Original vintage 1984 Isuzu Trooper II "Introducing the new Isuzu station wagon, uh...new Isuzu 4x4 sports vehicle, uh...uh...the new Isuzu utility truck, uh..." SUV advertisement.
Dimensions: Eight inches wide by 10.75 inches high.
In the pantheon of Japanese SUVs, the Toyota Land Cruiser may reign supreme, but vintage examples have exploded in price, making them more or less unreachable to most of us. With the Toyota ship sailing, many have jumped on the Mitsubishi Montero boat as it hastily leaves port; however, that allows the Isuzu Trooper to live mostly under the radar! In particular, the first generation Trooper, as seen in this vintage 1984 advert celebrating its ability to fulfill multiple roles.
The Isuzu Trooper was a full-size SUV that produced by Japanese automobile manufacturer Isuzu between fall 1981 and fall 2002. Within the domestic Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) it was sold as the Isuzu Bighorn, but exported internationally mainly as a Trooper among several other nameplates. In total, there were two generations of this SUV: the first, produced between 1981 and 1991 and the second produced between 1991 and 2002, with a substantial refresh in 1998.
The Trooper SUV began as a rather basic and somewhat underpowered on- and off-road vehicle, offered only with four-cylinder motor, four-speed manual transmission, and part-time four-wheel drive. The first generation evolved to add both amenities and luxuries, including optional air-conditioning, power windows, and a more powerful V6 engine. The second generation was even more refined and available in two-wheel drive as well as four-wheel drive.
The first generation hit the market before the Toyota 4Runner, Nissan Pathfinder, and Mitsubishi Montero. Within the JDM market, it was a pioneer in the Japanese SUV world, and came in long- and short-wheelbase variants, with metal and soft-top versions, serving a multitude of customer needs.
In the U.S., we only got the long-wheelbase with fixed roofs, with the relatively rare short wheelbase Rally Sport (RS) model being imported in limited numbers in 1989 for a single year. American market Troopers had another quirk – many them came with a V-6 that wasn’t available in Japan. 1989 was the first year a V-6 was offered, and came as a result of Isuzu’s majority ownership by General Motors. The V-6 was the same 2.8-liter pushrod engine found in the Chevy S-10. In this application, it generated 120 horsepower and 150 pound-feet of torque, a significant bump from the four-cylinder models available in 1988 and earlier.
The first-generation Trooper, introduced in September 1981, was available as a three-door wagon or a soft top with independent front suspension. Early engines included a 1.95-liter gasoline and a 73 PS (54 kW) 2.2-liter diesel, lightly powered even by early-1980s standards for the vehicle's 3,700 lb (1,678 kg) empty weight. The four-wheel-drive system was engaged by operating a three-position shifter adjacent to the transmission shifter.
In 1988, the 4ZD1 (2.3-liter) engine was upgraded to 110 hp, and introduced a 120 hp (89 kW) 2.6-liter (4ZE1) I-TEC fuel-injected engine for the US market. Later first-generation models offered an optional four-speed automatic transmission, with 4 cylinder vehicles fitted with an Aisin A340H and V6s a GM 4L30E, and models from 1988 to 1991 were equipped with live rear axles and four-wheel disc brakes.
In 1989 only, a short-wheelbase (90-inch) 2-door Isuzu Trooper was imported to the U.S. market as the Trooper RS. All of these short wheelbase Troopers were equipped with 2.6-liter fuel-injected inline-four engines, 4.77:1 differential gears and 15×7-inch aluminium alloy "snowflake" pattern wheels. Automatic and manual transmissions were offered; limited evidence notes a mere 800 were imported to the U.S. in 1989, and few have survived harsh U.S. winters - with the accompanying copious use of salt on snowy roads destroying frames and bodies - outside of the U.S. south-west and Southern California.
Isuzu ended U.S. sales of the first-generation Trooper in 1991, but it was immensely popular elsewhere (in Australia and New Zealand, it was known as the Holden Jackaroo). Isuzu stopped making cars in the U.S. primarily due to a combination of declining sales, shifts in consumer preferences, and increased competition in the automotive market.
Per a 1984 Car & Driver review of the Isuzu Trooper II, “This is what they call a "ute" in Africa: a utility vehicle. The Land Rover may be considered the prototype. Small ones are a growing phenomenon in America now, with GM, Ford, and Jeep making them and Mitsubishi and, shortly, Toyota importing them. It's almost a movement, these little do-it-all utes. The big ones have been around for decades—especially Toyota's Land Cruiser—but there's suddenly a new wave of them, leaner and neater.”
“It's a fresh automotive breeze. You don't buy one of these to make the scene in the valet line. They cannot provide the kind of performance that lures you out of bed and onto the Crest Highway before dawn on Sunday. Not one of them, in decades to come, is going to be restored for Pebble Beach. But if one of them strays your way, you'll soon adopt it like a member of the family. And I reckon it will stay adopted; you and your compact utility unit are quite likely to grow gray together.”
“Isuzu has a nice, friendly little utensil going for it here. The firm's publicists have dubbed this one Isuzu's "first convertible," convertible in the sense that it will perform a lot of different tasks, from recreational off-road four-wheeling to playing the station-wagon role around town to, as they say, touring. Not grand touring, mind you, just touring.”