2001 Isuzu Rodeo LS

The 2001 model year debuted the facelift for the second generation Isuzu Rodeo on the US market, with a better blended grille and bumpers. The two door version, formerly sold as the Amigo, was now the Rodeo Sport. Cars for sale on our shores were built at the Subaru plant just up the road from me in Lafayette, Indiana.

Like the first generation Isuzus, these were body-on-frame vehicles, rather than of unibody construction.

While the base Rodeo S came with a standard Holden-sourced 2.2L DOHC inline four making 130 horsepower, the more upscale Rodeo LS had a 3.2L DOHC 24-valve V-6 rated at a respectable-for-the-era 205 ponies. Both could be had in RWD or 4WD form.

Base price for this Garden Green 2001 Rodeo LS would have been somewhere in the neighborhood of $24,000, or about $45,400 in current dollars in RWD format. This one was photographed in November of 2025 using a Sony a77 and a 16-50mm f/2.8 zoom lens.

1988 Isuzu Trooper II

The Isuzu Trooper II had been on the U.S. market since the early Eighties, and got a light styling refresh for the 1987 model year, most notably getting rectangular headlamp assemblies to replace the old round sealed beams.

It was a rugged SUV with all the off-roading credentials you'd expect to find: a full array of skid plates protecting the vitals, nearly ten inches of ground clearance, five-speed manual backed by a dual-ratio transfer case, self-locking hubs allowed shifting into 4WD on the fly... the works.

Although it's bullying that orange Honda Element in the background just by being parked next to it, though, it's worth remembering that the stock powerplant in the Trooper II was a little weedy.

That's right, this butch-looking Isuzu off-roader had to haul around 3,600 pounds of sheet metal using only a 2.3L SOHC 4ZD1 Isuzu inline-4 putting out 96 SAE net horsepower at a thrashy 4,600 RPM. If you want to go slower, there was an optional 80hp 2.2L turbodiesel four.

Base price in 1987 was $12,999, or roughly $36,600 in today's coinage.

This one was photographed in April of 2025 using an Olympus OM-D E-M5 and an M. Zuiko Digital 12-200mm f/3.5-6.3 zoom lens.