their own transmissions.
In the seventies their 13-speed was very common in several Euro truck brands. Later on the synchronised manual ZF 16-speed became very popular.
DAFs here can come with ZFs but preferably 18 speed Road Rangers, those come via Australia where the ZFs are pulled and Replaced by RRs, people here destroy 13 speed boxes far too often just by not knowing not to preselect splits like you do on the more common 18 speed.
My best friend in high school had one of these . I know it had the v6 in it . I remember it being REALY loud . It allso had over 200k on it .it was the kids car that survived 3 teenage drivers . I know my buddy had told me his sisters had rolled at least twice . We still talk about how well built that thing was. Great article thank you as always Paul.
As a former Trooper owner, I can say that I have never owner a more practical vehicle than a first generation Trooper. More than once I fit eight plus people inside, or used it to move someone. Niedermeyer is right in saying these things had character; they were slow, loud, unrefined, and kind of ugly, but there was something about them that made you love them. Troopers have a fond spot in my heart, and if it was not for the fact that they rust like crazy in the midwest, I would have one or two in my driveway.
My uncle owned a silver 2-door Trooper II in the mid-1980s, and I spent some time in its passenger seat. It came in very useful in the Catskills – we hauled all kinds of stuff in it around the farm, and on the various dirt roads. I remember the Trooper being a bit classier than other locals’ Jeeps and pickups, though yes, it WAS rather underpowered. I still own the dealers’ brochure from it, though the Trooper itself is long gone – my uncle replaced it with a tiny Honda Civic hatchback, of all things.
J. Dutch:
You are correct that the Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon are NOT U.S. designs but are “Far Eastern”. They are built in the U.S. from a design that originated in Thailand. The 2nd generation Colorado/Canyon recently went on sale here with one change being the “exchange” of the 5 cylinder engine for a V6. There is the possibility of a diesel engine within the year….though the (non) popularity of the diesel Cruse may be a deciding factor.
Ford, supposedly, has a similar-sized truck design on “the back-burner”. Though instead of using the existing Asian-designed Ranger, Ford is thinking of down-sizing an F series truck, ala the Nissan Titan and Frontier.
The Global Ranger was originally going to be sold in the US as the F100 along side the F150 and Ranger. That is what was put on the back burner. If Ford offers a smaller truck in the US, anytime soon, it will be the Global Ranger. Because it was originally going to be sold in the US the Global Ranger was designed to meet US standards from the start with the specifications dictated in the US before it was given to the Aussies to CAD. They would need to tool up for the US specific parts but at least some of those designs are done and sitting on a server somewhere in the world.
Aussies? its built in Thailand the biggest pickup market outside the US and was designed there too, and everything is designed to meet US and other world standards these days only the US builds cars that wont export effectively due to its large domestic market.
The Aussie engineers, er I mean CAD Monkeys, did the CAD on the Global Ranger.
Most vehicles in the world are not designed to meet the stricter US safety and emissions standards. That is why GM had to spend billions to make the Colorado certifiable to be sold in the US.
US vehicles on the other hand can usually be imported to almost any country in the world with only lighting changes normally being required and sometimes a slight tweak to the bumper to make it more pedestrian friendly.
They are still working on it too, with the Everest SUV version about to hit the market, and also a new SWB pickup has been seen recently.
The Thai market is around 1.4 million units per annum, and about half commercial vehicles, so it’s not that small.
built in Thailand due to dodgy free trade agreements, not because Thailand is some gigantic market
Didn’t realise it was that big. Ranger double cabs start at 40 grand. Shame they cant make them in Oz when they are selling at that price which is a hefty increase on a base falcon
The scoutmaster of our Boy Scout troop had one of these, a 4-door with the rectangular lights, I think an ’87 or ’88. And I do certainly remember it being roomy and upright inside, with excellent visibility. A somewhat Spartan vehicle, but one well suited to the task of ferrying scouts and stuff wherever we needed to go, on road or off. The scoutmaster was a professional forester for his “real” job and the Trooper server admirably in that capacity as well–a real do-everything vehicle.
In 1993 or 94, he traded it in on a Jeep Cherokee Country. While the two vehicles were of similar exterior size, the amount of interior room was vastly different–that Cherokee felt positively claustrophobic by comparison! It felt more “premium” inside, and was equipped with the 4.0 I6 so I’m sure it was much more powerful, but it seemed less useful just because of the size difference.
If you think the gas I-4 was slow, there was also a naturally-aspirated 1.9 Diesel.
That small ? Mostly this kind of Japanese off-roaders had 4 cylinder diesels with a displacement somewhere between 2.5 and 3.0 liter. Both naturally aspirated and turbo charged.
You missed out on owning one for sure. I’ve owned two and never regretted either of them. A bit slow for sure, but then again, they weren’t really meant for running about town… They were meant for running about the mountain! I’ve used mine for helping people move, gawd could you pack the hell outta them! Camping! Pack the wife, kids, their friends and all yer stuff into a Trooper, hit the mountains, roads not required as the Trooper didn’t care. When it came to snow, you couldn’t tell you were driving on snow, it was like I was still driving on pavement. I miss my Trooper. I had to sell it because I was the only person in my family that knows how to drive stick and we needed an Auto for my daughter to get to and from work. Wish I could get another Trooper again.
Saw one last summer, the first I’d seen in years. I remember when these were fairly common, seemingly always missing their grill badges much like this one.
I can’t remember the last time I saw a Trooper II on the road around here. There are a few second-ten Troopers with five-speeds running around town here, but no first-gens. I love them both, for different reasons.
My parents bought a new burgundy/champagne Trooper II two-door in 1986. They absolutely loved that truck, and kept it until 1995. It really was a roomy vehicle for the exterior size, although I remember the heat struggled to keep that interior warm during Minnesota winter months. Dad particularly liked that it could embarrass his cousin’s Jimmy and Cherokees off-road on hunting trips. My parents were more than willing to get another Trooper until they looked at one to discover it would take about $34,000. We ended up with an Econoline conversion van instead.
I wasn’t aware that Ford was still in the “medium duty” truck segment. I have seen, VERY occasionally, F series in 350 to 550 designations. However, an F 750? Don’t think I’ve seen one outside a Ford dealer’s lot.
I wonder if the push to automatics in medium and heavy duty trucks is to “accommodate” more women drivers? I recently completed a CDL course that had 2 women in it. The one I shared a truck with shifted as miserably on the last day as the first. Our instructors told us that most automatic transmissions couldn’t handle the loads of heavy duty trucking.
Your instructors were probably a bunch of old guys that don’t know diddly about modern trucks and their Automatics. F650 and F750 are pretty common around here and Ford obviously sells enough to invest in building a new version and bringing that production back to the US. The fact that they are the only spark ignition game in town gives them a big edge. They are available with the gaseous fuel prep package so converting them to CNG or propane is quick and easy. Makes them much cheaper to fuel, maintain, repair and with greater up time and longevity than the diesels.
F450 and F550 are everywhere since they have had that class almost entirely to themselves for a while. Dodge is a bit player and Navistar has entered the fray relatively recently. They are very popular as tow trucks with utilities, municipalities, and for bus conversion.
Don’t think the current gen Colorado and Isuzu are the same, but I’ll bet they share some parts. I know they were nearly identical in the last generation, as the dash from my father’s Colorado looks like a bolt in to the Isuzu Mu-7 (why not call it a Trooper?) that the inlaws have in Thailand aside from the steering wheel being on different sides. BTW, the diesel in the Mu-7 is a real honey of a motor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isuzu_D-Max
Nice, a 3.0 liter 4-cylinder turbo diesel. Same kind of engine has been in Toyota Land Cruisers (like the current 150-series / Prado) and Nissan Patrols for many years. That should do the job, it’s a typical workhorse~commercial vehicle setup.
(They don’t put that kind of diesel engine in a luxury sedan….)
Mitsubishi even uses a 3.2 liter 4-cylinder turbo diesel in its Pajero SUV.
The Colorado & Isuzu D-Max are the same chassis and body, but have different engines. I’m not sure if the gearboxes and axles are different or not. Obviously there are cosmetic differences, not only the D-Max but also between the global and North American Colorado.
This isn’t new, the previous model that had the Atlas inline engines was sold elsewhere with the Isuzu 3.5 or GM 3.6 V6’s as well as diesels (shared in this generation).
I remember the ads for these included a bunch of nuns riding inside. Quite an unusual vehicle for nuns, unless their abbey is out in the middle of nowhere with no road.
They don’t seem to have rust protection, saw this one in SD.
KJ in Oz
The Isuzu Trooper II was assembled in Venezuela by an independent venture and sold as the CARIBE 442 (the brand was CARIBE, no Isuzu references). At first it was sold as two-door only in both short and long wheelbase versions. Later they added the 4.door. During its time, the Caribe 442 gained equipment and luxury and its final 4.door version was rather plush and even included such sophistications (for its time) as 4.wheel disk brakes. The Caribe 442 never lived to its full potential because it lacked two key features for the Venezuelan market at the time: a V6 and most importantly, an automatic transmission. I always liked its looks, but when the Jeep Cherokee arrived, locally assembled as well, and with its stonking 4.0 liter six, well, it was no contest for me. If you search CARIBE 442 in Youtube, you’ll find a few period TV ads.
I don’t think we ever got the SWB 2-door in the US market. Seems like it might have been even better off road!
Apparently the SWB 2-door RS model was only sold in the US for 1989 (first-gen) and 1993-95 (second-gen).
rust. in the midwest these were not going to last.
Virtually every one of these I have encountered has a prominent valve/lifter ticking sound. I challenge you to roll down your window and listen next time you are alongside one at a traffic light.
I’ve had three Troopers 1995 with a 3.2 a 1990 with a 2.8 Chevy motor I currently have a 1986 two-door Trooper 2 with a 2.3 4 cylinder
Love troopers
Makes sense that the avid kayaker described here would move seamlessly from one of these Troopers into a 4-Runner. He could have also chosen a Honda Element, which is another boxy and rugged mule and the one that I chose to do all my outdoorsy hobbies with. Like the owner of this Trooper, I’m going to try to hang onto the E for as long as I can.
RUST.
It seemed they rusted every time it rained. The Troopers painted white would look like they were rusting away within a few years. Nice vehicles – but rusty!
Interesting. I had one – a 4 door in red over white (which seemed to be a popular color) – in New England, and rust was never a problem. Bad head gasket in the 4cyl engine and a pathetic, indifferent, dealer network…that was a problem. Ours died when the dealer took the engine apart to id the bad head gasket, and then wanted to charge us $500 to put it back together, or $1200 to fix it. We sold it to them for $800. I still regret that.
“Good looking”??? Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.
These Isuzu Trooper Monterey Jackaroo depending on market have almost become extinct over here, the later models are still around in small numbers whether wearing Isuzu, GM or Honda badging depends on where it sold new, rust stops them passing the 6 monthly inspections if mechanical ailments doesnt take them out first.
Love, love, love these Isuzu Troopers! A white 1986 2 door was my high school car. Nostalgia, a hell of a drug. I had bought a 1985 K-car off my dad when I was 14 in 1994 as my first car for $600, he had a few he used as commuters and those that were for parts I was able to make a good Reliant out of few Aries and Reliants, great learning experience. 2 years later I bought my Trooper for the 4wd (Pennsylvania winters…) and I wanted a boxy SUV as I was/still am an avid kayaker, mt biker, and was in a punk rock band at the time, a spacious vehicle for activities. Yes it was a dog with the carbed 2.3 and 5spd, a Weber livened it up a bit, but was fun in the woods in 4wd and was geared appropriately. Forgive the slight humble-brag, it was popular with all my HS girlfriends as it made a great camping rig, an early #vanlife if you will. My sophomore year of college, the notorious 2.3 head gasket let go so I sourced a rusted out 4 dr with low miles for its engine. I stored both at my dads house and began my project. Mine wasn’t immune to rust so I POR-15ed the entire frame after cleaning it by hand. Welded in floor pans from fire wall to rear door. Built my own crude rad support and headlight buckets. Pulled blown engine. Began refreshing the engine I had bought, gaskets, Weber, new accessories on an engine stand. Then moved 10 hours south to VA. 5 years passed with me working on it at Christmas. Then Dad died and when settling the “estate” I realized I was in no position to move my Troopers and had to let them go for scrap. I called the local junkyard the day before I left for VA so I would be gone when they came for the removal. The next and final time I came back to that part of PA a few weeks later, everything was gone and my younger brother and I closed on the house.
My “dream garage” has one of these early round headlight Troopers parked next to my W123. That’s it. That’s all I want. Currently it’s out of the immediate plans (and retro-ish SUV prices are a bit out of hand, especially Japanes makes, check some Montero prices for source material, overlanding buzz is my understanding) but once I clear out my current fleet of rolling projects I would like a Trooper, maybe in a year…..
The inevitable CC Effect was in action again, as I saw a clean and well-running 2 door Trooper just last week, in the (once) ubiquitous tan color with stock steel wheels and 1983-sized tires. We considered one, a 4 door but still 4 cylinder, in 1990 before buying our Vanagon. I don’t recall that it was particularly painful to drive; in fact the driving experience was more pleasant than the 2nd gen 4Runner we also tried.
These handsome original models, sold in Oz from ’81 as a Holden Jackaroo, were absolutely canned at the time, as they were nowhere near as good as the Mitsubishi Pajero. The latter had a 2.6 four and five speeds, and as a package on AND off-road, everything about it worked much better. I’ve driven a few years ago: really poor steering and a hard-nut ride to throw you about. 55mph a good maximum cruise speed for some semblance of safety.
Over time, they slowly got better, with the bigger engines and more gears, but it took until the second series for them to become really decent machines.
I do get the appeal, however. Still see the odd one chugging about on huge tyres, a cheap off-road torturer for someone with a better back than me.
Ha! CC Effect x2: heading into town this morning I passed a Big Horn (aka Trooper) coming the other way. Okay, it was the gen2 version from 1991ish, but still looks like the gen1 and the first time I’ve seen either generation in months, possibly a year or two.
A lady friend from around ’89 had a four door in maroon over beige metallic. She loved it, but lost its trust when she rounded a corner and a rear axle popped out like the ones in 1930s animated cartoons. Can’t blame the truck for that… probably a perfect storm born of not knowing that weird sound meant anything and less than diligent service by the garage. As I recall, it needed its manual trans to be useful, and she had no qualms about driving it hard.
Don’t know what we were thinking. My wife and I were having our first child and the ’86 Mazda B2000 was not going to fit the growing family. We fell in love with a slightly used ’84 Trooper. To us, it was beautiful. It was a 2dr chocolate brown with a massive 1.9 liter engine. We test drove around the block and then took it home. To get our infant son in the back seat we would slide the back window open, then place him through the window into the child seat. We then took it on long trip from Omaha to Southern Calif to visit family. This is when we found out that even the slightest grade on I80 would take it down to 45mph. It used almost as much oil as gas. Someone had abused this poor engine. I doubt the engine abuse had to much effect on the power output, but it sure didn’t help. When we got to Southern California, I took to the Mojave and had a great time. It truly was an excellent 4WD and at slow speeds it truly excelled. I loved the way it looked and handled. After a couple of years and second child, we realized that we needed a four door car more than a beautiful SUV that needed a new more powerful motor. We traded it for a ’89 Mazda 626 with a 5 speed. That was fantastic and fun car to drive. I still have a love-hate relationship with the beautiful Trooper that couldn’t get out of it own way.
My first new car was a brand new 1986 Trooper LS two door. It was two tone, maroon and sort of a champaign gold on the side. Purchased it from Cerami Pontiac Isuzu in Paramus NJ in June 1986. Paid $13,600. They had a diesel on the lot but it was about $1100 more. Yes, the Trooper was a slug when it came to acceleration but my biggest issue with it was the engine oil leaks, rust, and horrible customer service. The Trooper was definitely not up to par with Honda or Toyota, but I still think of that truck often. I think it was the simplicity of it that I liked the most. Sold it several years later to my brother in law and bought a ’92 Trooper 4 door in black. A far better truck, but never had the charm of my ’86.
I love mine and put a new starter, battery and alternator. And it crank no start. Need help get my baby back on the road.