{"id":40465,"date":"2023-01-16T09:03:39","date_gmt":"2023-01-16T14:03:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=40465"},"modified":"2023-01-16T09:03:39","modified_gmt":"2023-01-16T14:03:39","slug":"junkyard-gem-1992-isuzu-amigo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=40465","title":{"rendered":"Junkyard Gem: 1992 Isuzu Amigo"},"content":{"rendered":"

After some success providing General Motors<\/a> with small Faster pickups<\/a> badged as Chevrolet LUVs<\/a> in North America (plus some Chevette-related Geminis labeled “Buick\/Opel by Isuzu,”<\/a> which confused everybody), Isuzu<\/a> began selling vehicles under its own name here in the early 1980s. At first, we just got I-Mark subcompacts<\/a> and P’up pickups.<\/a> Then the Trooper SUV<\/a> appeared in 1984, and Isuzu joined the suburban-commuter truck<\/a> game in a big way. For the 1989 model year, the little Amigo<\/a> three-door convertible SUV landed on our shores. Here’s one of those early trucks, found in still-rad<\/a> condition in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service yard recently.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Once Isuzu made a version with five doors and a solid roof, giving it Rodeo<\/a> badges in the process, the Amigo became more of an afterthought in the North American Isuzu world. Amigo sales halted here after 1995, then resumed for 1998-2000<\/a> (after which the three-door became the Rodeo Sport<\/a> before disappearing in 2003).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Starting in 1996, Isuzu replaced its Amigo-platform-related pickup with a rebadged Chevy S-10<\/a> known as the Hombre<\/a>. That meant that Spanish-speaking Isuzu shoppers could be disturbed by the prospect of buying a friend<\/em> or a\u00a0man<\/em>. The Isuzu company itself was named after a river in Mie Prefecture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Suzuki Samurai<\/a> kicked off the “cute-ute” craze for the 1986 model year, with the Suzuki Sidekick<\/a>\/Geo Tracker<\/a> appearing in 1989. Around the same time, irritating pastel colors<\/a> and squiggly graphics<\/a> became trendy. This \u2014 and other unfortunate 1980s fashions <\/a>\u2014 continued well into the 1990s (One man’s “irritating” and “unfortunate” is another’s “delightful” – Ed<\/em>).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This odometer\u00a0can’t<\/em> be right! I suspect a broken speedometer cable.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The engine is a 2.6-liter inline-four rated at 119 horsepower.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Unlike Honda’s<\/a> VTEC, the variable-cam-timing system that made its debut in the 1989 Honda Integra<\/a>, Isuzu’s I-TEC name just stood for an electronic fuel injection system.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The only transmission in the Amigo for the first couple of years was a five-speed manual, which is in this truck. That three-pedal setup kept the Amigo’s appeal limited to the small group of American drivers willing to work a clutch. The optional automatic became available for 1992. You could get the Amigo with four-wheel drive, but this one is the cheaper rear-wheel-drive version.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This interior looks so nice that perhaps this Amigo really\u00a0did<\/em> get junked with 57,000+ on the odometer. Checking the California BAR’s Vehicle Smog Check history<\/a> (by plugging in the VIN), I see that it last took \u2014 and passed \u2014 a smog check in 2010. Perhaps something broke at age 18 and it sat in a garage until its last owner finally gave up on it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Which is too bad, because this little truck would have been a hit at Radwood<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This commercial is for the second-generation Amigo, but it’s a must-see due to the homage to the old Slinky ads<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Because just about every Isuzu (and Daewoo<\/a> and Suzuki<\/a>, for that matter) was sold under different names elsewhere in the sprawling GM<\/a> Empire of the 1990s, here’s a commercial for the German-market Opel<\/a> Frontera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After some success providing General Motors with small Faster pickups badged as Chevrolet LUVs in North America (plus some Chevette-related Geminis labeled “Buick\/Opel by Isuzu,” which confused everybody), Isuzu began selling vehicles under its own name here in the early 1980s. At first, we just got I-Mark subcompacts and P’up pickups. Then the Trooper SUV […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/40466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}