This is the car that just won’t die. I first shot this Isuzu I-Mark diesel in 2010, and I’ve done follow-ups in 2015 and 2020. And here it is, still going, although not at the moment.
It’s fitting that LM got into the shot, as he’s still going strong too, as evidenced by this location on our daily walk about 2.5 miles from our house. He’s going to be 12 in October, and although he’s given up our daily pre-breakfast walk, he still looks forward to our late afternoon-evening walks and hikes, and which are often 5-6 miles.
A bit battered but still kicking. I have seen and heard it clattering around town too. It’s a regular driver. I can’t believe I didn’t look into the open window to check the odometer. Next time, and there will undoubtedly be a next time.
It’s got current plates, unlike some of the old heaps I still see on the road around here occasionally.
Poor focus.
LM has became such a calm, sedate and polite gentleman in his old age. He was a bit of a handful in his younger days… Weren’t we all?
And he has to put up with Wanda, a rambunctious pug-Boston terrier mix puppy that comes over to visit from next door. She jumps all over him and bites his jowls.
Here’s the previous posts on this immortal I-Mark:
Curbside Classic: 1982 Isuzu I-Mark Diesel – Still Clattering Away
CC Follow-Up (2015): 1982 Isuzu I-Mark Diesel – It Just Won’t Die!
On The Go Outtake/Update (2020): 1982 Isuzu I-Mark Diesel – Still Clattering Away Ten Years Later
That last picture is pure gold, look at how those two keep an eye on each other!
Cute pups!
Isuzu diesels in trucks big and small have a great reputation from what I’ve read. If our old ’98 Trooper, now in our son’s hands, is an example, I’d believe it, with 220k miles it still runs well and everything works, though the poor thing has gone through too many Northern winters and is slowly rusting away, and it’s burning some oil. Some US folks have bought imported JDM Isuzu diesels and swapped them into Troopers with excellent results. Wish they still imported those excellent SUVs, I’d likely buy one, now that almost now one makes a real truck-based one anymore, 4Runner excepted.
What the offspring of a Chevette three-door, and a Vega hatchback, may have looked like. Nice doggies.
Its a clone of an Opel with an Isuzu engine, never driven one of these but have a lot of wheel time in Isuzu trucks usually 8 wheelers towing 8 wheel trailers 46 tonne GVM Isuzu cars would only have to be a tenth as durable to last forever, Isuzu cut their car teeth building Hillmans under licence and used the Minx to create their own cars in the 60s those were great but loved to rust so are scarce now but with the new Hillman Hunter being assembled on New Zealand standard here with alloy head Todd motors contracted Isuzu to cast the engine blocks cheaper to ship from Japan that the UK, seeing as they turned the Hillman 4 into a diesel for their own purposes they must have still had the casting cores. Little man is looking ok
Yes, I recall the print ad maybe in Time magazine in the late 70’s by Opel comparing it to about 5 other cars, and they actually picked the VW Rabbit as the winner …. bit unusual for an Opel Ad.
Back 40 years ago, one of my brotherly duties was to go used car shopping with my 2 younger sisters as they looked for their first cars…one I remember was probably a 1984 Isuzu, 4 door vs coupe, and gas engine rather than diesel. I liked the car a lot, but my sister wanted something sportier. Back then it was a tough search, mostly because both sisters needed an automatic, both looking for a small car, and back then manuals were still more common in small cars. Combine that with trying to find one without mega-miles (small cars were often bought for economy to drive long miles and Texas is a big state) and the style they were looking for, made for a long search.
As for me? I’ve been driving only VW’s for 42 years now…all manuals including my current 00 Golf. But I wonder how the Isuzu would have worked out…these were supposed to be pretty durable cars, and I guess the one you show bears that out. Also, due to allergies, not a dog owner unfortunately (also keeps me from going scuba-diving).
Regular exercise is good for promoting the longevity of dogs…perhaps Isuzu I-Marks as well.
Back in the early 1980s, I spent time with a diesel Chevette. Likely that was a 1982 as well. It was a miserable little car, but that was mostly due to the Chevette part, not so much its Isuzu-made diesel engine. That little diesel was as good as the engine that was in my VW a few years later. Slow and loud, but I’d put money on the fact that it would run forever. Of course, not being in the PNW, the bodies on those cars would disintegrate well before the engines. All of which says that I’m not surprised that this I-Mark clatters on, and surely it will get another update here someday.
Nice to see one still going .
Cute pups too, I find that diet is the single most important part of a dog’s longevity .
Not keeping them cooped up in apartments is important too .
-Nate
I haven’t noticed any Isuzu cars on my Alaska road trip, but have seen a handful of Troopers, both first and second gen, as well as one immaculate Axiom. A vehicle that probably way undersold the diesel I-Mark.
I knew this i-mark would still be in service. An accident will be the only thing that takes this oil burner off the road. I’m curious if the fuel door still sports that great big diesel plume. My guess is it does because it’s the best free built in anti-theft device ever.
Its purpose is to forever remind domestic automakers that they should have sourced small diesel car engines from a company that knew what it was doing.