Introduce yourself here!

[stvdino]

Hello Everyone.

I was directed here by another VX'er and he thought it would be good to make myself known.

I worked for Isuzu for 14 years as a designer, Senior Designer and then finally the Chief Designer. During that great time I helped to establish the design studio (when I joined the company) in 1994 in Plymouth, MI where myself, a Japanese Director of design and another color and trim designer worked for five years. In 1999 we moved the studio back to it's pre-Michigan location in Cerritos, CA. There we worked with product planning on the concept and the design for a number of concept and production cars. We also worked closely with Isuzu Japan on a number of design activities as well. Often I would travel to Japan to present or work on sketches (and direct clay model designs) for next generation Rodeo, Trooper, Axiom as well as many heavy duty truck projects and show cars.

If your interested here is a list of cars and trucks I worked on-

GBX-original concept and complete design.

Vx02-Assisted in the design process. Original concept by a Japanese chief designer.

Axiom-my sketches helped the original boxy concept to be more dynamic. First of the flowing design crossover SUV's.

Rodeo and Amigo-many facelift designs (bumper/grille/wheel) as well as accessories like spare tire covers and running boards.

Vehicross-designed the Ironman graphic package, logos, color scheme, accessory parts, wheels.

DMAX Pickup truck-did the interior design for the current DMAX truck produced in Thailand (not available in US).

1999 Pickup-grille and bumper facelift.

Isuzu FL1 and FL3 concept semi trucks-original concept and design-shown at the Tokyo Motor Show.

and many other next generation Rodeos and Trooper concepts that never saw the light of day or made it to production.....too bad they were really cool.

In January of 2009 Isuzu closed the design studio (after again moving it to Garden Grove, CA only one year earlier) in light of the difficult financial times. The Director went back to Japan and myself and another designer were laid off. It was a great time and Isuzu is an excellent company to work for. There were many great concept cars that the company unfortunately didn't produce because of the always tight budget. At least the Vehicross made it to production-you can thank Shiro Nakamura (now head of Nissan design) for pushing the car through even though the bean counters fought it.

So that's it and hello to all.

Steve Jennes
Fullerton, CA

[VX KAT]

Wow, welcome Steve! It will be really great to have someone with as much knowledge/history about Isuzu and the VX. You may end up with the official title of Isuzu/VX historian of the group! If you haven't already heard, we're a pretty fun group who's just a wee bit nuts over our VXs!

I lived in Long Beach for 15 yrs so I know those areas well where Isuzu was located.

Welcome again!

[Gussie2000]

Hello steve !

Welcome to our ( and now yours) little stronghold

Absolutely an honor & pleasure to have you here as a member of the site.

Hope you hang with us often as you can,in here many fellow members will ask you so much questions about isuzu & all stuff related about it (including my self )

Again,welcome steve.


Greetings from NYC.

Gustavo !

[Baldwin]

Has been a pleasure speaking with you over the last few months. Glad you finally made it on the board. See you next week.

[don moore]

welcome Sir ...
we are happy to have you aboard..

[rowhard]

Welcome Steve, now you need to buy a VX, come to Moab so you can understand the addiction and see what you helped design can do.

Since your the first person here that has had any contact with Japan, maybe your contacts there could contact those producing some of the neat stuff the VX lovers on the other side of the pacific have created and make it available here. Just a thought. Again, welcome.

[stvdino]

Thanks for the welcome guys. Actually the closest thing I have to a VX now is a 4WD Isuzu Ascender and a 4WD Lancia Delta Integrale. I drove lots of VX's and they are a great handling SUV on and off the road. I remember driving a pre-production right hand drive Proton Yellow VX when they first came out. You would think I was Elvis in a UFO by all the attention the car got.

One interesting place I did stumble upon was the plant where the VX was made in Japan. It was right next to the large truck design studio (for the NPR, GIGA, etc.) It used to be an old Isuzu engine plant and was reconfigured to produce the VX. At the time I saw it the VX was long out of production and none of the fixtures were there. Oddly enough, stacked 10 high or so were new gas tanks, headliners, electrical looms and a large crate of windshields for the VX-remnants from the production line.

Whatever I can remember about the VX I would be happy to share with you all.

[lasturbo]

Welcome Steve and thanks for sharing some history! I think Rickshaw had a great idea for a local Southern Cali meet and share some stories with you. The Cars and Coffee in Irvine is huge I hear as we used to have something similar here in Carlsbad, CA. We are privileged to have you aboard!! Thanks!!

[nfpgasmask]

Yes, welcome Steve!

An LA meetup would be nice! I will be down there next month around Thanksgiving.

Bart

[Gussie2000]

Thanks for the welcome guys. Actually the closest thing I have to a VX now is a 4WD Isuzu Ascender and a 4WD Lancia Delta Integrale. I drove lots of VX's and they are a great handling SUV on and off the road. I remember driving a pre-production right hand drive Proton Yellow VX when they first came out. You would think I was Elvis in a UFO by all the attention the car got.

One interesting place I did stumble upon was the plant where the VX was made in Japan. It was right next to the large truck design studio (for the NPR, GIGA, etc.) It used to be an old Isuzu engine plant and was reconfigured to produce the VX. At the time I saw it the VX was long out of production and none of the fixtures were there. Oddly enough, stacked 10 high or so were new gas tanks, headliners, electrical looms and a large crate of windshields for the VX-remnants from the production line.

Whatever I can remember about the VX I would be happy to share with you all.

Steve,from your perspective or based on any current info from isuzu in japan

Does isuzu have intentions to be back in the US market in the medium or far future ?

With so many concepts cars left behind to be put into mass production i wonder if isuzu could be back with some of them to stun the automobile market & resurrec good old times

Hope you bear some good news !

[Anita]

Steve,

As a moderator of the site, we wish you a warm welcome! It has been asked and I would repeat, that it would be great to have a So Cal meet so we all can meet you.

We have had several meets at Isuzu Cerritos before but there was one that was amazing. Back in 2001, Chief Saito and Kenny (old brain -cant remember his last name at the moment) brought out the proto, 4 door and even allowed all of us a parking lot drive in the convertable. Such a wonderful time checking out all the "toys" in the basement. Were you around there at the time?

If you have the time on some weekend it would be great to build a meet at a location convenient for you. Would love to meet you in person.

[rowhard]

wonder how many would be willing to pass the hat to bring this man to Moab, as we did with Merlin so he can see why we love the VX so

[Golfindoc]

I've been driving around the Seattle area for years in a 1978 Porsche 911SC. Great car with over 300,000 miles but bad winter days become problematic forcing me to bus it to work. Not a problem when I lived in Seattle but I moved to the Bremerton area in July and felt I needed something else t ge to work on bad wintry days. I wanted a small 2-door SUV but was unimpressed with the Chevy Blazer and Ford Explorer Sport. Then I remembered the Vehicross! I always liked them when they first came out and actually found a 2000 Foxfire Red Mica one on Craigslist with 70K miles for sale very close to my office and bought it and have not been disappointed. Anybody know a good place for service in either the Bremerton/Port Orchard or Bellevue/Seattle area? Thanks!

[tom4bren]

Welcome to the addiction. There was a meet in your area earlier this year. If I can find the thread, I'll let you know. Some of the attendees should be able to direct you to some service locations.

Look here (you should be able to PM some of the folks that attended):

http://www.vehicross.info/forums/sho...hlight=pacific

[Kona-Vs]

Aloha, just joined Have always bin a Landcruiser person I told my son that if he got good grades in school I'd buy him a car in his senior year. So for two months he looked but didn't find anythink he liked One day at a party asomeone pulled up in VX (yellow 29,000mi) and he said thats it. So I found a Ironman in CA with 63,000mi in good con then the other day a guy from Maui called ( I had a wanted VX ad on creigs list) he would sell his 99 ebony with only 20,000mi showroom con. so now we have two and the Landgruiser has a for sale sign on I'm hooked