Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives school me on Isuzu Troopers

Looking for info on a 1995 Trooper, V6, L430E tranny. Good bad ugly???

Long out of production and sales in US. Parts were always expensive. Been there, done that on Trooper of same age. Now that vehicle is years old and parts... well?

I liked the 88 model I had, for room and off-road, driving, etc....but Isuzu is gone from passenger production in the US. Like was already said: parts.

Parts are difficult to find and you will need them from time to time. They were neat looking vehicles but I guess they were not great sellers. Haven't seen one on the road for years. My duck hunting partner had one and it was okay but nothing special as far as off road performance. Better off putting your money in a newer 4x4 or building up an old Jeep or Bronco.

I had a first gen 1991, 2.8L and auto. And a second gen 1992 with 3.2L SOHC and 5-speed manual. I think both engines were GM sourced, but neither were anything to write home about in terms of power output.

In my view, the Troopers were decent vehicles. IFS in the front, and multi-link in the rear for the 2nd gen. I liked the way the 1992 handled on logging roads and easy-to-moderate trails. The rear axle has a really good reputation for strength in the 2nd gen. Rarely heard of axles failures, unlike many of the factory Jeep axles of that vintage. The skid plate on the 1992 was the front jacking point, so it is plenty strong compared to many thin skid plates.

I had to replace the front auto-locking hubs on both of mine. Used Superwinch manual hubs. Other than the auto hubs, they seemed like fairly robust vehicles. Probably meant more for the 3rd world than the US.

I liked the Troopers due to lower cost on the used market, compared to a Toyota or Nissan. Fairly roomy too. But, as already mentioned, sourcing parts can be an issue. Braley & Graham in Portland used to be a good source, but I'm not sure if that is the case today.

I had a 98 , nice vehicle with expensive service and tough finding parts. I hardly see any anymore on the roads.

I wouldn't take one as a gift. I owned one in the 80's it was a total POS

I got curious about what years it was made and did a search. I found this interesting article about how it's been rebranded.


The Isuzu Trooper Was Also a Subaru, an Acura and... the Holden Jackaroo

You know it as the Isuzu Trooper, but drivers the world over know it as an almost unbelievable array of other things. At one point, it was a Chevrolet. A Subaru. An Acura. In Australia, it was called -- I swear this is true -- the Holden Jackaroo.

"What are you driving these days, Roger?"

"Oh, I've got a Jackaroo!"

Yes, the Isuzu Trooper wore many hats throughout the 1990s, when the second-generation model was rebadged for any automaker who needed, wanted or sort of desired an SUV -- or whose executives had a boat and wanted something to tow it with.

The strangest rebadge of the Trooper was probably the Subaru Bighorn. At the time, Subaru didn't have an SUV, and so -- possibly due to the fact that General Motors owned Isuzu and also a portion of Subaru -- Asian markets received the Trooper as the Bighorn. This thing wasn't changed even a little bit from the Trooper, except for the fact that it had a Subaru badge on the grille. It even kept the wheels.

Of course, we can never forget that the Trooper was also sold in America as the Acura SLX. Honda realized a little too late that they needed SUVs, so they turned to Isuzu for some stopgap SUV options while Honda was developing its own. The result was the SLX and the Honda Passport, which was based on the Isuzu Rodeo. Interestingly, a good argument could be made that the SLX preceded virtually all modern luxury SUVs, as it debuted in 1996 -- well before the Mercedes M-Class (1998), the Lexus RX (1999) and the BMW X5 (2000).

Other names the Trooper took over the years: Vauxhall Monterey. Chevrolet Trooper (in Asia). Honda Horizon (seriously). And my personal favorite, Holden Jackaroo. Only Australians would be crazy enough to buy a vehicle named the Jackaroo. And apparently, they were.

Thanks for all the comments, I bit the bullet and picked one up for a song and a dance. If you have seen me dance or heard me sing you know I got a good deal.

Wheel studs were always a problem. I used to work in a tire shop, Sam's Club in the 90's, and cursed every last one that came in. I can count on 1 hand the ones that came in that didn't have stripped studs.Many were in for the first tire change. Damn things would be stripped from the factory.


Clyde

You may be right I may be crazy, but I would stay away

Had one in the 90’s, fun vehicle, but mine had an electrical problem masquerading as a transmission issue. Cost me wasted $ & grief.

We had a '91 Trooper II, 4 cylinder and manual tranny. It was a vehicle we left at the ranch. Worked well for that use, never had any trouble with it in the 5 years we owned it. Just got too hard to keep mice out of it. Sold it to a young man who promptly drove it off to Denver.