Posts from ‘Isuzu’

1987 Suzuki Samurai
Sometime in the middle of the Eighties, Americans developed an appetite—albeit a modest one—for pint-sized sport-utility vehicles with legitimate off-road capability. Early on the scene were the Suzuki Samurai and the Daihatsu Rocky. Few people actually recall Daihatsu’s brief flirtation with the U.S. market—briefly, Daihatsu sold cars Stateside between 1988 and 1992. Only two models were ever offered here: the aforementioned Rocky, and a subcompact car dubbed Charade.

1974 Renault 17 Gordini
I’ll be frank: I collect car ads in different folders with the intention of finding a sufficient number of similar ads to create a blog-post gallery. The ads shared here? Well, I’m having the blog-post equivalent of a fire sale. I love these ads, but I can’t really see them becoming part of any article with anything like a coherent theme.

2000 Isuzu Hombre
The year 2000 resonates for me, because it was the year in which I became a dad. Automotively, this meant selling my beloved Acura Integra and buying something more practical, in this case a Nissan Maxima SE. Nice car, the Maxima.

1976 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Crown Landau
Much was made of the fact that, as of 2019, battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) outsold cars equipped with manual transmissions. And, if you’re of the save-the-manuals movement, this was distressing news, no doubt.

1980 Chevrolet LUV
There was whimsy in those little trucks. Back, say, 30-40 years, small pickups were not only cost-effective light-duty commercial vehicles, they were also compelling commuter alternatives to traditional coupes and sedans.

1981 Renault 18i
Per a recent article in Psychology Today regarding the phenomenon of suddenly recalling an old memory, “Neuroscientists have discovered that when someone recalls an old memory, a representation of the entire event is instantaneously reactivated in the brain that often includes the people, location, smells, music, and other trivia. Recalling old memories can have a cinematic quality.”

These Canada-only General Motors franchises lasted only a few short years.
For American car guys, Canada can seem like a very foreign place. Not only do our neighbors up north refer to American cheese as processed cheese, or more charitably as “mild cheddar,” they have a history of buying and selling cars that many of us Yankees have never heard of.
Forgotten Concept: Isuzu XU-1

Isuzu XU-1
This is an installment in a series of posts looking back on show cars that we feel deserved a little more attention than they got. If you have a suggestion for a Forgotten Concept topic, please shoot us a line or leave a comment below.