This is the Isuzu Bighorn and I swear that it’s real despite so many factors that make it seem like the output of an AI prompted with “cheap and terrible from the 1990s.” It’s objectively weird, incredibly practical (so long as horsepower and speed aren’t something you need), and probably has enough quirks to make Doug DeMuro’s head explode. Let’s dig into this little SUV that just went over the auction block for a measly $6,500.
The Bighorn is essentially an Isuzu Trooper, which we did get here in the USA. It has a few really lovely features though, including a diesel engine we didn’t get here in the States. It makes just 133 horsepower and 217 lb-ft of torque but leverages genuine four-wheel drive and a four-speed automatic transmission. This example has 157,600 miles on the odometer so it’s lived a life already.
The list of standard features sounds not too far off from what buyers look for on sale today. It has three rows. The second row folds forward and the third row folds upward and sideways onto the walls of the cabin. The front row also gets heated seats.
Speaking of creature comforts, this little classic SUV also has automatic climate control. The windows and mirrors are power-adjustable and even the switches are charming. Isuzu could’ve just made a switch panel like everyone else, but instead, these switches are angled in the housing!
The exterior is full of weirdness too. Take a gander at the front passenger-side fender and you’ll see a mirror there to help drivers determine where their bumper is. It has side steps, and just above them a little badge that says “Suspension by Lotus.” That’s right, this is from a time period when Lotus worked on some of the suspension systems for Isuzu (as trumpeted by this Impulse ad) and the Bighorn benefited from that. In fact, the steering wheel has a Lotus badge, not an Isuzu one.
The Bighorn has some custom mods too including 16-inch wheels, rain guards, a manually-operated glow plug system, and a Panasonic head unit that says “WARNING – Let’s Enjoy Safety Driving” when it starts up.
Finally, let’s chat about the little sticker on the back. It’s written in Chinese and features what looks like a floral Chrysler Pentastar inside of a Dharma Initiative-esque shield. The words above it say (according to Google translate) “Pray for traffic safety” and the words to the right of it say “Hakusan Hime Shrine” referring to a Shinto religious meeting place.
Sure, it wasn’t a factory decal like the Lotus ones but it provides a small glimpse into the history of this particular Bighorn. This little SUV is just full of charm. I’m a little sad I missed out on it but that’s okay. My Ford Flex is one of the greatest cars ever made.
Photos: Cars & Bids
We had these in Australia as the Holden Jackaroo! And no I’m not making that name up…
no bed means its not a truck.
can we fix the title
These and the Troopers look like Chinese knockoffs of themselves.
like the Chinese Jeeps: A Deep-Dive Into The History Of China’s Bizarre Jeep Cherokee XJ Clones
This thing is decked out. That fender mirror is the best, almost as good as the Lotus badging.If it was left hand drive it would be on my want list. I wish Isuzu kept making the soft top Troopers. Imagine if they made a soft top version of this like the concept.
https://cdn3.focus.bg/autodata/i/isuzu/trooper/trooper-soft-top/medium/fd65bd905784ba99b3aff0ef51c4e8bf.jpg
https://www.motortrend.com/uploads/sites/11/2011/08/Isuzu-Trooper-Convertible-concept-front-view1.jpg
weird flex but ok
I want to love the Trooper and its relatives, but as I recall the engine (3.2L 6-cylinder) seemed to have a fair number of failures? A buddy of mine owned one, admittedly something like 15 years old when he bought it, but was on his third engine in six months.
My main memory of the Trooper was looking at a friend’s (a different one from the paragraph above) and telling him his tires were bald and badly needed to be replaced. The next day it rained and he stuffed the front end under the wheels of a semi trailer. Luckily he and his daughter were basically unharmed, although had the young girl’s legs been adult sized they likely would have been crushed in the collision.
I had a 98 Rodeo with the 3.2L V6. (assuming it was the same as the trooper, but I don’t know). Crankshaft started failing at 48k miles.
I wonder how much lightness Lotus added?
Pretty sure they took lightness from these for their own cars.
“Lotus your weight reduction was a success”
“Where is Isuzu?”
“Who do you think took your mass?”
“Nooooo!”
I remember the Trooper all too well. My uncle bought one new in 1997 and had a 3rd row installed for his whole family. They used it to tow their boat to and from the lake a few times a week for hundreds of thousands of miles. In the end it was barely a car, but it did still run and drive.
Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,
smells like a steak and seats thirty-five..
Canyonero! Canyonero!
Well, it goes real slow with the hammer down,
It’s the country-fried truck endorsed by a clown!
Canyonero! (Yah!) Canyonero!
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!
From the top shot alone I thought it was an Acura SLX, then I read the article and laughed when I read “Isuzu Bighorn” because I had only ever heard of the “Subaru Bighorn”, which I am now realizing may be the laziest rebadge of all the dozens of rebadges of the Trooper.
Should have been an Acura Bighorn. Lotus suspension in an Acura would have been right on brand.
That correction is but a badge switch away.
there was an Acura SLX, that was a rebadged trooper.
Also, for lazy rebadges: Toyota Cavalier, and Chevrolet Forester.
Dodge and Plymouth Neon too – very lazy
This is quite possibly one of the most rebadged cars ever, if not cars, definitely SUVs. Its been an: Isuzu, Holden, Vauxhall, Opel, Chevrolet, Subaru, Honda and Acura. And even under the individual Marques its been renamed. In New Zealand alone its been sold as an Isuzu Trooper an Isuzu Bighorn, a Holden Jackaroo and a Holden Monterey. And of course because we get loads of Japanese imports, I’ve seen Isuzu Bighorn, Isuzu Irmsecher (although these may have been special edition de-badged Bighorns), Chevrolet Trooper and Honda Horizon.
Today I learned something! I had no idea there was an Irmscher edition, so I had to look that up. How odd, but sort of cool. Not a vehicle I’d have expected Irmscher to have done.
There’s a sweet Irmscher Gemini on CnB right now that looks like it’s going to sell for a song.
Cool stuff! Love it.
The Trooper was a solid 90’s SUV.
One of my few regrets in life was getting rid of my Trooper before I left the country for a few years. I loved that truck so much. 1990 Trooper 2 with 32″ Super Swampers.
This looks EXACTLY like what the rural mail carrier drives in my tiny little West Virginia town (though this one is in much nicer shape). Pretty sure theirs is just a regular trooper though, but same stripe, same(ish?) color, pretty sure it has the fender mirror too.
For the person who reaallly wants a gen-1 Dodge Caravan replete with fake wood paneling but needs an off-road vehicle.
Thoughts and prayers for traffic safety.
I’m not entirely sure if it’s just because they were available cheap, but my local zoo still has a couple Troopers done up as safari cars for viewing platforms. No handling by Lotus, but that’s probably okay for something that hasn’t moved in like 20 years.
https://live.staticflickr.com/2701/4532046885_ab607bb031_b.jpg
who among us doesn’t enjoy a bit of safety driving?
You can drive if you want to.
You can leave your friends behind..
Be sure to do The Safety Dance before your Safety Driving!
Remember the Acura version of the Trooper? That was an “interesting” attempt at badge engineering.
How to say that you haven’t owned a Trooper without saying you haven’t owned a Trooper: “cheap and terrible from the 1990s.”
Troopers were awesome trucks with a cult-like following.
Yup, it’s a cult. Brainwashed and gaslighted.
I owned one, see below, they were shit.
I had one, and it was pretty great for what it was.
Troopers of this vintage seemed to be a mixed bag. I had a boss who drove one through harsh NE winters and swore by it. I also had a neighbor who bought one and did nothing but swear at it. Wish we’d had the diesel version in the states just to have a choice in power plants and to compare for reliability.
As someone old enough to remember this series of Trooper, it looks quite normal to me. Nothing like an AI image.
And Isuzu was not the only company to angle the window switches like that. The contemporary Ford Taurus comes to mind, but I’m sure there were others.
And now that we’ve established the difference in our ages…Get off my lawn!
😛
As a former owner of an Isuzu Trooper, (many, many moons ago) I can say with some authority that I would rather walk. I have never had a less reliable vehicle in my life. Fuel pump, water pump, head gasket, broken HVAC controls, exhaust leak, power window… even one of the tensioner springs that help keep the doors open on hills. It snapped one day without warning when I was closing the door with the two broken fragments flying out like shrapnel. All before 100k.Oh, and it was also starting to rust thru the paint in only 4 years. No thanks.
Once, when I was looking for parts of an old Isuzu (which I never bought), the old timer at the other end of the phone had something amusing to say:
“Oh, yeah, not many people ask about parts for those anymore. Most of them are in the scrapyards now. We used to call them, I-Sue-You.”
I remember living in the south and seeing Troopers everywhere, and with lots of love from owners, and then moving to the rust belt and never seeing any on the roads and only hearing how absolutely hated they were. It was quite the juxtaposition.
This is like my 93 Pajero, many of the same features. I love my Pajero in all of its slowness. I do however prefer the look of the Montero/Pajero to this… the outside is a bit.. Chrysler minivan.
4D56 powered?
oh it is! still turns like a top. only about 70K miles on it.
No idea what you’re smoking this early in the morning, but that looks nothing like the slop that AI generates.
I think that maybe the words in Chinese characters are Japanese Kanji. Google translate seems to think the image contains Japanese. Sorry to be so pedantic this early in the morning.
The 2nd character from the left is one I remember: yama meaning mountain.
So, I believe you’re correct that it’s Japanese
Kanji originated from an adaptation of Chinese characters. It came to Japan with Buddhism around 500 CE. That’s why Google got it wrong.
I always liked how “Cartoon History of the Universe” depicted this: “Sooo… should we develop our own writing system, art and literary culture, or just adopt this one that just happens to be sitting here?”
Yep. Japanese kanji look like Chinese hantze and usually have similar meanings, but are not the same and folks get mad when you mix them up. Same with Korean hanja.