CarBrandLogos archive · Isuzu · 1981

IsuzuTrooper

One 4x4 sold under seven different badges across four continents.

Photo: Cutlass · CC0

The story

A defining chapter in Isuzu history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Isuzu Trooper, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

When Isuzu entered the SUV market in 1981 it did so with a plain body-on-frame wagon, called Bighorn at home and Trooper almost everywhere else. Simple, durable and cheap to run with a diesel, it sold well in markets where a Land Cruiser was too expensive.

1st-Isuzu-Trooper-1 · IFCAR · Public domain

Design and engineering

Its more interesting life was as a donor vehicle. General Motors' stake in Isuzu meant the Trooper appeared as the Holden Jackaroo and Monterey in Australia, the Vauxhall and Opel Monterey in Europe, the Subaru Bighorn and Honda Horizon in Japan, and — most awkwardly — the Acura SLX in the United States, Acura's first SUV and a car nobody seriously pretended was anything other than a rebadge. The second generation of 1991 was considerably more comfortable and sold in real numbers in North America.

Acura-SLX · IFCAR · Public domain

In production

That run ended in a dispute. In the mid-1990s a leading American consumer magazine judged the Trooper prone to tipping in its emergency-handling test and rated it unacceptable; Isuzu contested the finding in court and the litigation dragged on for years. Sales in the United States never recovered, and Isuzu withdrew from the American passenger market in the following decade. Production ended in 2002, with the Ascender — a rebadged GM SUV — nominally taking its place.

Isuzu Trooper , Serdang · User:Two hundred percent. · CC BY-SA 3.0

At a glance