Welcome back! We’re working our way through the world of used cars alphabetically, and today, the I’s have it, as we look at a pair of unique off-road toys. They may not fly, but where these two can go, you definitely don’t need roads.
Yesterday, I showed you a nasty old piece of junk – and a Hillman Minx. Honestly, the only reason I chose that Hyundai is that it’s the first intact and running first-generation Excel that I’ve seen in ages. But you all hated it, which means you have some familiarity with it. The only people who want a Hyundai Excel, then as now, are the people who’ve never driven one.
I’m not sure I would want to own the Minx, either, but I sure would like to drive it, or something like it. I’ve never driven a pre-war car; the oldest car I’ve ever driven was a ’56 Buick. There are a few driving experiences still on my bucket list, actually: something pre-war, a Ferrari with a gated manual, and a Citroën 2CV or variant thereof. (Maybe when SWG gets his 2CV running he’ll let me have a go.)
Today, however, we’re taking a look at two 4x4s. One is a former military vehicle, and the other is a heavily-modified show truck, but they could both take you to places far off the beaten path. Let’s see which one you prefer.
1994 Isuzu Amigo – $14,900
Engine/drivetrain: 3.8-liter overhead valve V6, four-speed automatic, 4WD
Location: Houston, TX
Odometer reading: unknown
Operational status: Runs and drives great
Who doesn’t love a monster truck? Big tires, shiny paint, loud exhaust – they’re just plain fun. You can give just about any 4×4 the monster treatment, but when you take an already-adorable compact 4×4 and jack it up in the air, it somehow gets even more adorable. This Isuzu Amigo is nowhere near stock anymore, but honestly, I like it better this way.
To turn those big tires, you need big power. In place of the stock 2.6 liter four-cylinder, this one has a 3800 Series II V6 out of a Chevy Camaro, along with a GM TH700-R4 transmission. The transfer case and axles are Toyota units, and the axles are hung on a custom four-link suspension setup. It all looks pretty well done, certainly better than your average six-pack-fueled backyard hack job, and the seller says it runs and drives well. I can’t imagine handling is its strong suit, though.
It’s in good condition inside, but you can’t call it classy. The Grant steering wheel and ratchet-style shifter are almost requirements in a custom ride like this, but I don’t know what motivated the Krylon job on the window cranks and door handles. It looks like it has an aftermarket stereo system too – you pretty much have to blast hair metal or Southern rock out of something like this, especially in Texas. I think it’s a law.
The body is in good condition, and the custom tube bumpers and side steps look well-made. And the Tonka logos are a nice touch. One thing that does make my eye twitch, though, is that two of the tire treads are facing backwards. Swap the right rear and the left front, and they’ll all be pointing the right way.
1994 Iveco VM90 (M40.10 LSWV) – $13,500
Engine/drivetrain: 2.5-liter turbodiesel inline 4, four-speed automatic, 4WD
Location: Boring, OR
Odometer reading: 78,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives great
If monster trucks aren’t your thing for some reason, how about an ex-military truck? This is a former Canadian Army LSWV truck, also known as an Iveco VM90, designed in Italy and built under license by Western Star in Oregon. It’s powered by a 2.5-liter turbodiesel four-cylinder engine and a four-speed automatic transmission. If a Hummvee is just too big, a Land Rover too unreliable, and a Unimog too trendy, this might be just the thing.
Nobody joins the Army, even in Canada, to drive luxury vehicles, so don’t expect much in the way of creature comforts. You’ll sit on a vinyl bench seat, rest your boots on a steel floor, and you’ll like it. It does look like it’s in good condition inside, at least, though I do wonder why it’s all wet inside. Do the windows not seal? Or did they take advantage of the fact that it’s probably all waterproof in there and hose it out?
Under the canvas cover in the back are a couple of jump seats that look even more uncomfortable than the cab, and plenty of open space for whatever you want to haul. It also has a space between the cab and the bed for a couple of spare fuel cans and the spare tire on one side, and two big storage lockers on the other side. I would say this would make a good overlanding rig, but only if you like sleeping in what’s basically a tent over a pickup truck bed.
The outside finish presents a dilemma for me – I kinda want to paint it, but I also kinda don’t. I’ve never liked olive drab, but it suits this truck well, and it would be a shame to cover up those cool little Canadian flag stencils. Plus, it’s in nice shape, so there’s no real reason to paint over it.
You wouldn’t want to try to commute in either one of these, but take either one to a forest road, or a big muddy field, and you’ll be in for a good time. So do you want to play with the overgrown Tonka truck, or the retired Army truck?
Unimogs are trendy?
Sigh.
With that lift, someone turned a nice Izusu into a piece of shit. I can se the joke with “Tonka” on the side, but it’s still ruined. So I’ll go for the Italian Unimog..
What is with the layout o didn’t know where the 2nd one started
As a former owner and lover of the Amigo I was fully prepared to vote Isuzu. But the Amigo isn’t a vehicle to give the macho treatment to. It is a mosquito light weight and sporty. While it doesn’t look horrible I bet every mile is horrible and whatever they did to it made it worse. Even the interior looks horrible and they didn’t even keep the multicolor fun seats. So I will go Oh Canada in case I ever visit our neighbors to the North. Just to avoid any uneasiness
Weird wins! Again.
Wow, this was easy…that Isuzu is really badass…I’ll take it and manual swap it somehow. That thing looks like so much fun- I’d be blastin’ hair metal for sure! Yeah, I have no use for a military vehicle even though it is pretty cool
How the HELL do you keep making these choices so damn shitty! You are too good at this ‘Shitbox Showdown’!!!
I try not to vote ‘neither’, but it is SO tough some days.
The Amigo always reminded me of the Sidekick my best friend had in HS, so I have a soft spot for them, but yeesh, not this one. There is exactly one kind of white guy* who’d drive this, and it ain’t me, babe.
*I’m not going to pretend to know how something this weird reads in other cultures
I had to go Iveco – its my Laforza’s distant cousin 🙂
Indestructable impractical Iveco impales interesting idiosyncratic Isuzu
Definitely the Iveco. Designed by Italians built in Oregon by a former Canadian company for Canadians.
Saw the headline and was ready to vote Amigo until I saw the thing. As a plus the Iveco is kind of low key cool.
I want to vote Iveco, but I have sooooo much compensating to do.
Not a truck guy, but I figure, if you’re going truck, ya might as well go full truck
Iveco, easily
I knew the Iveco was going to kill this.
I never even heard of one before, but on seeing it here, not even reading more than “2.5-liter turbodiesel inline 4, four-speed automatic, 4WD” and looking at the photos (wantingly and probably wantonly too) it was a done deal.
I wonder what kind of MPG it gets around town? It can’t possibly have manual steering right? So you could commute in it? A couple of cheap LCD screens off of Amazon connected to a few stick-on cameras would take care of all the blind spots, right? It’s so effin’ cute in a low-polygon-count sort of way!
Jeez, I want it. California would still give me a hard time about registering/insuring it here I’m sure, even though it’s more than 25 years old.
Plus, it’s in a place called “Boring” located near a something called the “Clackamas Highway” …a name that I love but have also never heard of, so this truck would be a LONG drive home (for me in SoCal).
But really, I WANT.
Iveco delivery vans are, or were, pretty common in the UK. They’re solid vehicles so I imagine their mil spec stuff is good as well.
Yah, the name was familiar. Thanks Gilbert.
The LED headlights are a bit of an anachronism, but probably necessary. I’m fine w/them. I definitely wouldn’t paint it. Not because I want to cosplay as a soldier, but only because doing so wouldn’t improve the Iveco’s charm one iota: it’s already as cute as the dickens! I’m already thinking about all the stuff I could put in those great external lockers behind the cab. 😉
As it happens, I did a little research the other day (was it only yesterday? my sense of time is weird lately) about what might be involved were I to buy a car from Canada and get it to me in LA (that partly pinkish 2000 WiLL Vi at Bring a Trailer). BaT’s shipping calculator apparently doesn’t include Canadian origins/targets, and their customer support hasn’t bothered to reply to my email (not a big surprise, I’ve never heard much good about it) so I never managed to get an estimate. But it seems to cost at least/about a grand to ship anything (car sized) anywhere (well, cross-country within the continental US) so there’d be customs, etc… on top of that… For something bulky like the Iveco, I can’t imagine it costing much less than a couple grand to get it here, minimum.
I suppose that it’s for the best that it IS so complex and expensive to buy weird vehicles from distant lands and then drive them legally here in California… if this weren’t the case, I’d probably have a bunch of kei trucks and whatnot parked behind my house and really, I can only drive one at a time, right? 😉
Not that anyone asked, but BaT shipping did get back to me later and at my suggestion (they said) that they’ve added a ‘lower 48 states’ only note to their shipping calculator.
I test drove an new Isuzu VehiCROSS once. Actually, it might have been one of the first new cars that I ever test drove. It’s not exactly an Amigo, but still… 🙂
Trying hard to make a poor life-choice update:
My insurer Progressive, with whom I already have a multi-vehicle policy, will NOT insure the Iveco for me here in LA, which is not a surprise. Insurance is the least of my worries (registration and customs being the first and second) and there are plenty of collector-car insurers, one of whom would probably give me the less-than-1,000-mile-per-year policy that’s all I’d need/want. I see military vehicles from all different countries at local car meets, and none of them were trailered to the show, so…
I’m looking into the city/hwy MPG of this thing, and trying to determine whether it has power steering (I assume yes due to its size, but if it didn’t that would be a deal breaker for me since I’m approaching old).
I’ve driven cross-country a few times and feel that I’m still up to it one more time, even at my current
state of decrepitudeage. I also feel more-or-less ready, willing, and able to make an ill-considered vehicular purchase, provided there’s at least a some reasonable chance that I could actually register and drive the thing around LA once in a while.This ranwhenparked.net webpage https://ranwhenparked.net/25-year-import-law-california/ states that “diesel vehicles still need to comply with CARB regs even when they are more than 25 years old.” Now, I owned (and reg/ins/drove in CA) a VW TDI diesel for 23 years, and as far as I can recall, though the CA DMV sent me a registration renewal (bill) every couple of years, there wasn’t any actual smog testing for the car… I mean, they never hooked the car up via OBD-II to a machine, or stuck anything up the tail pipe. I gather there’s just a visual ‘opacity test’ to see that it’s not rolling coal, etc… but that was it, but I don’t even remember seeing that happen much, at least for THAT diesel car (incidentally, I had to fly to Galveston, TX to buy that ’00 TDI because CA didn’t allow VW to sell their diesels in CA that year (2001 is when I bought it).
It’s a shame there’s not someplace to get simple, quick, kosher yes or no answers (or yes, but only if you spend roughly this amount on mods/tests/certifications) for importing specific vehicles to specific places. (Again,) this is probably for the best in that it keeps me from making rash and potentially costly decisions (the kind that would leave me with a $13,500. Canadian military truck in my driveway that I couldn’t actually drive) but still, it makes me sad that this is all so difficult and iffy.
Ooof, I’m shocked this isn’t 100% in Iveco’s favor. This round seems like a no brainer to me – Adios Amigo.
For the price, the Iveco is far more interesting. I’d consider the Texas Amigo at a third of the price, but I’d want to hose it out, too.
You wouldn’t want to try to commute in either one of these..
Uh, right yeah nooo way was I thinking that….
It all depends on where you are commuting to/from.
I was going to say ¡Hola! to the Amigo, but it tipped over when I was typing this.
I don’t know what I’d do with it, but given the alternative, Ciao Iveco!
For the glory of Terrence and Philip, we’ll take the Iveco.
As of course is tradition..
Where do you source square tires, though?
“Nexen” is Mandarin for “square.”
Hey! I resent that stereotyp… bah whatever, I admit I do those things too. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That Amigo is way overpriced. I voted for the army truck.
Yet another person trying to recoup the cost of all the mods.
Everybody needs friends, but this Amigo is the one that carries around a spit cup wherever he goes, has questionable personal hygiene, tells off-color jokes at full volume, calls women chicks, and belches after every swig of cheap beer. An entertaining spectacle best enjoyed at a safe remove. I’ll take the sensible Canadian who’s always there to help with a move or haul some lumber and doesn’t mind getting dirty.