2000 Isuzu Rodeo Ls V6 2wd on 2040-cars

Auto blog

GM recalling 250,000 SUVs over door electronics

After a door-fire investigation that dates back to February, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has officially announced a recall today that affects around 250,000 General Motors SUVs for a faulty driver's door module. The recall applies to the Buick Rainier, Chevrolet Trailblazer, GMC Envoy, Isuzu Ascender and Saab 9-7X from the 2006 and 2007 model years, as well as the 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer EXT and GMC Envoy XL for vehicles sold and/or registered in the Snow Belt.
Road salt use in these midwestern and northern states can lead to corrosion of the driver's door module on these GMT360 and GMT370 vehicles, which allows water to come in contact with the circuit board. If shorted out, the vehicle's power door locks and power windows will not work, and could possibly lead to overheating and, in some circumstances, a fire. No official word on how many total vehicles caught on fire, but back in June, 28 fires had been reported to the government agency. A fix for the problem is still being worked out, but all affected vehicle owners will be notified by GM.
Scroll down for the official NHTSA statement.

Junkyard Gem: 1996 Isuzu Trooper

Though Americans had been buying the Isuzu-built Chevrolet LUV pickup since the 1972 model year (plus plenty of Isuzu-derived Chevettes and Chevette components later on), the first widely available Isuzu-badged vehicle available here was the LUV-sibling P'Up. That was the 1981 model year, and the I-Mark (Gemini) and Impulse (Piazza) soon followed. Later in the 1980s, GM (which owned a hefty chunk of Isuzu by that time) began selling Isuzu-built Spectrums and Storms with Chevrolet and/or Geo badges… but Isuzu started its United States business by selling trucks, and that's the only type of Isuzu you could buy new here when the company departed our shores in 2009. The Trooper SUV first went on sale here for the 1984 model year, and eventually the Trooper became the biggest-selling Isuzu in North America. Here's an example from the sales heyday of the middle 1990s, found in a Colorado self-service yard. In its homeland, this truck was known as the Bighorn. Elsewhere around the globe, however, it went by far too many names to list here (though Trooper was the most common). Highlights include the Holden Jackaroo and Caribe 442. Honda's desperation to cash in on the 1990s North American SUV craze led to the creation of an Acura-badged Trooper, known as the SLX and sold here from the 1996 through 1999 model years. As part of this arrangement between Isuzu, GM, and Honda, the Isuzu Rodeo became the Honda Passport here (confusing every North American who had ever bought a Passport-badged Honda Super Cub, which got that name so as not to run afoul of the builders of the Piper Super Cub aircraft) and Isuzu dealers sold Honda Odysseys with Oasis badges. Once we'd gotten a few years into our current century, the only Isuzu-badged vehicles you could buy new here (not counting commercial trucks) weren't even built by Isuzu at that point. One was the Ascender (a badge-engineered Chevy Trailblazer) and the other was the i-Series pickup (a badge-engineered Chevy Colorado). Oh, sure, a handful of Axioms and Rodeos slunk out of American Isuzu showrooms in the early years of the 2000s, but the clock really started ticking for Isuzu USA when the final Troopers showed up for 2002. When this truck was built, Isuzu was engaged in an eye-gouging, kidney-spearing price- and financing-deal war with Mitsubishi Motors and its Montero.

Recharge Wrap-up: Minnesota first to require biodiesel, maglev in Israel, Toyota FCV in Aspen

A new Minnesota law that requires biodiesel blends goes into effect in just a few days, says KELO. Diesel drivers in Minnesota will be pumping soybeans into their tank beginning July 1. Every year, diesel will be sold as a B10 blend (ten percent biofuel) from April through August, and will scale back to a cold-hardy B5 blend from September through March. The biofuel largely comes from soybean crops grown within Minnesota, and the biodiesel industry pumps more than $900 million into the state economy every year. According to the National Biodiesel Board, using the B10 and B5 blends will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1,342,000,000 pounds every year. Minnesota is the first state to require diesel to be sold as a biofuel blend. In Japan, Isuzu Motors and Japanese biotech venture Euglena are teaming up to create biodiesel using algae, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. The goal is to create a new type of fuel that doesn't need to be mixed with light oil to be used in engines. "As long as we use light oil for diesel engines, emissions of carbon dioxide are inevitable," says Isuzu president Susumu Hosoi. Euglena has also been using algae to develop jet fuel with airline operator ANA Holdings. Isuzu and Euglena hope to have the new biodiesel developed by 2018. Aerial maglev transportation is coming to the campus of a defense contractor in Tel Aviv, Israel, Wired reports. The SkyTran personal rapid transit system uses small pods on an elevated magnetic track to move people from place to place. The pilot program will see SkyTran come to the corporate campus of Israel Aerospace Industries as soon as next year. The pods are hailed by phone, and carry passengers along the magnetic rail system at speeds of up to 44 miles per hour. The passive magnetic system levitates the pod attachment a centimeter above the rails, while a burst of electricity propels the pod forward. If the test at the campus goes well, SkyTran could spread to Tel Aviv at large, moving up to 12,000 people per track per hour with top speeds of 150 mph. The pre-production prototype of the Toyota FCV will make its North American debut at the 2014 Aspen Ideas Festival on Friday, June 27. The hydrogen car's finished exterior was revealed in Japan on Wednesday along with its nearly $70,000 price tag. It will go on sale in Japan by April of next year, and will come to Europe and California in the summer of 2015.