It just won’t quit. I’ve been shooting this I-Mark since 2010, when it was already a rolling relic. I’ve updated it a couple of time since, in 2015 and 2020. And here it is, almost twelve years later, and it’s still going, although it might not be too eager to start if it sits with the lights on for too long.
The only question is: How many more years will I be documenting it?
This has now earned the title of The Most Immortal CC in Eugene.
Its black diesel fuel plume is getting more impressive each time I shoot it.
You want to take bets if it’ll still be on the street in two more years?
This car somehow becomes more charming every time you post it – to me at least and ideally when viewed from one of the front angles, perhaps it’s the warm soft white glow from the headlights in the late afternoon hours and the fallen leaves mixed with an imagined pumpkin spice aroma in the air. Or is that diesel spice? The plume is most impressive, the cognitive dissonance of that “feature” vs Eugene’s love of old beaters and alternative (non-gasoline) powertrains is striking. It beats anything I’ve seen on an MB 240D by far.
I was musing that the rear is just a little TOO elongated for perfection. Then realized that this is an evolution of the Isuzu 117’s design, looking that up shows the exact same proportion, one of the few areas that I thought that car could slightly improve on as well.
I once rode in one as a passenger from SLO down to the LA area during college. It was unremarkable (which is good), I do recall it was white with a glorious full bordello red interior. No plume though at that time, probably around 1988 or thereabouts. And then I owned the successor model of this, albeit by then FWD and non-diesel which turned out to be a very well built car that served me well.
Any similarities with the 117 are coincidental, as this is essentially a Kadett C with Isuzu drive train.
You should do a write up about its owner, I am sure it would be colorful.
I’m with Jim Klein – this isn’t ordinarily my kind of car, but I have grown fond of it and hope it clatters on for a long time yet.
I think the odds on two more years are pretty good. It will take an expensive repair to
put this down.
Imagine a friend telling the owner “Hey, your car is on the internet and it’s famous!”
Just what I was thinking. The number of times the owner logs in and tells us more about their ride, I wouldn’t be at all surprised. But three appearances already and it hasn’t happened yet.
I hope “Yes”
I like old cars but I would certainly wash all that spilled fuel, dirt, and exhaust smoke off. Holding onto old cars like this takes a lot of commitment and a lot of not caring what it looks like.
I’ll counter offer and raise it to five years. This the most immortal CC and by far the absolute grodiest gas tank overflow plumb I’ve ever seen. Nobody’s going to steal it or tailgate you once they get a good whiff.
Is that the same engine as used in the Diesel Chevette, and the LUV mini-truck?
It’s a shame that this little car is not being taken care of appearance wise the way it deserves. It deserves to have a straight body, and to be washed and waxed on a regular basis. The way you would take care of a loyal family member. Sad
I was wondering that as well. I drove a diesel Chevette for a while (not mine). It was a slug of a car, but seemed rather sturdy. I suppose I could see one lasting as long as this I-Mark. Likewise, the LUV trucks – 2 of which lived in my garage for years – seemed reasonably reliable. Except it was the rust that killed those.
It’s already received a couple of expensive and unlikely repairs in the form of the two windows. I bet those were hard to find. I think those biodiesel stickers tell you why it’s still kept going: free fuel. When one of the costs of running a car is nearly eliminated, it’s easy to forgive a lot of other weaknesses.
Biodiesel is far from free. It’s diesel made with organic feedstocks of various kinds. It’s sold in gas stations and costs about the same as regular diesel.
You’re thinking of running a diesel on straight veggie oil. Not very common anymore, as pretty much all the sources for it now sell it to the biodiesel refiners.
Isuzu based their diesel in the petrol Hillman engines and they are nearly indestructable Opels with Isuzu diesels go for ever with Opel diesels no so much.
Just think of the 39 years of joyless miserable motoring attributable to this clunker.
There are some people who get a real thrill out of motoring for the absolute minimum cost per mile. I’ve encountered a handful of people driving Geo Metros, often past their prime, who were pretty hardcore about squeaking every last mile from a tankful of fuel. Some went to such lengths as seeking out transaxles from a Metro XFI (a model specifically tuned for even higher fuel economy) for their revised gear ratios and other little tricks to maximize efficiency. I suspect the driver of this car thinks along these lines.
Have you peeked inside? What type of trans? Would a manual 4-spd, 3-spd auto (probably a turbohydramatic shared with Chevettes), or 5-spd be most likely to prolong longevity?
I think part for this in general, engine/FI in particular, must be getting hard to find.
The highest mileage car I’ve ever been in was a late 60s/early 70s Opel Rekord in the 1980s. Owner claimed 500-600k km. Back then, it was a size up from the Kadett. They were popular as taxis in Greece in the 70s/80s.
No need to make this old beater a hair shirt, cleaning the Diesel smoot is cheap and easy .
In 1975 when I lived in Guatemala, C.A. my brother in law bought a Diesel Isuzu sedan and absolutely loved it .
-Nate
Test drove a regular (non-diesel) I Mark back in the day, as only brother to two younger sisters, one of my “jobs” was to take them out when they were looking at cars (when they got older and started buying new cars, that job went away) when they could only afford a used car, i.e. in College. Their requirements made it a bit of a task, had to be automatic (much easier these days than 1984 at least for small cars), get good gas mileage, air conditioning and not too many miles on it. The first and the last were tough, as small cars back then mostly were still standard, and here in Texas, a lot of them had huge mileage on them covering long distances…oh, and forgot, they also had to have some style, namely a sporty 2 door (had to be a notchback, no hatchbacks).
The I Mark failed on the last point, though they did have 2 doors, they weren’t sporty enough for them. I found one that didn’t have too many miles, automatic, AC, but…my sister poo-poo’d it, she humored me long enough for a test drive (which went well) but vetoed any consideration of buying it.
Too bad…..wondered if she bought it how long it would last; they seemed durable, but my sisters aren’t the best with maintenance. They both liked Nissan 200/240 SX’s, having bought 4 of them between them (middle sister still has her ’97 bought new)…all automatic, all notchbacks, and most pretty well loaded. I was also a Nissan fan, having a ’74 Datsun 710 as my first car, but I often wondered what would have happened if I could have talked one sister into the I Mark.