MarqueTime . . . all you need to know about Isuzu

The automotive operation that eventually became Isuzu was formed from the unlikely parentage of a shipbuilder and a gas company…

The automotive operation that eventually became Isuzu was formed from the unlikely parentage of a shipbuilder and a gas company, and didn't produce its first vehicle until 1919, a truck for the Japanese military.

Then, like many Japanese embryo car makers of the time, it built its first car, the A-9, under licence from a British manufacturer, Wolseley, in 1922. The Isuzu name, which comes from a river of the same name near one of Japan's most important shrines, first appeared as the model name of another truck produced in 1934. But it wasn't until during the rebuilding of Japan after the second World War that the company name was changed, in 1949, from Automobile Industries Co Ltd to Isuzu Motors Limited.

In 1953, Isuzu began building the Rootes Hillman car under licence. Isuzu's first own-brand car with global recognition possibilities was the Bellel in 1961. Isuzu was still very much bound up with truck manufacture and diesel engine development, but another car, the Bellett, was unveiled in 1963.

In 1974, less than three years after General Motors took a substantial interest in the company, the first Gemini was produced, based on the European Opel Kadett. Over several model generations it was built and sold in Australia as a Holden (GM's Australian brand), in Malaysia as an Opel, in the US as both an Isuzu and a Buick and later as a Geo, GM's brand that specialised in re-badging small cars from other brands in which it had an interest, including Suzuki and Subaru.

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In parallel, Isuzu developed a range of tough SUVs that began in 1981 as the Isuzu Rodeo Bighorn, eventually introduced to the important US market in 1991. Over the next few years the same vehicle was marketed also in the US as the Honda Passport and in Europe as the Opel Frontera.

Isuzu's large Trooper 4x4 has had several rally successes, notably in the 1994 Paris-Dakar-Paris Rally and the 1996 Australian Safari under its local name of Holden Jackaroo.

The also-familiar Isuzu Pickup, which debuted in 1981 in the US and is popular in the Irish construction industry, has recently been re-designed and is now marketed as the D-MAX.

Though not represented in the passenger car field here for some years, Isuzu makes a range of MPVs and cars in Japan and the US, most notable recently the VehiCROSS crossover SUV introduced in 1997 in Japan and sold in the US for the last four years. The underlying story of Isuzu, apart from its schizophrenic history of multiple names for its cars, is the development of diesel engines. Its diesel research committee was set up in 1934 and two years later it produced Japan's first air-cooled diesel. During the second World War it was the only Japanese company permitted to build diesels. In 1961 Isuzu produced Japan's first diesel for passenger cars, which was later made available in its Bellett.

Isuzu diesel technology is acknowledged as being among the world's best, and it has been at the forefront of developing new ideas and materials, including the first electronic-controlled ceramic glowplug in 1981 that speeded up starting diesels from cold. Still Japan's largest producer of diesel engines, the company supplies many other GM brands with power units, as well as outside companies including Honda for its new Accord diesel for Europe. Isuzu is a major producer of trucks, buses, and engines for industrial and marine use.

Best Car: Trooper

Worst Car: Some derivatives of the Rodeo.

Weirdest Car: In an ultra-conservative ethos, simply not allowed.