Toyota’s Land Cruiser may get a lot of love, but as today’s Nice Price or Crack Pipe Trooper proves, there can be a lot to like in these old Isuzus too. Maybe even their value.
In the Jay Leno episode of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, the former Tonight Show host tells Jerry that comedy is timeless. He avers that people today will laugh just as hard at the comedies of the silent era, as did the initial audiences. It’s an interesting observation on the timelessness of certain media, and one that I think can be applied to yesterday’s time capsule 1993 Toyota Pickup.
Not only was it clean enough to have seemingly just rolled off the assembly line, but it was kitted in a manner that would prove reasonably acceptable today. Those factors made its modest $7,799 price perfectly palatable and it took home a solid 66-percent Nice Price win.
Life is plumb full of winners and losers. Toyota, one of the world’s largest automakers has long been considered a winner, as have a number of their more iconic products. Isuzu on the other hand could be considered a textbook example of a loser. At least that is, when it comes to car sales here in the U.S..
I mean, consider that the small Japanese car maker was one of the first to jump on the burgeoning SUV bandwagon. Their offerings were in fact so compelling that Honda choose to sell rebranded editions under their own name, as well as that of their upscale brand, Acura. Despite leading that SUV wave, the company eventually failed here and was forced from our shores.
Here we have a 1999 Isuzu Trooper, the second generation of that nameplate and the truck upon which the Acura SLX was based. Similar in size and spec to the contemporary and venerated Toyota Land Cruiser (winner), the Trooper and its Acura cousin (losers?) just don’t seem to have ever engendered the same sort of love.
You might love this low-mileage Trooper however, as it rocks Isuzu’s 6EV1 DOHC 3.5-litre V6. That mill was good from the factory for 215 horsepower and featured a weird 75° head angle, a factoid that’s pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, but which still might make for good cocktail party conversation fodder.
Perhaps even more interesting than that odd angle V6 is the five-speed stick that’s mated between it and the 4WD’s transfer case. That’s an extremely rare feature and elevates this Trooper fully to Super Trooper in my coloring book.
The stick resides in a perfectly serviceable, but apparently ArmorAll’d to hell interior. It comes with the factory radio in its overly shiny dash, but has also been imbued with more power plugs for all your modern electronic gewgaw needs.
Everything is in fine fettle here, with just a missing OBDII panel on the dash, and some sort of odd protrusion by the dead pedal to call into question. There’s only 96,000 miles on the clock and for the last decade it has apparently spent its time starring at the ass-end of a motorhome.
That explains the tow hooks inconspicuously protruding from the front bumper. There’s also a hitch in the back in case you wanted to turn the tables on who does the hooking.
The rest of the body looks to have been well cared for, and while it’s not the most exciting of color schemes, the tinted bug deflector on the nose does add a bit of je ne sais quoi. There’s no rust nor major body drama here, and the truck’s styling has a boxy old school charm that’s sadly missing from many SUVs today.
Mechanicals seem to be just as well sorted. The ad claims that ‘[e]verything works like it is supposed to.’ Additionally, the seller notes that he ‘just had it serviced and it just passed emissions for 2 years.’
The ad includes the teaser portion of the truck’s CarFax, which shows it to have had two owners (good) and two recorded service records (not so good). That doesn’t mean it hasn’t had service performed over the years, just that they haven’t been recorded in a way that they’ve made it to CarFax.
We’ve made it this far that it’s now time to discuss the price. The seller is asking $4,500 for this Trooper. That’s a good deal more than the Acura SLX we looked at not all that long ago.
This one however, comes with a lot fewer miles, the bigger V6, and that chunky five speed stick to keep you entertained. When wrapped in a literal beige box, could that all be worth its $4,500 asking?
You decide!
Phoenix, AZ Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
H/T to onlytwowheels for the hookup!
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