Ebony, Year 1999, VIN# 1989 - I was looking for something that wasn't a chrysler, ford, or GM. Not to bash any of them, but I had friends that worked for them at the time, and it seemed they all bought based on workplace. I wanted something that was capable of 4x4 out of the box, and I wasn't OK taking anyone's word for it. Stumbled on a picture of the vehicross while searching for something like, "best 4x4 truck" during my college years. Saw a picture of it and was hooked. Realized it was based on the trooper/rodeo platform, which hit home for me. My father used to drive a late 80's isuzu trooper 2 door (I think an 86 or 7, I have the purchase receipt for 7900$) desert sand, we would use it to collect wood for our boiler when I was a kid. He'd drive through our 40 acres and didn't need a trail, never had an issue. Stuck with me. Funny, now I am using my vehicross for the same thing now.
Digging on the internet, it seemed out of the box, Isuzu, and Suzuki were great vehicles. Besides the rust. I bought my vehicross in 2008, from someone on these boards from Alabama. It was rust free, (whish I would have fluid film or coated the frame/suspension in oil), but, its still going.
Still my all time favorite vehicle, and currently I am going through the entire suspension digging for parts (the hardest it seems to find are brake dust shields - which have disintegrated, so ill have to improvise to protect the ABS cog - if you have a solution let me know, isuzu japan is the only place that has them on 3 - 4 month back-order). A few things I can say about my VX life, never truly been stuck. Snow, mud, it does not matter. This truck has never really let me down. It starts almost instantly, drinks 1 - 1.5 quarts of oil between changes (like most of us), and keeps going. Every time I see the truck, to this day, it makes me smile.
Special thanks to everyone that has helped me over the years on this board, even though I mostly lurked. Special thanks to whoever is keeping this board online. Hit me up if you need help hosting it.
A few pics from this week - https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/5xowg...legnydky31ohtj