Isuzu Rodeo Sport 2 Doors/2003 on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 1997 Acura SLX

When I'm prowling wrecking yards, I'm always on the lookout for obscure examples of badge engineering, and the weirder they are, the better I like them. While I haven't managed to spot a junked Suzuki Equator yet, I have photographed such rarities as the Saab 9-2x and Isuzu Ascender. A few weeks ago, I encountered one of the real oddities of the Honda-Isuzu dealmaking of the 1990s: a 1997 Acura SLX, a luxed-up Isuzu Trooper that sold very poorly and is now mostly forgotten today. Plenty of Acura SUVs designed and built entirely by Honda roll out of American showrooms today, but the 1990s SUV boom caught Honda by surprise. The first MDX wasn't ready until the 2001 model year, so Honda made a deal to take Isuzu Troopers, apply wood and leather inside and Acura badges outside, and cash in on North Americans' increasing disdain for minivans, sedans, and station wagons. Americans were very familiar with the Trooper, which was sold here from the middle 1980s until the 2002 model year, when the Chevrolet Trailblazer-based Ascender went on sale. The Isuzu name stuck around on these shores until 2008. The SLX was a decent enough truck, but there was no disguising its proletariat Trooper roots from status-conscious SUV shoppers who wanted to look more oligarchic while conquering a half-inch of snow in the mall parking lot. It didn't help that the 1997 Trooper L listed at $27,800 and the SLX Premium cost $38,300 (that's about $44,200 and $60,900 in inflation-adjusted 2018 bucks). SLX sales started off weak and plummeted after that. After 1999, the SLX was done. I spent years trying to find one in California and Colorado wrecking yards, but the few that were sold seemed to be sturdy enough to stay alive for a couple of decades. Finally, this high-mile '97 appeared in a Denver yard. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

16 things I learned about the Isuzu VehiCROSS

There are plenty of cars I remember existing, but actually know very little about due to the passage of time or just not particularly caring when they were new. Take the Isuzu VehiCROSS, which I fondly recall as this wackadoo off-roader from the late 1990s and early 2000s. But honestly, that's about it. So, since I've got a little extra time kicking about, I decided to fall into the rabbit hole labeled Isuzu VehiCROSS for an hour to see how much I could find out about this SUV (or "sport/utility" in 1999 parlance) that shared labeling with the watch I wore in 1999. Enjoy. 1) The VehiCROSS was not based on the Rodeo, as I always assumed, but rather the Trooper RS. Oh, so that bigger, boxier Isuzu they turned into an Acura? No, no, no. The RS was the two-door Trooper, and specifically the second-generation two-door Trooper, which I just discovered was a thing. And what a gawky, dorky, that-has-to-be-Photoshopped thing it was. Apparently, the Trooper RS was sold in the United States from 1993 to 1995, and in very small numbers. That is not surprising. 2) It was probably obvious, but the VehiCROSS was based on a concept car. Specifically, a concept car shown at the 1993 Tokyo auto show.  3) The quick turnaround from concept to its Japanese market introduction for 1997 was the result of some innovative manufacturing methods at the time (it arrived in the United States in 1999). According to the Motor Trend first drive, "There would be no time-consuming clinics, no 'courtroom drama' with the finance department, and to oversee the project, a 'Zip Team' consisting of 15-20 members was given the task of developing the vehicle in about half the normal time." Among its accomplishments, the team came up with a way to more quickly and cheaply produce the VehiCROSS' unique body pieces. Again according to Motor Trend, Isuzu used carbon stamping dies inside of the conventional cast iron dies. Though the carbon could be used far fewer times and result in a reduced overall capacity, they cost one-third to one-half as much and could be made in about six weeks – the cast iron ones would take four months and run about $1.5 million in 1990s dollars. Isuzu estimated they'd only be able to produce 2,400 VehiCROSSes per year until the carbon dies wore out. Then that would be it. According to sales data on Wikipedia, Isuzu managed to sell 2,005 in the U.S. alone in year 1 and 4,153 in total. In Japan, there were 1,805 sold in total.

Cars with the most reckless drivers are full of surprises

Insurify is a site for comparing auto insurance quotes. Because insurance shoppers need to submit information like the vehicles they're driving and the infractions they've compiled while driving those vehicles, Insurify has quite the database of correlations tying certain models to a habit of breaking certain laws. When the site's data analysts decided to compile a list of the top ten models for reckless driving citations in the decade from 2010 to 2019, the ranking contained a few wild entries. The Dodge Challenger making the countdown will surprise precisely zero people. But the Saturn L200? First, a definition: USLegal.com defines reckless driving as "driving with a willful or wanton disregard for safety. It is the operation of an automobile under such circumstances and in such a manner as to show a willful or reckless disregard of consequences." So this list is a caution about particular drivers more than the cars. For a baseline, according to Insurify data, for any random model, 15 out of 10,000 people who drive that model have picked up one citation for reckless driving. Back to that Challenger, then. No shocker for being here, but it's actually number 10, with 44 out of 10,000 Challenger drivers nabbed for a willful disregard of consequences on the road. That's better than the first surprise entry, the Saturn L200, a sedan only on sale for six years, with the least horsepower on the list, and out of production since 2005. The data set put drivers of GM's extraterrestrial sedan at 45 reckless pilots per 10,000 drivers. There are two pickups on the list, the only modern one being the Ram 1500 at eighth, with a rate of 46 in 10,000. Somehow, drivers of the third-best-selling pickup in the U.S. outrun the overwhelming numerical superiority of the best-selling vehicle in the States, the Ford F-150. The other pickup is the Chevrolet K1500 at number five, with a rate of 56 in 10,000. This is not only the oldest vehicle on the list, it went out of production in 2002, before any other vehicle on the list. Between the trucks, the Volkswagen CC slotted in at seven with 47 in 10,000 reckless driving chits, the Cadillac ATS slipped into sixth with 48 in 10,000.  The top four is a bag of unexpected. The Nissan 370Z is the first hardcore sports car on the list at number four, with 61 in 10,000 Z drivers flaunting their Fairladys in the face of Johnny Law.